Trying to impose your ethics on someone else for behavior that is legal is being a bit presumptuous to say the least. As Clint said so well in Magnum Force, a man's got to know his limitations. Distance, camo, scents, even baiting, etc.--If it's legal, it's likely legal for a reason. If it's not your cup of tea, don't do it. If it exceeds your skill set (distance mainly), then don't do it. People that bow-hunt would say all of you are taking some unfair advantage. People that only use a knife would cast aspersions on a bow-hunter.
Each of us that hunts has an ethical responsibility to only take shots that we think we have a high probability of making, whether with a rifle, bow, pistol, spear, etc. It isn't what platform you use since they're all legal--It's how well you can use it.
The distance for those high probability shots can vary from member to member and hunter to hunter. Some people put in extensive time, training, equipment, money, etc. and practice, practice, practice until their operational distance is much further. Some people (like another member already stated) only fire a handful of rounds a year and have a much shorter operational distance.
RR has posted on this board for a long time and has outlined his preparation, practices and hunting ethics on multiple occasions. The members who know him well (including me) have been satisfied with his proficiency and ethics. Every now and then, somebody will attack him for his hunting distances. It never seems to fail that after 10, 20, 50 or more pages of argument and bantering, the real reason comes out. That person criticizing RR usually has their own self-imposed limits based on their own abilities and is now trying to impose their skillset limits on RR. Or maybe even just their beliefs and what they think is ethical.
If you can make the shots and consistently kill the animal cleanly at whatever range, it's ethical. It's legal and he's cleanly killing the animals. His shooting distances may not fit in with your ethics or somebody else's but it's still ethical as a hunter for him to shoot at those distances. And it's legal.
You're entitled to have your own opinion and ethics but so is RR.
And to answer your OP question RR about why LR hunting is not ethical? Well, I think you already answered your own question in your first post. Often, it's because "those who know the least about what you do think they know the most."
