For me it was the widely available ballistic calculators, cheap LRF, cheap chronographs, somewhat accurate ballistic coefficient numbers, and bullets designed with relatively high BC that changed everything.

When I was young, 400 yards seemed like a ridiculously long distance to shoot at anything I wanted to hit consistently. The new tech paradigm allowed bullet drop and wind deflection to make sense to me. Before that, it was a cloudy, mystical thing. Now, quarter-mile shots at animals are a gimme, as long as the wind isn't a mystery. It still blows my mind when I think about it, how easy it is to ding 6" steel at the longest ranges I shoot now, because I didn't even know how far across-the-canyon was when I was younger. Cool stuff.


I belong on eroding granite, among the pines.