Length of stock is key.

The fix doesn't have to be pretty, just effective.

A $15 slip on (rubber or velcro) recoil pad with spacers can fix the problem easily; once the proper length is figured out a good "attached" recoil pad (with spacers if necessary) and ground down to flow into the stock is not expensive and not beyond most folks ability. (IF THEY WOULD JUST DO IT.) Or just leave the "temporary" recoil pad on it --- I have a couple with the rubber slip ons that have been on for years. If it already has a recoil pad on it, then don't take it off, just slip the add on recoil pad right over it.

Regarding Leupold, you are right, Leupold is very good at providing ample eye relief which helps greatly in allowing one to get by with a certain amount of "slop factor"; however, if the stock is too short, the scope is clear forward and parallax still intrudes one is going to be playing "bob and weave" while the elk leave.

At MagFest2003 our instructor added and subtracted stock length for each person for each rifle "on the fly". It only took seconds with a velcro add on recoil pad with spacers. We worked through rifles from 7mmRemMag to 500 Nitro Express and pretty much everything in between with a group of shooters ranging from 160 pounds and shorter to 230 pounds and 6'5". No one got "hurt" and everyone was amazed at how recoil "just wasn't that big of a deal."

It ain't rocket science but one does have to know what to look for and then actually DO IT in order for it to work. Cheap too!

Again, figure out how wide a bullet, how heavy, and how fast you want it to go, pick one, make sure the rifle fits and if your box of ammo has the word "magnum" on it then fine, if it don't say magnum (say 30-06 or 416 Rigby or whatever) then that is fine too.

Mag or No Mag? Much ado over nothing in my opine. Little tools for little jobs, bigger tools for bigger jobs and let the "labels" fall where they may.

EKM