From my experience, most shooters/hunters shouldn't be shooting past 400 yards regardless of their rifle and set up they use. Now I know there are qualified people on here that have the experience and expertise to do it - many with a military background. But the vast majority of hunters shouldn't try to shoot an animal that far away. I can only think of two people from my pool of friends and family that have the skills AND PRACTICE shooting beyond 400-500 yards, regularly. One of them is a police force sniper and the other is training to be a police force sniper. Once you get out past 400 yards, the elevation of the shooter and the target becomes more of a factor to impact bullet drop. To get good at shooting in those conditions, it requires practice and experience at shooting those distances - which also means they aren't practicing shooting off a bench, with a bench rest or laying on a perfectly flat surface. You need to practice in the field, shooting off a pack or bipod, at distance, and at elevation. They should also practice shooting in those conditions being out of breath because when you run into those conditions in the field, its because that's what its often like when it comes time to take an animal. Rarely do people practice shooting in these conditions and thus they aren't as skilled.
The vast majority of shooters that I know who shoot 300 WM is because they have a friend or buddy who recommended it and also deep down inside they want some extra bullet ballistics to make up for a potentially bad shot (although they will never admit that openly).
Again, I do realize there are people who are capable of long range shots and legitimately practice correctly. Those people are few though, I can count on 1 hand the number of people I know capable of that.
That's why I have a self imposed limit of 400 yards, and of which both my 308 and 30-06 are more than capable of getting the job done.
