I've rifle hunted the Standing Rock off and on the last few years and from 10 years ago, yes I think there are less mulies. But recently it seems to be hit or miss. I'm only there for a few days so I don't how much hunting pressure and such push them to private land. I have seen some really nice...
I've got hundreds of rounds through an MLII. Always shot Accurate 5744 powder. Mostly Barnes 250 and 300 grain MZ bullets. It'll shoot .75 groups at 100 yards. Awesome gun.
I've got a couple of Ruger bolt guns as well as Tikka TX1. But my Ruger 10/22 with a Green Mountain barrel will out shoot them all. They all wear Leupold 3x9 rimfire scopes. Highly recommend that scope.
Farming and production agriculture. I raise about 34000 little pigs per year. One man operation so not much time off. But retirement is near. Heading to South Dakota or Texas. Or both.
Hunted there a number of years ago. At that time there were a lot of elk. Set up on public ground in the morning and evening to catch the elk coming off private ground . Ended up shooting a couple raghorns.
I shoot a Savage ML ll with smokeless powder. They were designed for smokeless powder. Using AA 5744 powder. It's a easy to ignite fairly low pressure powder. There is a good amount of load data for Savages. Could be a starting point. Mine shoots as well as some rifles.