Welcome to the forum:

You will find out that as you go up in magnification the light gathering capability will go down.  As for me I have a Leupold V X III 3.5-10 on my .340 Weatherby and love it.  Along with the other hunters that have used my rife for some of their hunts.  My nephew even said that he could see a elk he shot better through the scope on my rifle than he could through his binoculars.  But for me I am a Leupold fan.  I have them on all of my rifles except for one which is a 1974 model of a Redfield.  You might also want to check out the Vortex brand.  I haven't looked through one but from what I have heard they are up there in quality.     

For your price range I would look at Leupold VX 3 or better, Zeiss Conquest, and Minox.

I've got a pair of Minox scopes and I'm putting them through the paces right now. See me in a couple of months and I'll have more information for you about them.

Biker

Have you heard anything good about the VX-3L? Seems like it would give better light gathering and still be mounted fairly low so I don't end up dottin my eye

You might take a look at the Bushnell Elite 6500. I have one on my 30-338 mag and practice out to 500 yards with it. Mine is the 2.5-16X50 with a 30mm tube. I love the fact that I can crank it down to 2.5 power while still hunting or when I know I won't be taking a long shot but I can crank it up to 16 if I need a better look at something at a distance. I hunt with it in Colorado and am very comfortable taking a shot to 500 yards with it. It pulls in enough light that I could easily shoot after legal shooting light is over. It won't break the bank at about $700.  They also offer a 4.5-30X50 but I don't think that much magnification is needed when hunting big game. I will be getting another soon for my 220 swift varmit rifle. Everyone that has checked my 6500 out is very impressed with it.

Welcome to the forum.

A good choice would be the http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/vortex.pl?page=vortexviperhs4-16x44lr Vortex Viper HS 4-16x44 LR (Long Range) Take a look and I think you'll like what you see

An elk is a large animal. If you can't shoot well at one with even a 2-7x scope, going up in power isn't going to help. Then there's the other thing. It seems to me that anymore everyone want's to be ready for at least the 500 yd shot. I don't understand the thinking! They want to be ready for the 500 yd shot so they get a scope that really isn't all that handy on a hunting rifle and then the majority of them never spot an elk at 500 yds. In fact if you want to try a shot at that distence your really gonna have to be carefull where you hunt. Problem being a lot of really good elk country won't let you see that far!