There are a few stand-out lenses in the Canon range (I don't know other brands so well) and the 70-300 IS is one of them.
You often hear tales about long zooms being 'soft at the long end' and while that may be technically true, they are usually not that soft at all - just a tad less bitingly sharp.
What I think is happening is that if you put 300mm on a crop camera, you have getting on for 500mm of equivalent focal length. Then people crop it a bit, and you're up to 1000mm equivalent in no time. That is huge, and you need really good technique to nail focus absolutely and have an absolutely shake-free stance, even at high shutter speeds. Of course IS helps, but even so I've seen more than a few images on here where folks have been quick to blame the lens, when they ought to be looking closer to home.
Get that lens. It's really very good. You won't get a sharper 300mm this side of a prime costing several times the price.