Plenty of good advice here. I'm one of those folks who are relatively recoil-tolerant. Maybe it's because I've been shooting center-fire rifles for a long time. I'm pretty much a little guy - 5'7" and about 160lbs. I have definitely found that a higher, straighter combed stock reduces felt recoil. A friend of mine bought a used Rem 700BDL 7MM Rem Mag and he hated shooting it. He bought a straight combed thumbhole walnut stock (ugly as sin, but some guys like thumbholes, I guess) and it tamed that gun right down.
I hunt with an 8lb Mauser chambered for 30-40AI, which is pretty much a 30-06. It has a steel butt plate on the sporterized military stock. Only when shooting from the bench do I notice the kick. I always use a shoulder pad when sighting in at the bench. I don't shoot from a bench unless sighting in or developing a load, and I've found '06-class rifles to be easy to shoot from all field positions.
It sounds like the OP really has a problem here and I think the perfect remedy would be to trade the Ruger for a 7X57. The little 7mm does pretty much anything a 30-06 would do anyway, and it's way easier to shoot well.