Hunting is normally that the first round is the one that counts. You may or may not get second chance and as often as not, your first round tells you what the atmospherics are doing at extreme ranges.
The atmospherics gave me more grief than most other things. I could usually keep a decent group, but the group would move around the paper as the air temperature changed. I'd start shooting early and as the range warmed up, the point of impact would change.
With my .308 bullet drop was around 55 inches anyway at 500 meters, the air layers, the temperature and even the bullet going from near mach 3 to mach 2 would have some effect. In other words a lot of variables. I've always had a small talent for picturing various events in my mind and correlating an outcome. And was consistent enough to shot fairly tight groups. My problem was the shot groups would move around the paper as atmospheric conditions changed, minute of angle changes were common from one hour in the morning and say two hours later. Rain, wind, ground fog. ambient temperature, even how warm my rifle was would have some effect.
First round hits on antlered game, above around 500 meters are iffy. At least for me. 350 is about my limit for a reliable hit. Real world you are rarely shooting flat, it is either uphill or downhill and that is a whole other can of worms.
Something else many people forget is that a bullet doesn't fly in two dimensions, up and down. Besides the wind, it flies in kind of a corkscrew.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to grasp all the variables and spit out a good enough solution to reliably bring down Antlered game at extreme distances.
Maybe i need to bring a ballistic computer with me.
The way I see it is, long range shooting is just another skill set. Man is a pack hunter, but the individuals in the pack all bring different abilities and skill sets to the hunt. Some are better at sneaking and creeping, some are faster, some are better shots, some better at tracking or reading sign. My skill set is I seem to find game when nobody else does, I don't know exactly how I do it, instinct I guess. For years the county paid me to do game counts, the old round peg in the round hole syndrome, that rarely ever happens in reality.