gkellys, apparently everyone's overlooked one option - Remington's Managed Recoil offerings as well as the low-recoil options from Federal. When I bought my first deer rifle last August (2004), I bought one chambered in .30-06. My 12-year-old daughter can easily shoot it using the Managed Recoil loads. According to the Remington web site, the .30-06 recoil is equivalent to a .243. From my experience, they are indeeed close to 1/2 the recoil of the regular 150gr loads I've used.

The Remingtons are designed for shots out to 200 yards and use a 125gr bullet. Federal goes a different route with a 170gr bullet in the low-recoil load, but, as one would expect, it doesn't shoot as flat as the Remington.

Try them out. I think you'll be pleased. Then, if you ever need some "full-power" loads, you don't need to buy a new rifle.

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Edited to add: Ooops, I wasn't clear in my statement. I meant the .30-06 managed recoil load is equivalent to a .243 in recoil. Wasn't comparing ballistics. Sorry for the confusion. (Edited my statement above slightly to make it clearer.