I am not a seasoned long range hunter but have done a fair amount of longish range shooting. I'm fairly aware of my capabilities. One thing I can say for certain, if one does enough shooting to really know the limits of his rifle and himself, he can do some surprisingly consistent shooting. My first shots, at known ranges out to 900m, were usually bulls or "V"s.
I can consistently make good shots (heart/lung) on the M-S pigs at 300m, with my hunting rifles, from an unsupported sitting position. From the same position, without dialing, I cannot regularly make first shot clean hits on the rams. So, I'll shoot game at 300, but won't at 500. That's just me. By the way, I'm sad to say, I cannot hit anywhere near that consistently offhand, so my silhouette scores are not so great.
Ultimately, I confine verification of my long range abilities to the target range and that's not part of my hunting experience. Again, that's just me. GD