.....especially since the rules don't have any science-based or safety-related justification.
Well, I would have to respectfully disagree with this, on a couple different levels. Restricting things like scopes, sabots, and smokeless powder most certainly and you could say scientifically limits the range at which most hunters are effective with their rifles. No two ways about that. And if you limit the effective range of weapons that can be used, that makes it harder for the average hunter to kill an animal, no two ways about that either.
As far as Colorado goes, I've spoken with Colorado DOW staff who were involved in drafting the regulations. The ML season in Colorado falls during the elk rut and also before the general firearms season. So the bulls are bugling and can be called in (or at a minimum easily located)and the cows are relatively undisturbed, and all of this is a huge advantage to the hunter.
So Colorado decided that the ML regulations would serve to put the ML hunter at a disadvantage compared to a hunter using a modern centerfire rifle, because hunting during the rut and before the general firearms season was such an advantage. The best way to do that was limit the effective range of the weapons allowed. Things like scopes, sabots, and smokeless powder allow the average hunter to shoot more accurately at longer ranges so they were banned; things like in-line ignitions and BP substitutes don't so they weren't banned. I don't see how you can get any more scientific than that.
And I don't buy the "ethical" argument, that is, a more accurate rifle is a more ethical hunting tool (I know you didn't make this argument but if the thread goes any distance it's bound to pop up). Because ethics don't reside in the weapon, they reside in the hunter and any ethical hunter both practices enough to know his effective range and limits himself to shots within that range.
Lastly, on your comment about age, I'm getting older myself and personally I don't agree with that argument. I have some pretty bad arthritis in one ankle and I know that one of these years (soon) it's going to prevent me from getting very far from the truck in the roadless areas I like to hunt. But that's just something I'll have to live with. I'm not going to try to make the case that old guys with arthritis should be able to ride four wheelers. Likewise when I can't pull a 70-lb. bow, I won't ask to use a crossbow. And when I can't see the fiber optic sights any more, I won't be asking to use a scope. Maybe I'll just hang out in camp, do the cooking, and rib the young guys. That wouldn't be half bad.
