Thanks for reading!
From what I've read, success depends a lot on line of sight. If you're on flat, open land, you'll likely see much better range than I did.
There's a neat tool in the MeshCore app (available in the web version[0], too) that shows line of sight between two points on a map. You can click the three dots in the upper right > Tools > Line of Sight. It will show you how good line of sight is between those two points, accounting for changes in elevation.
It's also possible a good repeater would make more of a difference. I'm hoping to hear feedback from other MeshCore users about that.