I have never elk hunted with a rifle, but my wife and lots of friends do. My wife uses a 6.5 creed, it’s a savage UL in an xlr with a swfa 3-9. Wish it was a tikka but it hasn’t given us any trouble yet, and it does shoot very well
The other elk gun is a 20ga slug gun with Hornady sst slugs
My daughter will be hunting her own tags next year, and I will be getting her a 6arc put together between now and then (tikka in rokstok)
I too wish 223 was legal for elk here, because that would be the easy button and it would be totally fine for the ranges that will be shot