"Advanced" is what you call it? I might buy that argument if you were talking projectiles, particularly if we're talking bullet-to-bullet consistency and jacket construction. However, all a rifle-cartridge combination does is get the projectile to the target, which it will not do without significant operator intervention.
Unfortunately, I AM seeing a trend where guys who poorly hit animals, either losing them or causing a long trailing operation, are suggesting later that "they ought to just buy a bigger rifle", like it wouldn't have happened if the size of the rifle could make up for their poor shooting? If I'm comfortable and EFFECTIVE (key word) killing deer with a .243, do you think I'd be comfortable and effective killing deer with just about anything else that's bigger? I don't see the need to launch 300 grain .375 slugs at deer, but if it's all I had - I could do it.
The bullet fired from an "advanced" .300 WSM is often the same one fired by a cartridge developed nearly some 90 years earlier. It can also be the same bullet fired from the proprietor's "other" magnum of some 40 years earlier, at about the same velocity, just through a longer action.
Once that bullet leaves the barrel, the rifle and shooter's jobs are done. It's about the bullet, how it travels, and about what it does where it hits the animal. It matters none that it was fired through a .300 WSM, a .30-06, or a .300 Win Mag.
Remington.com reports that a 180 grain Premier Accu-tip travels at the same velocities and produces the same energy across all range increments, regardless of whether it's fired from an "advanced" .300 WSM or a 1963 .300 Win Mag.
Guys have been shooting "long range" years before all of these "advanced" rifles and cartridges showed up. Arguably, it might have been more difficult than it is now, but nonetheless, the ability of a rifleman to put that bullet into a target at just about any reasonable range has existed for longer than smokeless powder has been around. But, not all hunting is considered "long range".
The skills aren't new. The bullets are interchangeable and the velocities have been achieved before. Now, tell me again what's so "advanced" about these new rifle/cartridge combos?
On the other hand, not so much "advances" as they are "conveniences". A shorter action can save a few ounces of weight. Ammo may weigh a little less. If you reload, your powder may last you a round or two longer.
"Conveniences" are also things like fast food, power windows, and air conditioning. Some of us did without those things before, and we could get along just as well without them if we had to again. While you're out deciding that your diesel fuel jelled up overnight, I'll just bang a bit on the carburetor (anyone remember those) and be out to the goose pit before you this morning!
