It was ever thus.
I am embarrassed to say that I no longer own a single scoped high powered rifle. The only two I have are an old 98 Mauser and an even older Swedish Mauser.
The 98 Mauser is fairly accurate. Maybe 2 inches at 50 yards which is about as well as I can do now. The Swedish Mauser is better than I am now. At one time I could get pretty much all of it’s accuracy but not now.
I was lucky enough to get around 25 boxes of Lapua Match in 6.5X55. I didn’t even have to shoot it to know it was good and it was. I can’t even shoot the 98 as all of my ammo is unusually corrosive Egyptian surplus. I just don’t feel like shooting it and then cleaning it several times. Of course it would not matter if I really needed it.
I live in a rural heavily wooded area. I imagine it would be easy to sneak up on me since I no longer have a dog. At least I could sit on my porch with the Swede and cover the road both ways.
Both Mausers shoot around 6 inches high at 50 yards. One can always adjust if needed. When I belonged to a gun club in Kansas, it was easy to hit the gong at 400 yards with several surplus Mausers. After that it gets dicey for me. At 1000 yards it would be pure luck.