I know what you're saying and in general would agree with it but to be honest, I think the proficient distance of the average hunter is still well under 200 yards.
That's based on helping out on numerous sight in days at the range and watching lots and lots and lots of people who can't hit a 14" gong at 200 yards with the rifle resting on sand bags.
Now I would definitely agree that the "ability to hit stuff way out yonder" of the top 10-20% of hunters has increased markedly over the years and I would attribute that mainly to the widespread use of laser rangefinders coupled with repeatable scope adjustments.
Target shooters were hitting targets at 1000 yards with precise aperture sights or primitive scopes since the 1870's at least. They already knew about wind drift and trajectory - but they also knew the exact range to their targets.
JOC loved the .270 because it gave one a leetle more room for error in estimating ranges out to 300 yards or so. Now people can know to within a yard or less the exact distance of their target out to as far as their rangefinders will lase. Adjust turrets, watch the wind - still the most important art form in the science of shooting - and a .45-70 will lay'em in there. And now today people are taking laptops and portable weather stations into the field to try to reduce the art of wind gauging to as much of a cut and dried computation as possible.
The combination of accurate, perfectly balanced bullets, accurate rifles and good scopes allows us to shoot smaller groups than we used to, but laser rangefinders are the trump card that allows us to adjust those scopes to precisely intersect the path of the bullet and the point we want to hit.
It still takes a certain skill set to breathe, aim and squeeze properly and consistently and that hasn't changed in hundreds of years. And based on my observations of lots and lots of hunters shooting, I'd say that only a small percentage has really mastered those basic skills which then allow them to take full advantage of the technology available today.
That's what I'm talking about! The average guy around here has a cheap RF, so at least he knows when an animal is out of range for him. In JOC's day, most guys would guess, shoot, and pray.
