To the OP ... since you think you've got deer covered with your .243 and you're looking at this .30 cal as strictly for elk, though I like the .308, I wouldn't step down from the '06. I'd either keep it, just rebarrel, or step up a little to .300 WSM or .300 Win Mag.
Tom
Or, how about a .30 Gibbs? I bought one dirt cheap around 35 years ago, played with it for a couple minutes and sent it down the road. Fairly impressive improvement over the '06, probably as much oomph as can be squeezed out of an '06 case. Enough to really make a difference in the field? I didn't think so, so away it went. But, for the guy who's bored with his mundane '06 and is hankering for something new but can't afford a whole new gun, a chambering reamer and the knowledge to use it can be your ticket out of there. Today's powders may well be what's needed to breathe new life into that old wildcat.
An old curmudgeonly friend of mine back in the 70's turned his '06 into a .30 Gibbs and used to whack a few Newfoundland moose (meese?). He proclaimed it to be the perfect gun for that purpose, as well as a cure for dandruff, shingles, and hemorrhoids.
I think as we old farts shuffle off this mortal coil you will see less popularity for the '06. Or not, if the younger generations come to their senses and admit that it is probably the greatest all-around cartridge ever devised by mankind.
