2024 Cold Bow Challenge

[Hank]

User Name : Hank

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : Satori with black max 2.0 limbs

Sight Brand : 3 fingers under, point aim

BH Brand : VPA 125 grain

MER : 20 yards vital area of mini moose

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

Day 1: Sunny and calm 55 degrees



Day 2: Sunny and calm, 58 degrees



Day 3: Sunny and calm, 52 degrees

 

[darrenk75b]

User Name : darrenk75b

Bow Brand : PSE

Bow Model : Levitate

Sight Brand : Axcel Landslyde 2p vertical (ranger pic)

BH Brand : Iron Will 100g dbl bevel

MER : 45 yards

Hit (X/3) : 1/3

Vital zone is the larger neon green target in the middle of the SEVR target.

Pull weight is roughly 61#, 28" draw. Shooting a BE Spartan with standard nock collar and insert, 350 spine. 4-fletch with Q2i 2.3" Griff-X vanes. 404 grains TAW, 279 fps.

Day 1: Hit (barely) at 11:30. You can see where the broadhead sliced the painted zone.
A nice northern CA valley day - sunny and warm. 80 degrees. Calm winds.



Day 2: Miss. Got on the button before I was actually well anchored.

Weather - 85 degrees with a slight breeze in my face.



Day 3: Miss. Realized I incorrectly adjusted my sight from day 1. Low, just like Day 2.

Sunny and hot, 93 degrees with a 5mph wind at my back.

 

[Timberline001]

User Name : timberline001

Bow Brand : Bowtech

Bow Model : ss34

Sight Brand : HHA

BH Brand : QUAD

MER : 50 yards

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

Vital zone is the 8 inch square to represent mule deer vitals.

Day 1: Shot felt great but I could see the arrow helicopter bad. I struggled with this during tuning and is why I ended up with a 50 yard MER. I’ll probably go back to 1 inch slick tricks after this. Sunny and 75 with no wind during shot.


Day 2: no wind 60 and cloudy. Shot was perfect and arrow flew straight. Looking like my broadheads arnt tuned to my field point as well as I thought. I’ll aim a little high the last shot.




Day 3: Shot felt good again. No wind 60 degrees and cloudy. Learned a lot about broadhead tuning a bigger broadhead this year. For the distances in shoot I think I’ll stick with my small 1 inch slick tricks.

 

[Wolf13]

User Name : wolf13

Bow Brand : APA

Bow Model : Black Mamba Pro

Sight Brand : Option Archery Canyon Pounder

BH Brand : Evolution Hyde Turkey 175gr

MER : 35 yds

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

Surgery has kept me from practicing the last month or so and pretty difficult to pull back and hold right now. Still going for turkeys so the 3” dot is the target size. Using black eagle x-impact arrows with ezvanes, total weight is 434 grains.

Day 1: slight wind right to left. Since I’m not shooting far, going for a 45 second hold. Wrist is feeling it, and probably torqueing the bow a little


Day 2: zero wind, held for 45 seconds, punched the thumb and not my best follow through. Did this before physical therapy unlike the first shot, probably explains how it’s the better shot with my wrist not being sore/tired.



Day 3:
Everything that can feel wrong, did feel wrong. Did this within 15 min of waking up after my wrist is at its worst from being immobilized for the night. Draw itself felt a little off, and then I kept wanting to drop my arm as I was holding. That pushed me to rush and the arm completely dropped once the shot fired. Release hand wasn’t bad and I pulled through, but the result was not ideal. Miss. May result in a dead turkey, but not pleased with the entire shot sequence. Should have let down and restarted.



Had a great time doing this. All shots went to the right, so will hit the range and adjust accordingly. Me or the bow, probably is me as it’s been hard to get a consistent grip. I wanted to use this as a chance to see if I could hunt responsibly with the wrist. Based on the shots I can, but I am going to need a pretty ideal situation in terms of holding and a large window to draw back. Thanks for putting this on, love the idea of broad heads only as they are the ones that matter…

 

[BunnyThumper]

User Name : BunnyThumper

Bow Brand : Diamond

Bow Model : Infinite Edge

Sight Brand : Trophy Ridge

BH Brand : SEVR 125gr

MER : 40

Hit (X/3) : 3/3

Arrow weight is right around 480, draw weight is 45#. The target is the vital zone insert. My dad, @TheCougar told me to shoot at 30, so I’m shooting at 40.

I went 3/3 on this challenge, at a new record range. My dad told me to shoot at 30, but I shot at 40.

First shot: I think it was a good shot. My sight might be off a little. It was a nice day, no wind.



Day 2: calm and clear skies. I’ve been trying not to punch the trigger. I’m shooting a lot better. Almost the exact same spot. I still think my sight is off.



Day 3: I finished with my best shot! Calm again. Finally not raining.

 

[TripleJ]

User Name : TripleJ

Bow Brand : Bowtech

Bow Model : RealmX

Sight Brand : Option 8

BH Brand : Sevr 1.5" 100 gr

MER : 50 yds

Hit (X/3) : 3/3

Draw weight is 70#. I'm shooting Easton Axis 5mm in a 300 spine with an Iron Will 25 grain footer. TAW is 463.






Day 1: Calm, slight breeze
Vital area is front square of target face
Shot broke clean





Day 2. Sunny and breezy. Breeze left to right. Shot felt good and broke clean.




Day 3. Calm, no wind. Shot felt great and broke clean, best one of the 3.

 

[Archerichards]

Been looking forward to posting in the 2024 Cold Bow Challenge and hoping not too late. Did this two years ago at fifty yards standing upright, but thought I’d add some realism this year and shoot from my tree saddle at 30 yds with fixed blade B’heads. Stacking my pics below.

User Name : Archerichards. Age 65. Charlotte NC

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : VTM34 31” draw and ~60lbs

Sight Brand : Black Gold Rush

BH Brand : RMS Cutthroat 125 gr 3-Blade Fixed Head BH

MER : 30 yards from a Tree Saddle. 7” target spot.

Hit (X/3) : 3 out of 3

I’ll take em. Shooting from the saddle brings its own steadiness challenges. Even with front weight and without wind, my pin is wandering/floating all over the place. Something to work on, for sure. Maybe I should have stretched it out another five or ten yards?

Happy you guys are running this little challenge to keep us in the game in the springtime. Good job!

 

[Lucasraymond]

User Name : LucasRaymond

Bow Brand : Mathews

Bow Model : Lift 29 (30" @71.0lbs)

Sight Brand : HHA Tetra with UV3XL 3 pin

BH Brand : Sevr 125g 2”, MAMBA ARCHERY NGULUBE 250, 484gr

MER : 50 yds

Hit (X/3) : 1/3

Day 1: 55 deg, ~15 deg uphill shot, Light breeze (1-3mph) coming from 2 o’ clock from DOF, shot felt good
Day 2: 63 deg, wind minimal but light rain, shot broke great
Day 3: 58 deg, no wind, shot process and break we good.

 

[Dennis]

User Name : Dennis

Bow Brand : Mathews

Bow Model : Lift 33

Sight Brand : EZ-V

BH Brand : Tuffhead

MER : 50 yards

Hit (X/3) : (2/3) Day One 71 degrees 9 mph wind

Day 2 45 degrees 4 mph wind


Day 3 56 degrees 4 mph wind


Shot at distance




Arrow, Victory RIP TKO 250 spine, 300 grain Tuffhead, Super Saber Vanes, total weight 655 grains

 

[stan_wa]

User Name : STAN_WA

Bow Brand : Bow tech

Bow Model : revolt X-80

Sight Brand : tetra-optomizer lite

BH Brand : iron will Single bevel

MER : 80 yards / piece of paper

Hit (2/3) : hit

arrows Easton axis 260 spline 4mm long range match grade, 3 fletch with Iron Will Hybrid Hunter vanes., 185 gn up front 519 grains total weight @290 FPS. I just got back from Idaho spring bear hunt and saw the challenge was almost full, Im not nealy as sighted in as i want to be, i have only shot 3 broad head arrows out of this set up, but was running out of time so here we go.

shooting 80 yards at a -15 degree slope, 80 is the max my sight goes and the max i can shoot in the green belt by the house so it seemed fitting.


Day 1- barley snuck it in- little to no wind, shot felt like i had a lot of wobble in the sight, tried to mentaly block out the wobble and pull smooth.

Day two very little wind after 12 hours at work maybe hitting the target day 1 wasn’t just dumb luck on the first day ha ha! Cause today I earned it with a Center punch.
Day 3/ a close miss


Day 4 just for fun because I needed some
Redemption was a clean hit

Lesson learned get your sight set to a perfect zero just like the rifle

 

[lundellhunting7]

User Name : lundellhunting7

Bow Brand : Mathews

Bow Model : Lift 33

Sight Brand : Spot Hogg Fast Eddie Two pin

BH Brand : SIK F4 100GR

MER : 65

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

30.5 DL, 76#, 495 Grain FMJ 5mm, 4 fletch AAE Hybrid 2.0, 28 3/8 arrow length, shooting 285 FPS


Day 1 Random gusts were coming in from left to right at. Hit just a hair right from center.





Day 2 perfect weather! Hit just a hair low from center

Day 3 well….. perfect morning no wind at all. But shot a hair low.

 

[19hunt92]

User Name : 19hunt92

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : Defiant Turbo 60 lb

Sight Brand : Spott Hogg Hogg-it 5 pin

BH Brand : Sevr 1.5 100 grn

MER : 40 yds

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

Changing it up this year, going for a small target at 40 yds. Arrows are gold tip pro hunters with 125 grns in the insert with a 100 gr broadhead. Lighted nocks, generic Amazon special. Shooting from the driveway into the yard





Turkey target, kill is in the 2.5” ring for a “10”


Day 1: slight wind from right to left, sun going down quick, 18 month old running to grab my leg rushed the shot process but still pulled it off. Pretty good without shooting since early January


Day 2: getting dark on me but no wind and clear. Had a clean break on release and it shows


Day3: had rain in the morning and couldn’t shoot to finish things off but once it cleared we had a slight right to left wind and sunny. Thought it felt good on release but finished a bit high

 

[feanor]

User Name :Feanor

Bow Brand :Mathews

Bow Model :V3X 33

Sight Brand :Sword Sight Juror Pro

BH Brand :Magnus Stinger 100gr.

MER :50 Yeeeerds

Hit (X/3) :3/3

Kill area large yellow circle .Calm conditions. About what I expect to hit normally. Slight coffee jitters.

29” DL 70 lbs with 3 year old zebra strings (gasp). 3 fletch blaser. Scheels arrows which are rebranded victory of some kind.

Day 1 calm




Day 2 calm


Day 3 slight breeze

 

[gethuntin]

User Name : gethuntin

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : Alphamax 32

Sight Brand : Dpott Hogg

BH Brand : sevr

MER : 50

Hit (X/3) :1/1

Target is 8x8 paper so if I hit paper it's a kill shot on a deer, inside the rings even better.

Day 1
Sunny and 82 right to left breeze.. I'll take it.
Day 2 (5-21) Sunny and 70 15 mph headwind.

Day 3 (5/22) Thought i posted it but i must not have. Another nice 75 degree day with a 10 mph breeze left to right.

 

[bz_711]

User Name : bz_711

Bow Brand : PSE

Bow Model : Evoke LT

Sight Brand : PSE micro with 7 pins

BH Brand : Carbon Express Torrid SS 100gr

MER : 50yds

Hit (X/3) : 3/3

Day 1:
76 degrees, calm...shot felt good as I haven't shot past 30yds since last fall. Orange is 3", Brown is approx 8". Happy with shot. I did notice I can hear the slight blades sticking out making a soft hissing nose in flight...


Day 2:
Warm and humid, 85 degrees, variable wind in face 5-10mph. Pin floating a little more than usual... pulled left a bit on shot... still just in "vital circle"


Day 3: 75 degrees slight breeze in face. Shot felt good.

 

[JDZ]

User Name :JDZ

Bow Brand : Bowtech

Bow Model : Solution

Sight Brand : Black Gold

BH Brand : Iron Will

MER : 60 yards

Hit (X/3) : 1/3

63 lbs draw weight, 28-1/4” draw length, Black Eagle X-impact .350 arrows, 100 gr Iron Will with 80 gr FOCOS, 420 gr total. Hamskea Trinity rest, Conquest stabilizers. 27-year-old Scott Little Bitty Goose release aide.

Intended game is deer. Center ring of the Sevr target is approx 9” circle.

Day 1:

Cloudy, 70F, calm. Haven’t shot in a few days. I felt I made a good shot.

Day 2:

Clear, 85F, Wind 5-10 from left to right. Maybe rushed the shot a bit. Hit low.

Day 3:

Clear, nearly sunset, 85F, Wind 10-15 from right to left. Shot felt good. Just outside kill zone though. Might need to practice a little bit to truly make 60 yards my maximum effective range.

Thanks again to the Rokslide staff and sponsors for making this happen. I really look forward to this each year.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

User Name : ResearchinStuff

Bow Brand : PSE

Bow Model : Mach1

Sight Brand : Spot Hogg Tommie Hogg 5 pin

BH Brand : QAD Exodus 100 gr full

MER : 40 yards

3/3

Arrows are rip TKO, total weight 435 gr.

I'm jumping back in afer flubbing and deleting my attempts at 65 - i'd been shooting predominantly field points prior to the challenge, with just a bit of broadhead shooting to verify tune. Turns out, tune was good, but broadhead groups are running noticeably larger than field point - so my 80% hit rate at 65 yards with field points was more like a 20% hit rate with the fixed blades. Reshooting the challenge at my new fixed blade limit of 40 yards.

Day 1: zero wind, overcast, did a 30 minute yard hike with 60# pack, bino harness on, bow in hand. Took the shot at minute 30


Day 2, squeezing in a shot before the deluge. 40 yards, downhill quartering away angle, standing on a side hill with my toes above my heels. Perfection.


Day 3
50# pack, opposite side hill, toes below heels, hit about an inch lower than I aimed, but still in

 

[sfeuerborn]

User Name : sfeuerborn
Bow Brand : Matthew's
Bow Model :v3x 31
Sight Brand Trophy ridge trio
BH BranD annihilator 125xl
MER :67 yrd
Hit (X/3) :1/3

Given that my target species is elk and my target is 1/3 I think all shots would be deadly and I'm not counting them because they're not giving me the warm fuzzies where they did hit

28" draw, 75# mods, 520 TAW platinum pierce w ethics inserts, sk2 vanes and lighted nocks.

Shot is about 22 degrees uphill and is probably a bit longer than I'd take on an animal but fun to see what is possible.

 

[KBC]

User Name : KBC

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : Axius Ultra

Sight Brand : Black Gold

BH Brand : Ironwill V125

MER : 50

Hit (X/3) : 2/3

Haven’t shot in almost 4 weeks due to work travel, haven’t shot a broadhead since last archery season. Looking to hit inside the 4 dots on the corners for elk vital size. Its about 10” to 11” square.

Shot 1: humble pie
Day 2: Made it home a little early so I took this shot a day sooner than I thought I would. In the kill zone!
Day 3: In the kill zone again. Nice to comeback with a couple good ones after sucking on the first day.
Thanks for putting this on!

 

[huntian]

User Name : huntian

Bow Brand : Hoyt

Bow Model : RX-7 Ultra

Sight Brand : Spot Hogg Hogg Father 2 pin

BH Brand : Sevr 100 GR titanium 2"

MER : 65 yards Hit (X/3): 2/3

Kill area will be the foam insert. Arrows are Black Eagle X-impact. Total arrow weight ~587 grains. Bow has a GAS strings. 80#, 31" draw.

Shot 1: Hit. Calm. Almost no wind. ~50 deg. Shot around 7:30am. Shadows are bad that time of morning.

Shot 2: Bad news. I'm sure a lot of you had me going all three arrows in the zone so I have to say...this one's on me. I got in my head. There I was drawing back, worried about all the wrong things. Why am I shooting a doe with my bow? Why didn't I sip my White Monster before shooting? Am I finally going to earn Robby's respect? Is 80# too much? Is 80# enough? This doe has taken a beating and she's still standing. Maybe I should be shooting with my rifle?? I was already swimming laps in my head by shot 2. 100m freestyle in my own head.

The next thing I knew, the shot broke. Let me clarify. I punched the trigger harder than a redneck drinking white monsters headed home to his significant other to throw hands.

And here we are. This one's on me boys. I'm low and right. Am I technically in the "8" ring of the target? Yes. Did I already make the comment it would be the foam insert? Unfortunately. Bad day. Most guys would consider this a low heart shot, but not me. Not on this doe. I can do better. I'll take this L and be back better tomorrow with Heaven's help on the sabbath [insert praying hands emoji here]. Blessings.

Shot 3: Back with vengeance. Shot in the evening. Slight wind. I'm convinced it was from the Heavens, pushing my arrow to the kill zone. It felt more right when I released, but as you can see, someone up above was helping guide my arrow.
Even added the kill shot. Antlers are so big they don't fit in the frame. Let this be a lesson to all of you. It's not about how big the buck is. It's about how long your arm is and how wide your camera lens is.

Thanks for hosting this Rokslide. But if I don't win something, I'll be disappointed. XoXo