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Mike,
Regarding your comments about animals you intend hunting, your comment about .30-06 caliber, and light weight low power scope to keep its weight down, my input would be as follows:

I was born and raised in Montana; now live in Oregon, and have hunted for the past 50 years or so. My dad, who was in Marine Corp. fighting the Japanese in WWII, as a veteran loved the Springfield rifle and the .30-06 his whole life, loved to work on rifles, and was a real rifleman at heart, who taught his kids to love, respect, and care for rifles too. He had nothing to do with double rifles, probably only because he couldn't afford them, so when I started collecting them, he told me that he could never understand why they cost so much. One thing he expressed to me about the .30-06 cartridge, is that one could buy them anywhere, in any small town in this country, without having to ever worry about not being able to find them, which I have found to be exactly true to this day.

I hunt with many double rifles, over under as well as side by side, with and without scopes, depending on hunting conditions and game hunted. For double rifles, I hate variable scopes, only because they are unnecessarily larger and heavier, while I prefer the smallest single power scopes I can find. When hunting in heavy cover, I prefer low power, single power---preferably 3 power; never more than 4 power. I have some fine Austrian pre WWII over under double rifles, some in .270 and some in .30-06, that are exceptionally accurate and well regulated; I often use them with aforementioned small light weight scopes. I prefer rimmed calibers, but my .270s and .30-06s have never failed me in any way; performed beautifully, so for casual non dangerous game hunting, they are just fine for me. However, when hunting heavy game, moose, caribou, Rocky mountain or Roosevelt elk, etc., the .30=06 is simply too small in caliber, and I have even used 220 grain .30-06 shells too, To avoid such wounds, or killing shots, with the big animals such as this, getting away to die in the mountains, a larger caliber is preferable. Something in .35 or larger caliber is preferable. I have used 9.3x74R, .375 rimmed mag., even .470 and .450 nitro, and found them all to kill big elk, moose, etc. much faster and cleaner than with .30-06.

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