"Out there" being as far as reasonably possible; part of the reason I'm leaning toward the 20" 1:8 is to maximize the gun's capability in my hands with appropriate bullets. I do some medium-range shooting - rarely over 300 yards and almost never over 400 - but not much of it and not real often; and it's with bolt action, not semiauto. I've been shooting AR's for over 30 years, but they've almost all been carbines; nothing set up with accuracy-at-range as a main consideration.
This is intended to be my critter gun on the farm - coyotes, fox, gone-feral dogs, etc. On optics, I haven't decided on a specific model yet, but odds are it'll end up being a medium-end leupold varifocal. I just can't hardly bring myself to buy anything but leupold for centerfire guns anymore.
Basically, all my other AR's are defensive in nature, and I just want one set up less for defensive/LE use, and set up more for farm & hunting use.