According to my shoulder, a light weight .308 kicks about as much as a 30-06 sporter. It seems a good decision is deciding if you want a new rifle, or if you want to rebarrel with a match grade custom barrel that doesn't foul as much as a factory barrel.
Pretty much. Regarding recoil, the calculator on Handloads.com show the following combos both having roughly 18lbs of recoil. So it's about a pound and a half of rifle weight to make recoil equal when both are shooting warm 165gr loads with 22-24" barrels.
7lb .308win (165gr at 2,700 with 45gr charge)
8.5lb 30-06 (165gr at 2,850 with 58gr charge)
