Well, I’m no expert and there are many here who’ve taken more elk than I, but in contrast to your experience, of ten bulls I’ve taken, all were after hours and miles of walking/riding in the mountains. Three cows were closer.
Perhaps unusual here, my bulls averaged over 400 yds. I’m not here to dissuade anybody for building an elk rifle but it seems to me, your “normal” elk rifle would much more versatile than “ol heavy” because I expect your average distance is going to be far north of where it is now if you keep after these wonderful animals. And it will most likely be hiking much longer distances.
Just me, but, if anything, I would consider your lightweight Savage with a good ballistic reticle scope. My opinion again, but don’t marry your lightweight rifle to a 30 mm heavyweight scope which you will get with about any “dialing scope” due to the necessary internals. Keep the top at 10 or 12x.
I took a rutting whitetail at 500 yds with a Zeiss and their proprietary reticle. Dialing will be more precise but significantly at 500 yds and on but I have used Zeiss, Swarovski, Leopold, and Bushnell ballistic reticles and they all work with proper understanding.
Get two; put one on each rifle and you have a set-up for a quarter mile off the rode, and that hunt where you end up 5 miles in and up.
Good hunting.
