Others have joked about it, but I'm going to SERIOUSLY suggest you slow down, making 20miles a day even on horseback is moving along at a pretty good clip-I do a lot of distance running and even more coon hunting (at a brisk walk usually), I can run 10miles on a road in about 90minutes, I ran 15miles in 2:41 once, twenty miles would probably take me close to four hours to run---run mind you, on smooth roads (hilly but smoothe).

No here's my problem, either you're a marathon runner and sit for only half the day and RUN the rest, or you're walking all day: average person walks between 2-4mph, walking 20miles could literally take 10hrs...around here we get about 11hrs of sunlight, so you are moving WAY to much.

If you're drive hunting, you're still covering a huge area, moving that fast through an area is likely pushing deer out of the creeks and away from bottlenecks where your buddies are set up.

Now, about the rifle, you're not going to want a compact rifle in 7mm even if you could find it, featherweights are fine, although usually the 7mm suffers more than the .30-06 does on cutting bbl length. I don't honestly believe much in feather weight rifles-you're taking a big chunk of weight off your rifle, but you're still carrying a lot of weight, cut out some weight in your gear and you'll be better served.

You'd be much better served by buying a compact .308win. Compacts are actually considerably lighter, and certainly easier handling, which is more valuable for long walks in brush than lightened weight, IMHO. Compact .308's will do everything a featherweight .30-06 will do, and the reduced weight doesn't push your recoil above handy.

If you really want to cut weight, get a single shot, you get full bbl length with light weights.

It's hard to be a Marlin 1895Guide gun, light, VERY handy, and the .45-70 is plenty of power for your elk.