I honestly don't think you will be happy with the remington 30-06. I'm not making any money off this, but at least look at a rifle in 7mm08 caliber.
Trust me and about 11 million other riflemen-the 7mm08 will outperform all out of it's size with minimal recoil.

I would not get a semi-auto....Because of the trigger...The trigger on a bolt action can be adjusted or replaced...The trigger on a semi auto can be honed and polished, but it will never be as light, crisp or smooth as a good bolt action trigger...This will help with accuracy as well as flinching...

A good bolt action in .243, 7mm-08 or .308 would serve your purpose well....

I would choose a smaller caliber if the recoil is getting to you. 7MM-08 is a very good choice. I thought you had posted most of your shots are at the 100yrd range. So, with that in mind I would also look at the 30-30 and the .243 Both have minimal amounts of recoil and you can still use the heavier grains to give you that added knock down power.

Actually the heavier bullet weights in the 30-30 is a waste of time.150s are plenty.

Ask a little advice, and you get a lot! fun thread.

I'm sympathetic to Mr. Savage221. Many years ago I developed a rotten flinch shooting a Savage in 30-06. Of course, I was young & dumb and shot without hearing protection much of the time. Muzzle blast and noise will hurt as bad as the recoil boot, IMHO, sometimes worse. Since then I've learned some things. I'm something of a recoil weenie, and so avoid it. Then I was in a club for years where we ran dogs hunting deer, and I got used to 3" buckshot loads. They hurt. After that 30-06... I had an SKS for a while - very mild - then when I started hunting I dumped the SKS and got a synthetic-stocked Savage 111F in .270. It was very light, but it didn't beat me up. I liked that gun. Never shot it without hearing protection (except in the field) and got rid of the flinch. I did the dry firing routine some have suggested, and adjusted the .270 trigger light and would gently sqeeze so that firing would be a surprise. I got better. I shoot a muzzleloader with some heavy conicals, they boot pretty hard... but I've learned to deal with it. That said... I've just moved to a 30-30, and find it oh so mild to use. Heck, it isn't even all that loud, relative to a .270/30-06 (or so it seems to me). I'll just have to pass on the deer in the next county, until I get another .270...

Don't really know if it is overkill or not, I just personnaly like using the 180 gr. in my 30-30 and .308. I prefer the heavier round . [8D]

what is a flinch? it is an involuntary reaction to the anticipation of being contacted by something... whether in the forhead or the shoulder or even powder from a revolver hitting ya in the face or worse yet the eyes (eye protection kids)... therefore... you want to get over it... it is all mental... "There is no spoon".... you must convince yourself that there is nothing to fear nothing is going to injure you.. all you are gonna get is a punch to the shoulder...

now to the 2nd part.. why are you catching a scope in the melon... either 1) it is too close to your face or 2) you are not following through.... when you squeeze that trigger and it goes off your whole body should move with the recoil... your cheek should be glued to that stock and move with it (this isn't 100% possible... inertia)... something you have to work on to improve and then back to #1... eye relief... most scopes have plenty, at least better quality ones... i only get close enough to get an entire sight picture in the lens... i don't "choke up" on the bat anymore than i have to... you might get hit in the hands by the baseball coming at you at 90 mph.... see what i am getting at.... so #1 proper setup and #2 proper form workin in conjunction will help you concur the flinch once the danger is eliminated....

happy shooting...

Now this is good advice!!!

I have watched a lot of folks complain about Ruger 77 rifles recoiling "more than they should." More so than other make/models; apparently they are not too "public friendly."

M-77's aside, lots of folks move up to heavier recoiling rifles without correspondingly upgrading their knowledge of recoil management

Length of pull, drop, weight,quality rubber,eye relief/scope selection &mounting, simple psychology and lack of instruction or knowledge regarding recoil managementare the more common places folks go wrong. DIY isadmirable; however, knowledge and training are better solutions. Otherwise, soooo many folks just grope around in the darkand many give up and retreat to the popgun section and practice singing the magnumitis hymn.

It is a disease.

Of course, I have to include the disclaimer that the upshot of this post does not apply to those with deteriorated/deteriorating physical conditions or the meek or those whole just "don't think theycan do it." (They are right, they can't.)

That is one way of putting it. Another more accurate phrasing would be, many smarten up and proceed to using the rifles which meet their hunting needs, rather than satisfying their or someone elses egos or mistaken ideas of what is required to successfully hunt [deer, bear, pig, wapiti]