"....How would you know that those unethical hunters in your examplewere "short range hunters"?...."
Answer:
"....so called "ethical, "short range" hunters on public land in medium cover...."
I am very familiar with the zone where it happened. You would be hard pressed to get more than a two hundred yard shot due to the cover and terrain;therefore, many of the shots where much shorter than that. A "short range hunter" is one shooting at short range. A "long range hunter" is one shooting at long range. The hunters preference doesn't enter into it.What is commonly being trotted out is "if you shoot at close range your odds are high and you are ethical" AND conversely "if you shoot at long range your odds are bad and you are unethical."
Trust me, these weekend warriors were a far cry from even vaguely resembling the group in this video. They camp on the same ridge/trailhead area as our base camp and I visit during the scouting week prior to the season. In visiting their camps and talking to them on the trailsall you had to do was observe their equipment (no external turret MOAs, no high end range finders, no finely rigged rifles---definitely notlong range specialists.
It ain't that cut and dried.