These are not hunters of animals at the US Army trials in 1879...these are hunters of men. They declared the 45-70 to be effective to 1900 yards at that time for their troopers. All the old military rifles around 1900 and many before had the ladder sights, and tang sights. Sharps rifles, Winchesters in black powder era. Billy Dixon picked of an Indian chief at over 1500 yds one shot, at Adobe Wells. Skirmishes in open desert and plain were at 1.5 miles at the beginning of the smokless era. Teddy Roosevelt was rudely introduced to the 7mm msuser, at distance. The old German mauser I had was graduated to 2000 meters.
Hunters can take a spotting shot if they choose the correct time, and the range is long...it works in combat too. Learn your hunt area, the distance to land marks, study the wind and its patterns, own the area you hunt in, and practice with purpose, shoot about 10,000 rds of the exact same ammo, and keep moving the distance farther away. Learn to shoot quickly with less than a perfect rest, and off hand, incase of a close encounter,..with a wounded animal in this case. The brain and desire behind the gun is more important than the rifles caliber.
Like the LR shooting Australian married couple on video taking a factory Rem 700 308 police rifle to 3000 yds making two consecutive hits on the steel target with their imposd limit of 10 shots for each caliber they try.
