Welcome! In this sandbox, any number can play!
I've bought, sold and traded a bunch of rifles during these last forty or so years. I've never had any problem with the proverbial good used rifle. My pet '06 is some 35 years old, or a tad more, and I've run some 4,000 rounds through it. I'd happily sail off with it for an elk hunt.
I hate to give advice, but I don't mind suggesting: Spend some time hanging out at your local gun store, just looking. Tell the folks that you're on the learning curve. Tell them you're just a "tire kicker", right now. Listen, don't talk. Go to a gunshow or three. You'll hear a lot of BS, but you'll also figure out what questions are worth asking and what aren't; and if an answer doesn't make sense, come on back here and we'll try to help.
You never "have" time to do a lot of things that seem interesting. You have to MAKE the time, ignoring something else. The more time you can spend outdoors watching critters--not particularly worrying about elk, for now--the better off you are. If you're in elk country already, that's a helluva plus.
I've always been startled by how city folks don't know how to walk when they're out in the boonies. They stumble around. Brush-whipped if they're not out in the open. Noisy. So learning how to move fairly silently while remaining able to observe the world around you is important. It's as much a needed skill as the shooting.
So, browse threads here in the Hunt forum, and in the Rifle forum. Grab all the free catalogs you can and skim through them. Don't be in a hurry to buy anything, whether it's gun, scope, boots or clothing. They're not gonna quit making stuff. And I'm the kinda guy who'll check out Goodwill before I jump into a Cabela's catalog.
Hunting is one of the more fun learning curves there is, IMO...
Art