I looked at the Whelen and the 338-06 and ended purchasing a .350 rem mag instead.
I did quite the opposite, i bought a Rem. 600 or 660 ? in 350 Rem. mag., and then later a Ruger 77 in the same cal.. After hunting and harvesting moose ect.. with them, i built a Ruger 77 in .338-06. (which also harvested brn bear, moose,deer ect..) I then built two more .338-06 imp's on 700 Rem. actions....
I did then, and still do now like the .338-06 the best. The one in the pict. above is the one i made my "keeper".
The 338-06 iswhat i'd build today "if" i was building another rifle with those choise of cals..
Drilling Man