I would say a 338 Win. Mag, 300 Win Mag, or 300 WSM would be the best options for a moose rifle. Lotsa power and they shoot flat enough to do a 300 yard shot. If you want to use the rifle for deer hunting as well, i would lean towards the .300's as the 338 is kinda big for deer. Nothing wrong with a 30-06, however i would personally like to have a little more power if given the choice. Accuracy is still the most important factor. If you don't want the extra recoil and can shoot the 30-06 well, it's more than adequate.

I think a .338 Win. Mag. would be perfect for you. Ammo will be easy to find, and you have 200 gr. 210 gr. 225 gr., 230 gr., and 250 gr. bullets from many different manufactures to choose from.

I shot a pronghorn with my 340 Wby. Mag. using a 250 gr. Barnes XFB at 200 yds. the bullet went in the size of a pencel and came out the size of a quarter. I didn't lose any edible meat. Good luck.

I have to go with vapodog and the 35 whelen. I have a whelen that I use for my do-it-all general big game hunting. I can't think of a better round for moose. I use a 250gr Hornady RN and a 225gr Sierra SBT in my whelen. THe 250 @ 2400fps and the 225 @ 2650fps. I have my loads worked out so that I can use the same zero with both loads. The 250s will print nice little clover leafs at 100 yards dead on and the 225s hit about 3" higher. This puts the 225s dead out at around 250 yards and still holding on hair at 325 yards on a carabou.

Here in alaska almost all moose hunting is done at less than 300 yards. In the areas that I hunt most moose are killed at less than 150 yards. According to Federals online ballistic chart the 225gr whelen drops only 3.2" more at 300 yards as the 200gr 300 RUM load. The difference opens up to amost 10" at 400 yards. I guess if your planning on mostly 300-400 yard shots the RUM might be a theoretically better choice. For the extremely slight advantage in trajectory that the 300 RUM has over the 35 whelen, the whelen has a very distinct advantage over the 300 rum due to Recoil, muzzle blast, and magazine capacity.

The 338 win mag is another excellent round for moose hunting. It is practically identical to the 35 whelen ballisticly but is much more readily available. You can get 338 win mag ammo amost anywhere, especially here up north.

As has been stated earlier in this thread moose are not really that hard to kill and your 30/06 will do just fine for them at all practical hunting distances. I would look more to a rifle that fits you well and you can shoot accurately in any of the medium calibers.

Stripped holes can be tapped for a larger screw. For example, the 6X48 can be tapped for an 8X40, etc., etc. Redoing the mount base setup would cost a lot less than a new gun. However, new guns are a lot more fun!!

Wow, it sounds like I need to Moose hunt in Alaska if almost all shots are under 200yards. Where I hunt in Northern Newfoundland, I haven't had a shot yet under 250 yards or so.

Hunting in Alberta and B.C ,I have never shot a moose over 250yards.

Well, I would like to try Alberta and BC. Newfoundland looks kinda like this. Open and long. I haven't had great luck hunting Newfoundland. Haven't had a chance to see a >40" bull in several trips. Only 10pt, and cows.

Here is another of a small stag I took on my first trip. He posed for me for a while. Not much sneaking up on Moose here. Just got to get the wind right for ya.
I am curious how alberta and BC compare.

I personally don't hunt moose in the swamps and bogs.I hunt them in the foothills or mountains or on agricultural fields where access is much easier and you can get much closer to the animals.There are however some people that do hunt moose in swamps and bogs that are similar to the pictures that you posted.However for the most part there is much more cover available in most of our good moose areas.In the prime western Canadian moose areas a hunter will see several bull moose every day with some in the 50" range.

Most of the areas that we hunt for moose are thick swampy or forrested areas. Most of our hunting is done along rivers calling moose out of the willows. You might get occasional shots across beaver ponds or lakes. If you go way up north you might have areas that long shots might be taken across tundra. Even in those areas you can usually get closer than 200 yards if you use the wind right and stay low. You ever try sneaking a little closer Big Country? From the pictures it looks like there is quite a bit of low cover.