I think strong shoulders and light loads make for a much easier day.
..... and I think the continual reach for the easy button has given us such things like replaceable blade hunting knives, ATV's on trailers behind every "hunting rig", and high fence whitetail farms where anyone with several thousand dollars can show up, be driven out to stand, and shoot a "trophy" that comes in under the same feeder every day, and that's all the work that the "hunter" puts into it ...... While not everyone uses the easy button all the time, in general, over time, it leaves the average hunter less capable, both physically and skill wise, than his predecessors. With regard to this topic, "minimum cartridge trend", are we going to eventually end up where we, collectively, are a hunting version of the reporter that whined about shooting an AR-15......
That's a bunch of pretty broad stereotypes.
While I agree that society as a whole is weaker and less active than previous generations...
Do you label him a 'sissy' because he has un-correctable back problems?
I was speaking generally, FM. And apparently you agree with my initial assessment on society ........ and no, I don't label your friend as a "sissy" ..... as I don't label able bodied people that can't manage a 30-06 or some similar gun a sissy. I just note that they are less capable than those who can. It is one thing to disrespect a person for his inability and quite another to encourage ability in general, to laud the capable..... this lack of distinction between the two is the root of all this PC everyone gets a trophy BS .....
Now if an individual needs, due to age (very young or very old) or infirmity of some sort, a lighter weapon, then great...... my own daughter used my AR this year, because that's the only gun we have she has the upper body strength at 12 years old to hold up and shoot offhand. It worked well for her last year..... this year, she did not shoot so well..... we have a lot to work on.
In nearly every instance that I know, I can tell you that 'Grandpa' carried his sporterized, 10-lb .30-06 because that's what he could afford.
Had 'Grandpa' had a little more disposable income, modern materials, and a choice between the 10-lb '06 and a 5.5-lb '06, he surely would have grabbed the light weight. (I've had this very discussion with one of my own grandfathers, who did gravitate toward lighter and lighter rifles as he could afford the upgrades.)
Here's an instance you maybe did not know of..... In the mid 1950's, after an argument with Grandma about whether they could afford a rifle, my own Granpa quit smoking cold turkey, saved his "pocket money"(cigarette) money for over a year and cut a deal with the local hardware store to buy a Remington 721 in .270WIN at cost .... but he had to leave the gun in the store window for 6 months ..... it weighed in at around 8 lbs ...... he hunted with it for 30 years, until his eyes started to age ..... my uncle borrowed it, alledgedly to work up a handload for him ......instead, he took it to a gunsmith, had it reblued, stock refinished, a recoil pad and a 3x9x32 put on it, bringing it's loaded weight to just over 10 pounds ...... and Granpa hunted with it until right before he died. He had enough money to buy any rifle he might have wanted by then, but he had, as Col. Cooper noted, "the best rifle", because "The best rifle is the one you have- endeavor to shoot up to it!" He spent his money on ammunition and his time afield, instead of chasing whatever mechanical rabbit the gun rags were running.
I still hunt with that rifle. There are 3 other 721's (2 in .270 and one in -06) in our deer camp ..... not because some marketing campaign says that they work, but because everyone there knows they do..... and they don't cost what a new bargain basement "entry level combo" rifle does. Are there better guns? Probably. Better, more efficient chamberings? Maybe..... but it's what we have, and we know it works, if we can do our part well enough. That's the hard part...... the shooter is nearly always the greatest variable.