8MM Mausers are fantastic, cheap to shoot rifles. Everyone should have one.
That said, for 200-300 yard hunting of elk and such, a Savage 30-06 really is a better way to go. It’s already prepped for a scope, it has an easier to use safety, and it has a better trigger.
Scoping a Mauser involves drilling and tapping it, replacing the safety, and either lowering or replacing the bolt handle (or maybe mounting the scope very high, or along the left side of the receiver, or forward of the bolt [a la’ scout rifle].
Mil-spec 8MM ammo has ballistics that are very similar to the 30-06. Assuming similarly shaped bullets of the same weight, the drop should be almost identical. However, this ammo is typically full metal jacket and is not suitable for hunting.
OTOH, US commercial manufacturers make 8MM Mauser rounds with soft-point hunting type bullets, but use a much lighter powder charge (due to some specification issues with older Mausers), which reduces the round to very nearly 30-30 ballistics.
If you want to use a your rifle for hunting something like elk, you’ll need either to buy hot (and expensive and hard to find!) European-made Norma or RWS ammo loaded with hunting bullets - or you’ll need to reload.
So the correct answer, of course, is get both a Mauser and a Savage!
Incidentally, if you’re looking for a really smooth working bolt action, forget the Mauser and get a Lee-Enfield!