Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Have rifles, chamberings, scopes, and bullets finally hit the wall?

Priceless..

I have not seen a new thing necessary for decades.

Wonder how much of that is demographics. As people continue the century-old movement away from the country, into the city, we are losing the young people who hunt as a way of life. It's more and more the older folk, who will eventually age out, and hunters will be fewer, more of them regarding it as a novelty, like a technical challenge or faddish sport, rather than just something that they do simply because they don't know not doing it.

Sucker fishing is "never not funny"

Just because a new product or development is unnecessary, doesn't mean it isn't an improvement or upgrade. Seems hunters were killing just fine even before smokeless powder was invented...

I suppose it matters how you define necessary.

I started loading in 1956. Milsurp powder, bullets that wouldn't even make good seconds in today's market, rifles that were as likely to shoot 3-4 MOA as anything, scopes that still didn't have constantly centered crosshairs, glass that wouldn't measure up well against $39.95 blister pack trash, loading manuals that were wildly optimistic about velocities, powders with large enough lot to lot variations that working up a load all over again when you got a new lot was not a bad idea, Just off the top of my head.

For a number of years now I have picked and chosen the deer I shoot. I shoot them close up with speed still so high that it would have probably blown up comparable weight bullets. I shoot them far away enough that bullets heavy enough not to have blown up at 25 feet would have been an issue at range. I shoot them under light conditions that scopes I started hunting with would not have been able to handle.

kill deer at 80 degrees and well below zero. The powders I use need to help me do that, not make it harder.

I have never lost a deer I put the first bullet into. With the tools I have available today, I have much more freedom to pick and CHOOSE, to hunt under adverse conditions and to make better shots at whatever range I CHOOSE and do a much better job killing than I could in decades past.

Wouldn't it be crazy if in a few years they didn't have muzzleloader seasons- instead it's a "Bring Grandpa's .30-06 out to hunt" season? I'd kind of like that!

I think I get the OP question. what is left for us?

We now have tough ballistic tips used by folks who in the past would not have touched them, tons of powders to choose from, great lubes & oils & cheap effortless cleaning products, light recoiling rifles that can be used for Long Distance, smaller cartridges capable of killing bigger game more cleanly, terrific synthetic pillar bedded stocks with bedding blocks already in them, inexpensive rifle scopes that are bright as heck and hold up more than well enough for the box-a-year + shooter, and every single company has made their own low cost Savage clone that seem to shoot better than most of the high dollar stuff- or most things produced just a decade or two ago. Add to that electronic varmint calls and decoys, quick pop up blinds and yosemite binoculars. Winchester is making good products again by most accounts. Great boots, sox, waterproof gear and a crazy amount of camo options. Life is good.

So I think I understand what he is saying.

Of course we also have been introduced to butt-outs, barrel de-resonators, scent sticks and cough silencers.

For me, one welcome area getting R and D attention for lower cost options are good roof binoculars. But no way am I starting another discussion on that front!!!!!!

kenjs1 - WOW, after 5 pages of this post I figure it's time to forget rifles, ammo, scopes, technology and go back to the good 'ol sling-shot! Homesteader

Where can you buy Trophy Bonded bullets?

I'm mounting my rifle on a drone this weekend. I'm wondering if it will handle the recoil of a 375 H&H though...

Don't laugh....there are many who'd do it in a heartbeat.

I'm just trying to get solenoid switch to the trigger...

Not "necessary" but therein lies the rub. Whether we've hit the wall has as much to do with the consumers as the products. If people will pay for new products, we'll keep on seeing them, and we will. The improvements may be more incremental than revolutionary, but they're improvements nonetheless.

And they matter more to a lot of shooters today than they did 50 years ago when a 30-30 and a five year-old box of Corelokts was all most people found "necessary."

They did about 60 years ago

How do I teach my drone to run the bolt???? Reading the manual here. Ah, this chit is confusing...

That's right. All my gear is circa 1960. Especially scopes, that was the heyday.

6.5 I bet you could find a way to do it....

There is an ongoing attack on lead used in bullets.

This internet has taken over from print and recorded media.

The Oracle has spoken.