Average for miles in a day varies, weather and area to area... Varies from 5 to 15 miles being the absolute most in one day so far.
In the 27 years of hunting elk, I used different calibers, ranging from 22 to 45. All bolt guns except one lever gun chambered in 45-70.
My go to riffle any more has been my well worn m-77 chambered in the .280 rem housed in an old ram-line stock. It has slain the most wapiti I have fired a rifle at. 98% of those elk were with a 160 grain nosler partition at 2800 fps. The ol' m77 weighs in at 8-1/2 lbs IIRC loaded, sling, wearing an old vari-x II 3x9-40 leupy.
The spike in my avatar was kilt by that rifle, @70ish yards in the pooring rain. Got lucky that day, only walked about 3 miles, rain was coming down in buckets, and shot the fool thing on my way back less than a half mile from my pickup
