A little too harsh....
It's mainly the Campfire fraternity society, and some wanting others to think they are part of the IN group...Little more than that...
The dedicated LR shooters have reason to want the best of the best...and most have specialized rifles that can bring out the best in a scope...It's those shooting an off the shelf rifle, thinking they need the same scope to kill a Deer, at the often quoted 100 yards and under, and Leupold isn't up to the task...They need to be in the frat....
Shooting LR increases the number of critical variables and in doing so, brings the mechanical stability of the aiming device into sharp relief. Successful LR shooting starts with an accurate rifle and a scope that repeats; if you have those two things you can get to work. Notice I didn’t say “tracks”.... it can even track funky in the sense that X number of clicks results in more, or less, POI movement than it “should”, but as long as the adjustments are repeatable, you can work around that with some rounds expended and good data collection and record-keeping.
What happens is, or rather what happened to me, is that as one is trying to sort out this multi-variable equation, eventually as one churns through gear, burns powder, reads the forums, and so on.... if you persevere and spend enough $$ eventually you hit upon the convergence of a truly accurate rifle and a truly reliable scope. That’s a light-bulb moment. In my case it’s the rifle I call the “Lite” because it’s basically a 7-mag Sendero “Lite”.... it’s a short action 7 WSM with a 24” barrel in the same HS stock Remington uses, or used to use (I don’t pay attention anymore) but without that god awful palm swell. So, a Sendero Lite. I built the rifle, chambered it myself, etc. It is freakishly, phenomenally accurate. Conversing in private with the very knowledgeable EHG, he put me on the trail of a used NF 5.5-25 NSX and that scope, on that rifle, combined with my awesome shooting skills (ahem) were my light bulb moment. The rifle is for most intents and purposes perfectly accurate. Ditto for the scope. That leaves the nut behind the butt, and atmospheric considerations, and of course the fine details of making premium ammo. But removing scope variability is, I’m tellin’ you, a complete game-changer. It’s as tangible as dropping a rock on your foot. You KNOW IT when you see it. And there’s no going backwards from that.
