Stick,
What was I thinking? I forget most of these characters haven't been around this forum as long as we have and don't understand the vagaries of posting "etiquette". smile

I was sure you had seen an elk or two, but didn't want to speak for you. You are doing just fine in that area by yourself- shame most here don't understand your english.... smile

For the OP, if he is still around- if it were me, I would find a rifle you like the feel of and handles well to start with. Then find it in a cartridge you can tolerate, recoil wise and your idea of what it takes to kill elk efficiently. Some guys think it takes a 375 H&H minimum to kill elk and others feel a 25-06 is sufficient. As usual the truth falls somewhere in between. I've seen them killed with everything from 270's up to 416 Remington Mags and they all worked just fine when the bullet was in the right place. Personally, I carry a 338 WM and my son carries a 300 Weatherby. But, that doesn't make that the right cartridge for you.
The next thing is find ammo you can pick up fairly handy and in sufficient quantities that you can afford to shoot a lot of it. If you are going to shoot long range, you better be practicing an awful lot or you have no business taking long shots in the first place. Finding a handy place to shoot and lots of cheap ammo to practice with is the first step after acquiring a rifle/scope package.

This brings up the important point most people here are tiptoeing around. The reason most guys reload for this type of shooting is to control some of the variables and because it is a lot cheaper to shoot a lot of ammo if you handload it- which is partly what got me started loading 45 years ago. Can't remember the last time I shot a factory loaded round except to empty it out for the brass wink or .22 rounds. I'd reload those too if I could figure out how...
IOW- if you are serious about this hobby of long range shooting, think very seriously about taking up hand loading. Every guy needs a couple expensive hobbies just to tick off the better half...

Bob

Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability.