2024 Cold Bore Challenge

[sargent]

MER - 410 yards
Remington Model 7 .243 Winchester
SWFA 3x9
95 grain Winchester Silvertip
Shot #1 was 411 yards taken off a pack, no rear rest. Wind light and from straight behind. Held dead center.

I set up differently for shot #2. 410 yards across a valley. My heart rate was a little elevated from climbing and up and down setting the target and my prone position had my feet uphill while trying to shoot at a slight upward angle. Total whiff. You can see a twig move just below the cardboard backer. I need some more practice before hunting season.

Thanks to Rokslide and the sponsors for putting this challenge on. Good luck to all those shooting.

 

[Graves14]

This should be fun! Calling my MER at 650 yards.

Snuck out to get my first shot in tonight. Mellow 7mph wind from 5 o'clock. 575 yards (yes I backed up a few steps after ranging) from prone with a bipod and bag.

Shooting a...
-Sig Cross with an 18" Barrel in 6.5 Creedmoor on 6/5 of course!
-Nightforce NX8 4-32 Mil-C Reticle
-Federal Gold Medal Match SMK 140g ammo
-TBAC Ultra 7 suppressor

For day 2 I set up a little further out than I meant to. 773 yards and I realized too late I'd grabbed an 8" plate instead of a 10" but all is well that ends well! Shot was taken sitting with the gun locked into my tripod.

 

[EdgeFan]

DAY 1 596yds
MER this year 875yds
28 Nosler
KS Arms action and barrel
Wildcat stock
Leupold VX6
ADG brass
CCI250 primer
168gr LRX at 3250fps
wind from 10 oclock
Waited for a break in the wind dialed 1.5moa left and 8 moa up
Shot it at 1:20 on the video
Used a small pack for a rest, no bipod or rear bag

Day 2 596yds
Less wind
Half left for spin drift and another half for the breeze from 10 oclock
I felt good about the shot but its a good feeling walking up to the plate and its a center punch
Again no bipod or rear bag
Those of you who noticed the pink plate to the right....that target is called the HUMBLER. its 4.5'' and when people say they have a half minute rifle I kindly give them 3 shots to hit it with their rifle. Many have walked away without putting a scratch on it.....thats why I refer to it as the HUMBLER target!

Well thats it for me, day 3 is a miss, mirage was pretty bad but I took a shot anyway. Shot is at 2:30 on the video
I hit the plate but not the vitals



Small pack for a rest, not bipod and no rear bag

 

[northernalpine]

*Claimed MER 600 yards*

Rifle: Sig Cross 18” 6.5CM
Scope: Trijicon Credo HX 2.5-15
Rings: NF 30mm UL Low
Suppressor: SiCo Omega 300
Weight: 8.15lbs
Round: 147gr ELD-M / N555 / 210M @2590fps
Rear Bag: Gunwerks Large Support Bag

Day 1
Range: 586 yards
Target: 10" x 10" Steel Plate
Elevation: 376'
Temp: 91
Humidity: 68%
Pressure: 29.71
Winds: 4 o’clock, 4 gusting to 13
Elevation: U14.25 MOA
Wind Hold: R0.5 MOA Low / R1.75 MOA Gusting

The gear


Day 1 // Hit


Day 1 // Video - I'm behind the rifle so between where I am and the wind, the audio is pretty craptastic

*Edit - I'll stencil the shot circle tomorrow, forgot it needed to be a circle

Day 2
Range: 616 yards
Target: 10" x 10" Steel Plate
Elevation: 376'
Temp: 82
Humidity: 74%
Pressure: 30.04
Winds: 5 o’clock, 8 gusting to 19
Elevation: U14.75 MOA
Wind Hold: R1.9 MOA Low / R5.25 MOA High

Day 2 // Target Measurements



Day 2 // Target - Forgot to spray paint the circle before the shot (used a standard paper plate to shave the corners)


Day 2 // Video - wind was gusting pretty good right before the shot broke, shot is at ~34 seconds in

 

[Silver Wings]

Calling a MER of 500 yards
Tikka T3X Lite in 6.5CM
Maven RS1.2 with Sportsmatch TO84 rings
140 eldm @2700 mv

Day 1
502 yards
2000’ elevation
90 degrees
Wind 4-6 full value from left
Shooting across a saddle makes wind interesting in this spot.
Backpack front rest
Sack of game bags rear rest
Dialed 3.0 for elevation
Held .3-.4ish windage

Wind hold was right on, but elevation was low and just out of the money.
Thanks to my buddy @willfrye027 for putting together the video and for giving me a heads up when I accidentally step on baby Rattlesnakes. The Gopher snake was a nice consolation prize though.


Day 2
Same spot same setup
75 degrees
No wind
Dialed 3.1 elevation
No wind hold

I added .1 elevation after day one miss low. I should have assumed the obvious that I was the problem and not the elevation call. Impact was a little high and on subsequent shots dialed back to 3.0 it was right on.
Apologies for the crappy video. I was on my own without my 30 something technical advisor and didn’t realize that walking in front of the camera would throw it out of focus

 

[Jimbee]

Set my MER at 700 because I wanted more chances to win stuff. Day one, wind was 12-24mph from 10:30ish, 630yds. Resting on pack and using bino/harness for rear support. Felt steady enough but wasn't super surprised on the miss because I suck at calling wind. I'm waiting for my wind meter to arrive. Sorry for the shaky video.
Tikka stainless superlite 243, 8twist, 17", AB Raptor 8. 108 eldm, 41gr H4350 Lapua brass, CCI primers. Stocky's custom painted VG stock 6x SWFA mil/mil, Sportsmatch rings. 2731fps from 10 shots over Garmin Xero. This is going to be my sweet little backup gun once I get my Rokstok/6/7prc, Maven rig all set up. Stat tuned for tomorrow's huge embarrassing failure. Thanks to everyone facilitating, participating in and supporting this challenge!


Day 2. It was raining earlier in the morning but had mostly stopped. Slight breeze that I underestimated from about 3 o'clock. I shot at the same target at the same range. I missed again. Since this was my second miss I decided to send a couple more. I aimed a little low (miss), a little high (miss), and finally a little right (hit right side of plate). I would show my video of me not hitting the plate, but an editing error on my part deleted the short video selection instead of saving it. I'll be practicing and shooting and waiting for next year. Takeaways are I need to practice and shoot more. And or just get way closer to stuff I want to hit.

 

[wapitibob]

I'll try a MER of 800 yards
7STW N570 and Berger 195's
NX8 32x
Bartlein 3B 24" and DD Enticer Lti

Well, shot 2 didn't go as planned.

 

[Stumpy208]

I'm calling my MER AT 500 yards this year.
Rifle:
Browning X-bolt chambered in 6.8 Western shooting Winchester 170gr ballistic silvertips
Scope:
Vortex HST 6-24x50
Rest:
Exo K3 using my bino harness as a rear bag
Setup:

Target:
10" Gong


Day 1: MISS
Today was a warm one at 95°F. Wind was very minimal maybe "gusts" of 1-2 mph. There was a crazy amount of mirage though that made it difficult to focus my phone camera and focus on the target through the scope. I definitely need to shoot more in these conditions to become more practiced.

Day 2: MISS
It was in the upper 90's again and there was wind probably 6-8 mph right to left at the target (when I set it up) and it kept swirling all around me where I shot from. I held the wobble zone just on the right edge of the plate and I'm pretty sure the shot broke when I was off the target and when they're was a lull in the wind (also I just suck haha). There was some mirage too and I couldn't focus my phone again on the target unless I pulled the zoom back even more.

It took me a couple weeks to have some time to get back out. I had an hour and 45 minutes to get out to my shooting spot, set up the target, shoot, and retrieve my target before I HAD to be driving home (I was pulling the stand out of the ground just as my alarm went off) . Since the overall time I had was constrained I challenged myself to get my shot off in 30 seconds or less after I got my phone set up. I beat my time to shoot but missed. The time constraints definitely added more stress.

Overall I need to get out much more to practice this year. Since my daughter was born this past Spring, I haven't had as much time to get out and practice as much as past years. I enjoy this challenge and thanks to all the people that put it on.

 

[Bridger1115]

shot 1

The wind speed was almost died calm at 407 yards
Tikka t3 chambered in 223 shooting a sierra match king, SWFA 6x set up using @Formidilosus process.
prone of a backpack a rear pad.
The miss hi right was mine, the hit on the plate was from my dad @eric1115 after me.
shot 2

no wind
407 yards still shooting my RRS,
sitting with crossed trekking polls and a backpack as rear support.
missed same place. I have zeroed with several 10 round groups, Dad says the ammo I shot today is same recipe but different batch from what I'm zeroed with. Quick zero check at 100 after the miss showed some POI shift. We need to do some more figuring to find out what happened.

 

[HighUintas]

Day 1.

Last year hunting, I told myself I could take a shot to 700 if I was confident on wind.

MER 700
6.5cm factory stainless lite Tikka (eBay barrel that headspaces short!)
Factory stock, hogged out barrel channel and vertical grip
Rs1.2 mil scope in Sportsmatch t084
147 ELDM 2730fps
Vortex 1800 rangefinder
Caldwell wind wizard II

Shooting off my exo k3 pack. My rear bag is always a small dry sack with a couple pairs of socks in it. I had to use my bino harness to elevate it today.

Hiked in to an area I had a cow hunt last year, which sucked. Saw about 40 bulls in that season and zero cows. I wanted this challenge to be realistic since I'm spending the time to go out and take 1 shot each time.

Hiked in around 6:30 this morning , looked for a place to shoot to 600ish. Shooting downhill from near the top of a ridge, about 10 degrees downhill.

****When I found my spot to shoot and sat my pack down, I was brain dead and forgot my rifle was slung on my shoulder not clipped toy pack. So my rifle came off my shoulder when I pulled my pack off, fell to the ground, and of course landed on the bolt side with the windage cap hitting a flat boulder on the ground. Because I had spent a good bit of time practicing in the last week, getting up early before work while sick, I thought.... F it I guess we'll see if it held zero! I was pretty sure that it would based on my drop test abuse of this scope. Nearly this same exact scenario has happened to me before, last year during my cow hunt with my swfa. So this is a good test.

I had hoped to have some wind to call but there was nothing but an occasional slight breeze to 2mph, left to right.

I ranged my target at 589ish yards. Line of sight range was 600 and 10 degrees downhill.
65F
8600ft DA

Dialed 3.4 mils, held 0.1 left.



You can see the legs of my target in the yellow circle



The shot happens at about 1:15 in the video

Using a 10" plate




Day 2

Same shooting setup, different location.

8400 DA
50F
Winds, mostly variable right to left 3-12mph
594F yards ranged, about 7 degrees uphill. Around 600 line of sight

Dialed 3.4 mils, held 0.3mil right waiting for lull in wind

Missed high and left. This miss has happened quite a bit recently. I'm not sure of the cause. Shot a few more after the miss before having to make it back home and missed in the same spot. All shots were well executed. I'll have to check my zero and my skill soon.

target is white spot near middle and top of hill

 

[Brucebarker024]

Setting my mer at 600 yards.

DONE WITH 2 IMPACTS!!

Rifle-
Bighorn origin short
Proof CF 24 inches chambered in 7 saum
Ag composites alpine hunter
Triggertech trigger
NF nx8 4-32
Diligent defense enticer L-Ti
Shooting 180 hybrids at 2920

Challenging myself to ditch the bipod this year so shooting from my pack with a LS Wild rear bag.

First shot-
597 yards
63 degrees
Little to no wind from the 11 o’clock

Dialed 3 mils and hit an inch left of center on the 10 (edit: measured the plate and it’s actually my 8 inch) inch plate

Shot two-
60 degrees
3-5 mph wind from 7 o clock
609 yards
3.1 mils up held center
Should’ve held a tenth but didn’t, still an impact.

And that’s all folks. Two impacts a couple days apart. Liking shooting from the backpack thus far. Will do more in the mountains to keep testing before season rolls around.

 

[SouthPaw]

22 Creedmoor, 20" barrel.
88gr ELDM at 3060fps mv.
MER will be 600 yards.

Day 1
T=67F, DA=1070. 5mph gun#.
595 yards. Prone over pack with small squish bag rear. Called 5mph wind, half value LtoR. Held .3L.

Day 2
T= 63F, DA=360.
601 yards, light wind LtoR, held left edge of circle. Shot in a lull and hit left edge.

 

[Bluumoon]

Claiming 690 yard MER for this year

Setup
Tikka 6.5CM chopped to 18" with an AB Raptor 6" in a KRG Bravo
SWFA 5-20, don't think I had dropped this one yet after a scope shuffle.
143gr "seconds" over 41.5 gr H4350 handloads
6800ft elevation, 75 degrees, calm wind
Not much of a shot angle, does travel over a canyon
Grass on top of my pond needs trimmed down, had some concern it could alter bullet travel, had to build a higher front rest than I would have preferred.
Shot taken 3 min after sunset (2 min in on video). Took way too long to range/build position and break the shot.

Shot 1- 605 yards, hopefully I'm on the 10" plate (possible I went over top and hit support), but need to verify tomorrow it's in the circle, the green paint was a bad choice. Checked this evening, looks like I hit support wire at top right of target. Miss.

Shot 2, held left 0.5 mil for 3-5 mph variable, not enough- miss

 

[silasbowhunter]

MER is 425 yards. As I’ve only shot this 15 times to get sighted in at 100 yards.

Rifle-Tikka T3 223 rem. 17.5” barrel. I pulled the 10 twist barrel off and rebarreled to a factory 8 twist varmint barrel that I had fluted. Factory T3x stock but I shortened the vertical grip trigger’s reach with some bondo and cork tape then sprayed truck bed liner on it.

Scope -SWFA 3-9x42HD in Sportsmatch TO84 rings. Every degreased and mounted with a paint pen.

Suppressor-Form 1 can I built during covid.

Ammo-Hornady Black 75gr bthp

Shot prone off a contractor bag because it was soaking wet out and raining. Used my Kifaru pack as a front rest and my eberlestock Bino harness as a rear rest.

Day 1 conditions were 64° and wet. Grabbing my pack out of the side by side I knocked my rifle off the corner of the cab it was leaning on and watched it tumble across the floorboards so basically a drop test right?
Wind at the target was nominal. Probably about 4mph at the gun so I held .7mils into it.
Did the quick drop mil system and dialed 2.2 mils.
Hit!

Day 2.
91° and a 12-15mph wind blowing from about 10:30 across me. I had no idea what to do for wind so i made a quick guess and held 1mil into the wind and missed. Wife was watching through my binos and thought I missed just into the wind side (which is what I thought as well).
MISS.

1/2 on the challenge.

Thanks again for hosting the challenge! I have 250 rounds showing up in a week and the wife wants to go shoot so I will keep working and hopefully extend my MER for season and be more confident in this system!

 

[SpicyIrish]

I'm shooting at our 450 yard target.

Gun is the same as @Bluumoon above.
Tikka 6.5CM chopped to 18" with an AB Raptor 6" in a KRG Bravo
SWFA 5-20

Sunny and about 85 degrees

Missed today

Second shot was on the metal plate, but out of the circle

 

[JohnB]

Summary:
Day 1: Hit at 400 prone
Day 2: Hit at 400 supported sitting

Well I'm stepping outside of my comfort zone with this. I typically have considered my MER as in the neighborhood of 200 yards due to lack of practice and having wounded and lost a bear a few years ago at 300 yards. I've also been dealing with a neck injury so have not been shooting since last hunting season but figured I should give it a go. In the mess of getting out the door I managed to forget the nice plywood 10" targets I'd made so I made do with a sticker on a sheet of paper and then drew the circle in with a set of calipers when I got home. If this post disappears I will redo with an actual drawn 10" target. Thanks Rokslide for putting this on. It's got the wheels turning for some motivation to shoot more and I talked a non-Rokslide buddy into shooting with me hence the second target. On the plus side I shot better than him so things are looking up!

Gun: Tikka 270
Scope: Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10
Rings: Talley Lightweights
Ammo: Barnes TTSX 130gr
Weather: Light wind and minimal wind(2mph is my guess)
Distance: 400 yards

Day 1 Video:

Picture:

Day 2:
Video:

Pictures:

First round thoughts: Ignore the dead center hole in the target I sunk a screw in there to use my calipers to draw a 10" diameter circle. I've taken this about as easy as possible while shooting across a field in mild wind from a position I had plenty of time to set up and still barely managed a hit @ 400. Major props to those who have done this in a more rigorous manner. I'm sure that there is more I can do both through practice as well as verifying zero before I started into this process. Half of my thought here was to see if my rifle held zero through the ~30 days of bear, deer, elk and cougar hunting I did with a lot of falling down hills and rough treatment, plus wanting to see how I can do.. This stupid internet forum has me planning to switch to a scope & rings with a better reputation as well as getting a bomb proof 10+ round zero to base all of my shooting off of. I'm quite pleased I succeeded in getting shot 1 on the target but even now feel I'd be doing critters a disservice shooting at this range with my skillset and also copper bullets that are only going 2080 fps at 400 yards.

Second round thoughts: This stuff is fun! I'm not sure if I've got the beginnings of a group going or if that shot was just a level of coincidence. Coincidence seems more likely. More practice and learning is coming. Thanks for the kick in the ass to get better at this stuff. My buddy and I are both excited to play around with this more.

Edit: Also hopefully I win a better tripod in future years so that the mods aren't subjected to such a jittery proof of success video at 60 power in 2 mph wind.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

Wanted to call my MER 500yards (Day 1 shot was 506yards due to natural location variance)
Defiance AntiX in XLR, 20" proof, TB ultra 5, NF NXS 2.5-10
300wsm shooting 180gr CX at 2750.


Hiked a 10" plate in and then hiked to an adjacent finger ridge.
Used backpack as front rest and a light weight bag under the rear, position was somewhat awkward down sloping prone. Using Revic BR4 for correction (9.5U MOA), and so didn't note all the environmental or check the correction on any apps.. Held no wind as it was calm at the time of the shot. - day one MISS to the right. It might have been there was some wind out there or that I suck.

Day 2 - Miss

Hiked in to the same area and set up the plate in a slightly different spot and shot from a somewhat different spot - 517yards this time (I went slightly further back thinking to trade for a flatter shooting spot for prone). Shooting downhill -10degrees, 68 degrees, with wind at shooting locations variable between 1-5mph at 2 o'clock. Correction (MOA) was 9.75U and I dialed .5 for wind. I believe I underestimated how much additional wind there was out in the canyon as I was shooting between two finger ridges with a saddle to my left. Missed left edge of the plate by probably 4". Reviewing video elevation looked good. Position was front rest on pack and hand under butt stock on ground. Was again a downhill sloping prone (slightly awkward but better than last time).

This challenge has been a good learning experience because honestly I felt reasonably confident I'd be able to hit both shots in the 500 range. I don't normally shoot/practice in this type of broken terrain though and it's decently proven to be more difficult than the flat (still windy) spot I normally go. It's also a good excuse to combine some heavy pack training and shooting. Will be looking to do better next year for sure!

 

[BjornF16]

Declared MER: 775 yards (increase of 100 yards from last year's Cold Bore Challenge)

Equipment:
Blaser R8 Jäger 6XC
108 ELD-M in Norma Brass (2856 fps)
NF NX8 4-32x50
TriggerCam
Omega 300
HPG Umlindi backpack with Eberlestock shooting rest (3 oz)
Shoot2Hunt Jellyfish rear bag
Kestrel 5700 AB
Leica Geovid Pro 8x32

Video editing with iMovie on iMac


Setup Pics:






Summary:
Day 1 (10 June) - Hit!
Day 2 (14 June) - Hit!
Day 3 (21 June) - Miss
Day 4 (28 June) - Miss

Day 1: 575 yards (10 June 2024)
Warm 82º, DA 2460', 82% RH, Light winds

Day 2: 575 yards (14 June 2024)
Warm 77°, DA 2037’, 75% RH, Winds 3-5 mph @ 9 o’clock (I was a dumba$$ and forgot to check TriggerCam battery)

Day 3: 775 yards (21 June 2024)
Warm 84º, DA 2350', RH 70%, Winds 5-7 mph @ 9 o'clock (I misread winds; where I was shooting from was protected and felt very light wind; I failed to read the wind all the way down to target):

Day 4: 775 yards (28 June 2024)
Warm 83°, DA 2665’, RH 78%, winds variable 3-9 mph @ 10 o’clock. Once again, I misread winds and this time applied too much windage. Spotted impact, re-adjusted and sent another round for a 5th shot hit.

 

[Nine Banger]

Declared MER: 585 yards

I consider my effective range 500 yards. Setting up this target at my place was a chore. I'm on the very north end of my property in the ag section shooting over the fields, thru an old homesite and into a dark maritime forest.

My target is a 10" 5-to-go Steel Challenge plate hanging on a t-post. I tried white paint in my planning phase but it was a gray blur when I went to shoot it so I painted it pink.



Rifle:
- DTA SRS-A2 w/ 6.5 Creedmoor factory 18" barrel
- Griffin Armament Sportsman 300 w/ Armageddon Gear mirage cover
- Nightforce ATACR 4-16x42 Mil-C

Ammo:
- factory loaded Hornady 147gr ELD M

Spotter:
- gen 1 vortex razor
- burris mil reticle
- 19.99 "amazon's choice" digiscoping bracket
- iphone 11promax

Other Kit:
- cross tac mat
- mollinator
- jellyfish
- exo k4 pack
- revic rangefinding binos
- kestrel 5000

Video of Shot 1:

So I declared 585 to push myself but the gimmies seem to turn to uncertainty between 500-600 for me. I need to work on my ballistics and fundamentals. I'm also considering a lighter bullet like 130gr TMK for less drop.

Shot 2:

 

[robby denning]

-270 WSM CA Summit Ti (her 10th season, possibly last if Ryan gets me my 6UM—no pressure brother)
-Swarovski, Z5 3–18 X, hash marks only
-Red Kettle QR sling Set-up
(Set-up weighs about 7lb 11oz)
-Berger bullet classic hunter 140 grains 66.9 g RL 26 3249 fps (Unknown Munitions load)
-Shooting prone off of Nimrod daypack, Small Phoenix shooting bag in the rear

500 MER

Day 1: wind 1/4 in to target at 5-10mph, held half wind hash mark into the wind

(Sucks to be me, at least I got the wind call, really hoping Billy Goat doesn’t find this)

Day 2: wind 1/4 in to target at 5mph, but held 1/4 wind hash mark into the wind (half of Day 1 hold)

@Ryan Avery where’s your post? lol.