Back when we bought rifles that looked nice and did their job well, a pump action 30'06 was great.
Ammo was standardized to 30'06 and 308 win in every hardware store and gas station...$8 for 20 Rem Core Lokt 180 gr
You carried a rifle with a std 3-9 or 4x scope.
You practiced with it about 4 times per year.
A rifle was meant to shoot 0-300 yd game, knowing you might be off 25 to 50 yds guessing the 3rd football field away.
A trigger that pulled and was safe was good enough. It was on you to learn it, when it would break, where the sights go when it did, how to pull it.
Then enter the equipment race.....now if you aren't equipped with a sniper rifle, 3+ lb optic, black or camo paint, maybe a suppressor, you don't have enough gun. Add to that the 30'06 apparently is too weak to kill deer....at a mile. The core Lokt Bullet and it's type blow up....when driven at 3500+ fps!
Not to mention $300 boots, $50,000 trucks, $100 slings, $10 craft beers, etc.....yea, if you don't have all that and a ranch in Wyoming, you better just play Cabelas deer hunter on play station 16!
Yea, at 43, I'm learning that my uncle with his pump 30'06, 4x Weaver K4, $50 hunting boots, carbon steel knife and old jeans was outfitted just fine to kill all the deer the law allows on public land!