Happy Superbowl Sunday,

I recently stumbled on a killer buy of a 111 in 7mm rem mag, with dies, brass, bullets, and powder for $275. The previous owner had the stock (Bushnell?) package scope with loose mounts on it and cursed it because it wouldn't group under 5". So I took it off his hands, cleaned the copper out of the barrel, analyzed his reloads (120gr ballistic tips with 4064, for ELK) and took them apart.

The rifle has very little wear, and I went ahead and ordered Warne bases (2 piece extended) and Warne rings. My debate on glass begins here... for the areas I hunt elk (high cascades, shots 50-200 yards, and eastern Oregon 100-450 yards) what magnification of scope do I want? I'm pretty settled that it will be a Leupold VX2 of some sort, since Zeiss discontinued the Conquest for ~$400. Would 3-9x be enough for the possible long poke, or would a 4-12x make a better all around choice? What do you have on your 7mm mags? Any bullet weights/loads I should try? A magnum is a big step for me, the humble user of short action cartridges... but the price was right. :-)

--SRS