Guess it depends what you want.

As far as BC.. the 300 has plenty of bullet choices with 500+ BC on par with the cm. But if you are going to shoot all day then a 300 will need a muzzle break and a counter weight to help with recoil. Everything gets spendy. You can sacrifice about 200 fps and go with the 300 WSM too. Shave a little weight off the rifle.

Hornady ELD -X offerings...

https://www.hornady.com/bullets/eld-x#!/#product-line

IMHO... Even though CM does everything else better than 308, it is still equal to 308 in effective range....which to me is about 800 yards. Afther that they both are out of steam and that is too far for most people to shoot anyway. A 300 mag laughs at that number. A 212 gr bullet starting out just under 3000 fps drops to 1000 ft/lbs of energy at 1200 yards....400 yards further than than the 308 and CM shooting much lighter bullets.

Well I mean the wind calls on the creedmoor are more forgiving and that's a nice plus besides the drop advantage. The 300wsm never really made sense to me unless you really were hung up on ounces. I always viewed the creedmoor and mags in two different classes. I love the 300 win mag but its competitors to me are 300prc, 30 nosler, 7mm mag etc. Options for the situation at hand is always a good thing.

I tell you where all this talk gets me hooked. I would love to go out west and do an Elk hunt. I want something that will match up to the distances that I might have to shoot. Right now I have a 30-06. It is probably capable but 7mm and short mags kind of intrigue me.  I looked at the short mags in another thread. 7mm WSM is all but dead but the 300 WSM and the 270 wsm seem to still be holding their own. 7mm rum would be a non-belted option currently.

30-06 would work fine. Hell elk arent bullet proof I've seen them stoned with 243s. 270wsm is probably the only short magnum I would buy. How far are you going to shoot? Generally speaking could say nothing over 400 yards and anything would be fine.

The 300 WSM isn't bad. I wanted nothing to do with it until I got one in a package deal. I'd still rather have a 300 Win Mag if given the choice as that's about as much gun as I like to shoot in a light rifle without a brake. Realistically the WSM will do everything I need to do and more.

Belts aren't a big deal. Size your cases to bump the shoulder .001-.002" and shoot the hell out of it. If you don't reload belts shouldn't be an issue at all. My belted mags feed perfectly.

In a light-ish rifle (8-9lbs) the Win Mag case is about as much recoil as I want without a brake.

How far you gonna shoot? Out west man...big sky... big country. You can see.animals pretty far out.

I've hunted out west every year since I was a kid. You can see animals very far and 99.9% of people can't hit one at 100 yards. So be honest with yourself by going out and shooting paper or steel and seeing what your capable of under field conditions.

A lot of people don't realize the brush out West can require shooting over with sticks or no rest at all. Last elk I killed was just under 200 yards offhand.