you are right that hunters haven't changed. when the seasons opened back up in the mid 1940's in parts of the Midwest you had people shooting donkeys (and trying to check them in) and crazy stuff like that. most hunters in the current era are leisure hunters and rarely have skills. My grandparents (who guided from the 1st season in 1944- to the late 70's had all kinds of guys (10-15 a year) coming in and most had no clue. times haven't changed.

I have kind of been messing in this thread (playing devil's advocate), but I do really think some deep ethical considerations are at play. It is right that as a general group "hunters" can be a term used that doesn't signify skill level. I'm sure dog tracking actually improves the ethics of using resources to locate game. However, the hunter does bare that some responsibility to learn how to improve his odds of retrieval.

hell, I've never sat in a shooting house either. so don't get me started on that. haha