I would say the days of foodplots and hunting over fields possibly. Legalizing baiting, etc. I get your point but don't talk like scopes are the devil....they are a tool just like anything else we take into the field. A good shot whether it be with irons or a scope is still success and meat in the freezer is still meat in the freezer. Who in the world thinks that using a scope means you are only about killing stuff? Crazy talk.
When my boys and I want to get close and personal with something, we turkey hunt. That will humble you quick on a lot of days.
I never said using a scope means you are only about killing stuff. Re-read what I wrote. I was referring to passing up shots under circumstances do-able with a scope sighted gun but that couldn't be managed with open sights.
Most of my rifles are scoped. Most of those same guns have iron sights on them too (usually aperture sights). Which approach (sighting arrangement) I take on a given day is determined by how sporting I'm feeling, but the irons get chosen more often than not.
I get that more and more hunters in large sections of the country are resorting to food plots (baiting, let's be honest), and hunting from a single spot (stand) all day. Blame changes in land use and the land owners. I and my fellow sportsmen who hunt Pennsylvania (and even my Maryland) enjoy astonishingly large tracts of public land where the old traditional hunting methods can be employed. I'm not forced to hover over a tiny plot of ground wherein I gotta take the shot whether it's ideal or not. For that I thank the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Maryland DNR for actually using all those Pittman-Robertson funds the way they were intended to be used- it saved a lot of land for in the public domain. Lots of elbow room, so to speak. If I had to sit and watch the same four acres of ground all day every day, with a rifle whose scope rivaled the Hubble telescope because I was afraid of missing my one and only chance all season, I would go absolutely batshit crazy.
Still in all, either way it doesn't mean one should skip an important stage in a newbie's marksmanship training.
