Being numbered amongst the 99.9999%, I must be missing something, although I'm just not sure what it might be. Naturally my shooting consists of load evaluation and confirmation of a load's zero, but I strive to achieve and maintain a minimum level of competence in practical marksmanship. I define practical marksmanship as shooting under time constraints, at targets at unknown ranges, which lack a specific aiming point, that maybe stationary or moving, from supported and non-supported positions, and from both the strong and support side. Of course there's more to it than this as we must also contend with and allow for variations in temperature, wind, and target angle in addition to range.
Ambidextrous shooting certainly paid off in Africa when I rugged my warthog which was running flat out, quartering away to the right, with a shot off my left shoulder. I may never need to use that skill again, but it paid off that day, and is one of the most memorable game shots I've ever made. Somewhere along the way, I discovered its easier to react to a situation if you've already programmed yourself to react a certain way. In this case I knew that if I got a shot to the right, I would shoot from my left side rather than attempting to turn towards it.
Another drill which has paid off for me is cycling the action at the shoulder as quickly as possible without consideration of the effect of the bullet on the target. Thus one is ready for a followup without the delay of first realizing that the animal wasn't down, followed by cycling the action (often at waist level) followed by remounting the rifle, finding the cheek weld, and finally making the shot, if there is still a target to shoot at. One of my drills is to stand behind a vehicle that pulls a plastic oil pail on a line, and engage the pail as it bounces and rolls towards me. I've discovered that a rapidly approaching target, moving in an irregular, unpredictable manner, is far more difficult that a running broadside target at medium range.
When I learned that I would use a double rifle on my safari, I borrowed a side-by-side open choke shotgun and shot up a few hundred slugs in perpetration. As it turned out that practice proved insufficient as I never acquired a comfort level with the double rifle, even though I killed my buffalo with it. One problem was the loads were hot enough to stick the action, requiring the shooter to bump the hinge over his knee to open it. I discovered that extractors suck, (that shotgun had extractors too). The rear express sight was narrow and deep where it should have been wide and shallow, and I found it was taking me much longer to make a shot than it should have; I wouldn't trade that $40K English double for my $5K custom Brno.
What does this have to do with the .280 AI vs .30/06 debate? Not a damn thing, except that the rifleman who owns a .280 AI is likely, although not necessarily an enthusiast, and the enthusiast will tend to shoot and hunt more frequently than the typical annual deer hunter. Now despite being numbered amongst the 99.9999%, I do consider myself an enthusiast. I would think those who bother to spend much time on a firearms forum are also enthusiasts. The real difference between us isn't the desire to shoot or hunt, the difference is the opportunity we have to feed our addictions. My opportunities are pretty good, in that I live in a place that is very gun tolerant, and my house is 250 yards from Hudson Bay's high tide mark. Hudson Bay by the way is the world's largest rifle range when its ice covered. Some of us have more opportunities than others who face financial and/or geographic restrictions to their addiction, and those of us who have the opportunities should not look down on those who can only shoot 500 rounds a year.
