While I've never been much of a hunter--I generally only kill paper--I've worked many hunter sight-ins as a safety officer. As anyone who's been a safety officer will attest, there's a lot of people out there who really shouldn't be hunting. They buy a rifle and scope the night before the season opens, they don't take the time to know their gun, they don't practice often enough...in short, they're not prepared.
What's even worse is that they take shots that are, at best, beyond their skill levels. I've had many would-be hunters tell me about "the one that got away." Unfortunately, the ones that got away frequently did so only to go off and die in agony from a badly-placed shot.
The true hunters I know are familiar with their rifle and gear, and only take shots they know they can make. Most won't take a shot beyond a couple of hundred yards, although I know a few exceptional shooters who've taken game from as far as 1500 yards.
Many of these hunters use rangefinders. At one time I thought that was "cheating," but as I've watched some of the shooters at the sight-in's, I've come to conclude that using a rangefinder is part and parcel of being an ethical hunter. It's one thing to "guestimate" range when shooting paper targets; it's quite another when it comes to shooting a living, breathing creature.
I highly doubt that the bozo's I've encountered at sight-in's will invest in a rangefinder. Hell, a lot of them are unwilling to pay $5 just to have their rifles bore-sighted for them.
But I can only hope that the number of serious hunter who use rangefinders will continue to grow. It's not cheating, it's ethics.
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