I went through the same thoughts. Partly due to a shoulder injury that forced me to part ways with my 300 WM. I replaced it with a Win 70 in 264 Win mag Sporter since the recoil was right around the same as my 30-06.
I 'made' my 6.5x55 Swede simply because I wanted something that many haven't owned. (pity them). At 2800 fps muzzle velocity, it should be a decent back-up on elk inside of 250 yards or so.
Accuracy of both has been phenomenal, the Swede parks 4 shots in .33" using Lapua brass and 142 Noslers.
The 264 WM runs the same bullet in my loads at 3200 fps with 3 shot groups running .4 @ 100.
Since you mention two criteria in your post - recoil and availability of various ammo types - I'd suggest a 260 Rem.
Light recoil, various manufacturer's make enough ammo variations to find something you'll like and the brass is easily made from either 243 or 7mm-08 brass. And it's brass is usually fairly readily available from the various online sources.
The 260 is easy to load for and as long as you don't shoot long strings of shots or shoot a lot while the barrel is hot, the barrel should last you 1200-1500 rounds or so, maybe more.
