Effective Range
The distance at which a given rifle, cartridge, optic, and shooter combination can still produce reliable, well-placed hits.
Effective range is not maximum range. A .22 LR bullet will fly 1,000 yards. The effective range of a typical .22 LR setup is 100-150 yards because past that the wind reads, the holdover required, and the velocity drop all stack up faster than the shooter can manage.
Damnosus’s RLR framing is that effective range is the real metric to track, the distance at which YOUR setup actually delivers hits, not the distance the cartridge could theoretically reach.