A hundred and fifty years ago I'm sure there were plenty of old buffalo hunters who looked down their noses on the new repeating rifles inspired by military arms races. By early 20th century those old boys were gone and the new breed of gun enthusiasts were inspired by gangsters and African white hunters using the new technology. By the time I started to hunt we were essentially still stuck in that same mold. The most significant technological advancement in the early half of that century was the development of practical fully automatic weapons and those were effectively outlawed in the field fairly quickly. But that line was drawn for public safety, not game management. Since I started hunting, and especially over the last twenty years, technological "advancements" have exploded. Unfortunately, the game animals haven't evolved to meet the challenge of those advancements. They are compelled to cling to the past. Every fall when I return to hunt eastern Montana with my brother, we like to think it's still like hunting there with our dad in the sixties. Of course it's not. But some days when I'm alone in the windy rolling hills and coulees it's not that difficult to pretend nothing has changed. I'm wearing different clothes (the old ones wore out long ago) but carrying the same gun and using the same ammo. The Springfield has gone through some changes since 1964, due mostly to wear and tear, but it's essentially still the same gun I used to shoot my first deer. Though I hide from reality as much as I can, I am nonetheless very much concerned about the quantum leap into technology that hunting has taken recently. Where will it end? Since game cannot evolve fast enough to keep up, when does it stop being hunting in the traditional sense? What's the end result? Spotting from satellites and computer guided bullets that can shoot over the horizon? Besides being associated with warfare, for which they are specifically designed, I look on MSRs (Modern Sporting Rifles aka assault weapons) as just another technological step in the wrong direction. I don't own wind meters, trail cams, spotting scopes, drones, "tactical" optics, etc. My smart phone is used for business or safety only. An E-trex GPS was gifted to me years ago but subsequently stolen from my vehicle (I don't think I ever carried it in the field). I recently upgraded my rifle's scope but similar technology was available when it was first scoped in the sixties. Call me old fashioned ... or maybe I've just decided technology is redefining the future of hunting in a way I want no part of. It's a matter of personal ethics.
So, my predilute comes from not liking stainless steel unless it's a fork! Friend of mine in Montana years ago had a stainless 700 in a thumbhole stock and I didn't like the stock. But same rifle in a reg wood stock and it was beautiful. OH yea, The stainless back then was covered with come blacking of some kind and you had to be told it was stainless. The truth is both the blue version and stainless version do exactly the same thing. Except my blued will probably outshoot your stainless! 
