How about something deadly on up to elk size animals but easy on the shoulder ?
When I got into deer hunting back in the mid 80's funds were a little tight so I purchased a used Marlin 336CS with a mounted old steel tube Weaver 4X chambered in 30-30 from a pawn shop and killed several deer with it but I made the mistake of reading the gun magazines back then and was convinced that the 30-30 wasn't killing deer dead enough so I sold it and bought a bolt action 30-06 and killed a few deer with it also.
Even though I shot it well I never did care much for the recoil of the 30-06 so after a lot of reading up on it I went with a bolt action 7mm-08 and never looked back.
Having said all of that I suppose if I was going to own just one center fire rifle and had it in my mind that I might want to go after grizz one day and in a caliber that store bought ammo was readily accessible (or was pre-Covid) I'd probably go back to a 30-06.
When I got into deer hunting back in the mid 80's funds were a little tight so I purchased a used Marlin 336CS with a mounted old steel tube Weaver 4X chambered in 30-30 from a pawn shop and killed several deer with it but I made the mistake of reading the gun magazines back then and was convinced that the 30-30 wasn't killing deer dead enough so I sold it and bought a bolt action 30-06 and killed a few deer with it also.
Even though I shot it well I never did care much for the recoil of the 30-06 so after a lot of reading up on it I went with a bolt action 7mm-08 and never looked back.
Having said all of that I suppose if I was going to own just one center fire rifle and had it in my mind that I might want to go after grizz one day and in a caliber that store bought ammo was readily accessible (or was pre-Covid) I'd probably go back to a 30-06.