If you want a gun you can hunt anything with go with a .300 Winchester Magnum. Same bullet as an 30.06 but you get about 15-20 more grains of powder a flatter trajectory and it will handle bigger bullets better than 30.06. You can load them down so they don't kick so bad for deer. In fact you need to. My dad hunted with one for years at first we had the bullet going too fast and just punched holes through deer and the bullett didn't have time to expand. We slowed the bullet down (different powders and less grains) and fixed the issue. After that it kicked less than the 30.06. If you don't go with this don't go with anything smaller than the 30.06 for elk. .308 is an amazing cartridge and would do the job but it would be 5 or 6th down the line as far as elk cartridges go for me. Wouldn't touch a .270 with 10ft pole for elk. Deer all day long but no elk. Couple other option are .300 ultra Mag and 7mm Ultra mag. I haven't had a lot of experience with these guns. I know a few people that use them. I have shot them and have to say that they about knocked me on my ass and I didn't want to shoot them again. But they hunt everything with them and have been very successful on deer, elk , and moose. But if you do your own reloading that can usually be fixed. If you get into reloading it gives you more option and powder/bullet combinations and you can tailor make loads for different rifles and animals. Somebody else touched on this but I reiterate. Don't skimp on the scope. Nothing worse than getting to last light seeing that deer and then not being able to see through the scope. I have an old 3x9 Redfield from back when they were a high quality scope and I can see through that later than I can see with my own eyes. My dads Leupold on his is the same way. Seeing has how you hunt woods a lot I would probably go with a 3x9 or 2x7. When you get much higher than 3 on magnification deer that are close (<30yd) get hard to find and when you do all you see is fur so it makes it harder to place a shot.
Wow thanks for all the info. This will be very helpful and make my decision much easier. I have looked at Savage and Remington I just like the fit finish and feel of the Browning x bolt . The balance the weight the size and feel are just so sweet.
One more thing. I know the wood and being blued looks better but go with synthetic and stainless. So much less to worry about. Never have to worry about pitting and cleaning the second you get home and if you get out to colorado that synthetic stock will withstand drops on the rocks better than the wood. Hopefully you never have that last issue but it is something to think about. And actually the stainless has less glare to it in the woods than blued steel does. Blued steel shines and glare but stainless guns don't do that, At least the two that we have don't. Its kind of a burnished stainless. Both of our stainless rifles are Ruger M77 one in 30.06 one in .300 win mag.
Stay away from any newer remingtons. I wanted a Remington 11-87 for the longest time and last year when I went to buy it every gun store I looked at told me not to get one. A few years ago they got bought out by an investment company and the quality has gone way down hill. I was kinda crushed by this because I've always been a Remington guy but I ended up getting a browning silver hunter.
Your more than welcome, just keep asking away and we all will help. Is your Kimber in your avatar a Gold Match? Hard to tell.
I've got a beautiful Remington 700 in .270 that I haven't gotten out of the safe in 3 years now probably. Any takers? lol
I'd recommend a Browning A bolt .30-06 or a Tikka T3 .300 WSM. My dad has the Browning and I have the Tikka and I love both. They're great!
what about the marlin XL7? i have the XS7 (which is the short-action version). mine's a .243 with a bushnell 3-9x40 scope. i've had it for 3 yrs and its a great gun to have. real tough, gets the job done everytime and doesn't break the bank like a browning or remington 700.
400gr hollow point seems a bit excessive. I can say that I've seen this gun shoot a 2 inch tree in half, then hit and kill the deer.
Hahaha yes it is! I've shot 500 gain solids out of mine. For deer you can use 250 grain slugs. I've read where a hunter put a 45/70 thru a cape buffalo stem to stern at 80 yards.
