I think that the issue with the .300s, has far more to do with the fact that relatively few hunters now are GOOD shots. This, is not so much due, IMHO, to any specific lack of personal qualities on their part, it is far more the result of the huge increase in "urbanization" in contemporary North America, even here in relatively "un-populated" Canada.
Then, the hunting "industry" is now SO costly, with all the gizmos, camos, gear and HUGE prices for hunting a Moose, not to mention, shudder, SHEEP, that most hunters have to work their bags off to begin to afford a trip every few years. So, very few CAN and DO learn to shoot and practice with ANY of their rifles and are not "used" to the recoil effect on their often elderly bods.
We had a rifle club here at Vancouver, just below Simon Fraser University and in an area where NO other development could exist due to landform-fluvial issues. So, for a VERY low cost, we had a reasonably decent 250 yd. range, covered benches and so on.
My buddies and I would shoot there 1-3 times every week, we were about 21-50 in age and most were/are avid handloaders and extreme rifle nuts. The tendency, given that most were/are VERY active and experienced hunters, Africa, the Territories, all over BC, even one with a "Marco Polo" ram, was to higher end and magnum rifles. Most of us could, on demand, anytime, put a rifle full of .300 Bee, .338WM or .375 H&H bullets, "freehand" into about 3.5" at 100M.....and, one guy, the "Marco" hunter, preferred his .340 Bee, for sheep because, as he told me, it knocks them down so well.
At that time, in my late 30s and 40s, into my early 50s, I worked in the bush, Alberta FS and carried a gun everyday, for months on end. One, gets so familiar with it that hitting becomes much easier than not and the range I shot at just helped that process to happen.
Now, being an old guy, 1.5 hrs. from my club, hate traffic, very ill wife for almost four years, I sometimes STILL can shoot my light, .375H&H CRF carbine into sub-moa and run 20-25 300 gr. loads per session, no problem. But, my field position shooting sucks compared with what I could do and I really suspect that a majority of the hunters who come to SK, MB, AB or BC, from elsewhere, are in much the same situation.
Oddly, the smallest deer I have ever shot was with my most treasured rifle, my first P-64-.338 Alaskan and that 250 NP did LESS meat damage than it's companion P-64 Fwt-.270-150 NP did on the buck I got to finish that trip a cay later.....
So, I don't care for .243s, etc, TSXs into shoulders, simply because I only kill for meat and that is what works for me, each to his own.
