Welcome aboard 88N. I work in the Physical Therapy Dept at Madigan Army Medical Center, so I've been working with a lot of the OIF soldiers that have come back. Sorry to hear about the stop-loss. You guys do your job and expect to come home when they tell you, but we appreciate what your doing. My wife is AD as a doctor here at Madigan, so I know how the Army does things.

As far as a gun goes, stick with the 30-06. It has the most bullet choices of any caliber ever made. And like was said, you can always find ammo. I'd look at a Remington 700 or Winchester Model 70 in synthetic stock. They are the most reasonably priced without all the bells and whistles. A 30-30 would work fine for deer inside 150 yards, but I'd want more punch and range if I were buying a gun for all animals, especially elk. Another thing to think about if you haven't done it yet is the Hunter's Education course. You'll have to take that before you can get a license, and classes fill up pretty fast. May be something to contact WDFW about since you aren't stateside to do that right now. Keep us posted on your plans to return home. I know somebody on here would offer their services for you as soon as you get everything ready to go.