Swampy: Our PH's could be twins but for the chambering and the compensator on mine.
I wouldn't trade an '06 for a .243. With proper bullet selection the 30-06 can be made to perform like an number of other cartridges. Did you get the Lee Reloading Kit, or the basic ("Classic") Lee loader? I use a lot of Lee equipment, myself. It seems that you have found the sweet load for your game and there can be little sense in playing around unless, perhaps, it may be the realm of cast bullets.
I shoot a lot of cast lead in my rifles. If I only used them for target shooting they would already save me a bundle, but I also use them for hunting so I get double duty. I have killed everything from prairiedogs to bison with them. They work well. I especially like them in the 30-06. I shoot a 220 grain round nose bullet sized to .311" over 16 grains of Alliant Unique powder. This load is powerful enough to kill deer at close range, superbly accurate on paper, and makes my off hand practice very affordable. I killed a nice mule deer at 100 yards with a 30 caliber, 188 grain cast bullet at 2400 fps. The poor beast didn't know it hadn't been shot with a jacketed round and fell over dead! ~Muir