Hey Cal,
I can take a 350 meter shot here. I also can go over on the Kanawha River, the bottom land is larger and flatter there, I can get a 1,000 meter shot there. That Vulcan should be able to drive tacks at 1,000 meters. I like a .338 for reaching out that far. There is nothing wrong with bolt action, so long as the action is well made. My favorite action was made by Paul Mauser, on his model K98, it is exceptionally strong, and with just a little work can give an unsurpassed gas seal. The key to building a tack driver is a good consistant gas seal, both at the bolt and the barrel, if you have that the rest can be brought into tune. I did order a Dragunov, a real one, not one of those fakes they sell for $300. It is not really my style, but should serve my purposes here on the farm. 7.62 x 54R is not as good as my 30.06, which I wouldn't count on over 500 meters, but my purpose is not quality, it is quantity. Putting in alfalfa I know my crop will attract deer. I will mount a 3rd or 4th generation IR, the Dragunov is clip fed, and semi auto. Then sit on top of the hill and play in the dark. I do hand load all my ammo that I use for accurate shots, you should, too. For shots that don't need to count box ammo is fine, but I like to get each powder charge weighing exactly the same as any of the others. I make sure to size and polish every case. One thing I watch for is Berdan primers, those don't reload easily, you can tell them by looking inside the case, if there are 2 or more flash holes it is Berdan, if there is 1 flash hole it is boxer. Boxer is easier to load, but I like the Berdan concept better, just very difficult to load them. Another thing I do is use 'magnum' primers in all loads, they give a little better flash, and a cleaner powder burn. I learned about that when cleaning my barrels. A cleaner burn relates to more energy, and a flatter shot. I have found that by hand loading my ammo I can get shot groups under 1 inch where before they were out past 3 inches. Another advantage is I can use steel core bullets which are much more accurate at long range. In all reality, it is not too likely anyone will need to take a shot over 250 yards on a farm, so most any high powered rifle would probably work. We use special apparatus on long shots, it is doubtful I would carry that stuff around just to shoot a few deer. I usually just take my trusty 30.06 mauser based rifle, but when I get that Dragunov put together it might be interesting, even though I feel the Dragunov's are highly over rated.
Have a great day!!!
Andy