LAST EDITED ON Sep-12-17 AT 05:16PM (MST)[p]Just my opiniin, for what it!s worth, which isn't much.
Since the end of market hunting ( a good thing, for sure) the "issue" of long range shooting has been a hot issue for sportsmen, at first in the coffee shops and the bars and now it's a nation wide interactive discussion on the internet. Same discussion, just more interactive.
We've added technology inprovements, every year, to shootin/hunting for hundred years. Improvements will continue.
To mention a few:
Smokeless powder=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Scopes= Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Larger cartridges= Longer range shoot, longer range killing, more wounding.
Range finders= Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Faster twist muzzleloaders=Longer ranging shooting,longer range killing, more wounding.
Scopes=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Range finders=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Synthenic bows=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Recurve bows=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
Advanced bow sights=Longer range shoot, longer range killing, more wounding.
Compound bows=Longer range shooting, longer range killing, more wounding.
There's still more that I haven't mentioned, but you get the idea. :d
All of these advancements can be "outlawed" and are outlawed in some States, during some seasons, in some units etc.
Longer range shooting can be dealt with by any State Fish and Game Department in the country. It has nothing what ever to do with hunter ethics and never has been. It is a social, recreational hunting, regulatory decision that each State makes. Nothing more, nothing less.
The folks griping about the use of a newer technology advancement are nearly all using an advancement themselves that allow them to shoot further and kill at a longer range, than the previous generation. And, the further out a target/animal is, whether your using a compound over a wood long bow, or a longer range 50 caliber rifle over open sight 30-30, more animals will get wounded, if for no orher reason than way more shoots perseason will be taken, because more successful shoots can be taken, in the mind of the hunter. We all believe we can kill further out than sportsmen did a hundred years ago.
Who's to blame? No one. As a public, we influence regulation by our acceptance or rejection of our Agencies hunting weapons regulations.
DC