I have more than enough skill to hunt with open sights. What I lack is the desire to do so. Modern telescopic sights are, if one is willing to spend the money for quality glass, just as reliable as any open sight, while affording a number of very real advantages. This is why most rifles made today are pre-drilled and tapped for scope mounts, and why most modern CF rifles don't even have open sights installed. The manufacturers know that with quality affordable optics readily available that almost no one would opt NOT to take advantage of the benefits of the telescopic sight, so they omit the open sights as both a cost saving and aesthetic measure. I say aesthetic because they also know that the vast majority of us think that a scoped rifle looks better with a clean barrel.

Mike