I was in a similar situation a few years back. I found myself with a bunch of "specialty" rifles but no all around/loaner riles so it was the perfect reason to buy a few.
at the time I had lightweight mountain rifles and a few nice big bore rifle so I wanted to get backups/loaners guns that I could just haul out and not even think about. I was looking for things I wouldn't upgrade, id just slap a scope on them, throw them in the skiff, on the snow machine, loan out, not worry too much about maintaining them past the basics.
What I ended up with was a Winchester 70 extreme conditions in 30-06 with a Leupold 3-9x40 and a Ruger Hawkeye all weather in 270. Over the years those 2 guns have been on more hunts than any of the expensive ultra lites and big bores. I still use those, but they are sort of purpose driven guns. When I go for blacktails or sheep, I take one of my kimbers or even a Weatherby, For bears, I pull out my 375HH (hopefully I'll use it for bison or muskox at some point.
For everything else, as long as im not backpacking in, its either the Ruger or a Winchester, if Im boating, floating, horseback riding or day hunting, Ill all take one every time. I don't sweat it if I ding them up, I dry them off and run a patch through the barrel and thats about it, no modifications.
A few years back when I moved to Alaska, I was convinced that everybody was going to be rocking high end custom big bore rifles, what I found was that most people I met outide of the road system were using rifles much like that your guide had. The first guy I ever went moose hunting with was/is a hardcore subsistance hunter, he hunts strictly for meat, his rifle was an old browning xbolt 338WM, I was sort of embarassed to be all decked out in gear with a nice gun when this guy showed up to get me wearing a yellow rubber rain jacket with his beater old rifle. Now I sort of try to mimic the locals a bit more than I used to.
