Great points, fellows.

My $.02:

Trajectory is not the issue. Rangefinders and ballistic tables in conjunction with alot of range time can reduce the trajectory issue to a computation.

Hunter skill in making field shots and, most importantly, even for very experienced shooters, WIND are the bugbears. Fitness and breath control here in the mountains is a HUGE issue for everybody, particularly for urbanites and flatlanders who spend only the hunting season in the field. All the range skill in the world evaporates when a several-mile, 1000 foot elevation hike sucks it right out of a fellow's lungs.

Wind has a more significant effect on bullets than does trajectory because in the field it cannot be merely reduced to a computation. I used to have a 4x4 sheet of plywood I used for a demonstration. Shooting at 400 meters with a very accurate No4 MKI Lee-Enfield .303, shots literally strung across the board horizontally. Elevation deviation was about 6 inches, windage a bit less than 3 feet, and this over a relatively short distance compared to what some say they shoot at regularly on deer.

I shoot pretty regularly on my range at 200 yards, and that is why I try to keep my shots under 100.

There are places on my ranch where I will shoot deer at 150-250 meters and I have killed them at 300. This under what can only be described as virtually "benchrest" conditions. Elsewhere in areas where I cannot estimate distance I shoot well inside the point-blank range of the rifle, almost exclusively under 150 though most of my elk have been killed over 100 and my deer at around 100 or a bit less. Longest shot I have ever made with my .375 was on a small deer at 270 stretched-out paces many years ago. I do not try shots I am not 100% certain of anymore. Call it wisdom, call it lack of courage to try. Either one is fine by me.

There are fellows who because of where they live and their skill in the field regularly kill deer-sized game at over 300 yards. I am not one of them.