ORIGINAL: biscuit jake
If you find someone with an 22 inch barrel 06, shoot it at night. You will see just how much burn your have outside the barrel.
My 30-06 featherweight 22" barrel exits 180 grain bullets at 2,825'/sec and no animal I've ever shot it at cared a hoot about how much flash it had at night!...NOT ONE!!!!!
Frankly the effects at night are intertesting but totally irrelevant in the bigger game of killing things like elk. Further I'd forecast that if you can't do it with 180 grains at 2,800'/sec then you really ought to be looking at something like a 338 mag. or maybe a 375 H&H.
If one likes longer barrels then get them. However I can assure you that your 30-06 is not in the least handicapped with a 22" barrel.