2025 Cold Bore Challenge Q&A Thread

To move past 600 (if you decide on a MER thats farther than that) you have to hit both of the closer shots first.
I think I understood that part, but my question was more directed to inside 600 yds. Do both shots have to hit in order to count as a point? Or is just the fact that you shot at a target and filmed it good enough to earn the point? That feels disingenuous to the challenge but I didn't find it in the rules. Thanks for the reply
 
I think I understood that part, but my question was more directed to inside 600 yds. Do both shots have to hit in order to count as a point? Or is just the fact that you shot at a target and filmed it good enough to earn the point? That feels disingenuous to the challenge but I didn't find it in the rules. Thanks for the reply
Hitting or missing makes no difference.

The point of the challenge is for each of us to learn something about our limits and to have a realistic understanding of our capabilities.
 
And the "video of shots hitting target" part means your video needs to be a view of the target (hit or miss), not just a video of you shooting.
Clarification would be helpful there.

Last year I had someone video me shooting. I can use a digiscope setup this time if that’s required. It Just doesn’t show the position or anything like that.

I’m in either way 👍
 
Clarification would be helpful there.

Last year I had someone video me shooting. I can use a digiscope setup this time if that’s required. It Just doesn’t show the position or anything like that.

I’m in either way 👍
Just for clarity, I'm not the authority on this, I was just stating my understanding of the rules (I've participated and followed this closely every year it's been done). Hit or miss, you get your point for participating, but your video must show hit or miss on target and not just the shooter.

I really like seeing where people are shooting from, so I like including photos of the position before putting the phone on the spotter.
 
Just for clarity, I'm not the authority on this, I was just stating my understanding of the rules (I've participated and followed this closely every year it's been done). Hit or miss, you get your point for participating, but your video must show hit or miss on target and not just the shooter.

I really like seeing where people are shooting from, so I like including photos of the position before putting the phone on the spotter.
You're exactly correct in what we want to see.

I'll update the rules to make it more straightforward.
 
I would just like to pre-empt the post-game armchair statistics micro-analysis.
This directly from the “rules”:
2) Call the range you think is your REALISTIC maximum effective range (MER). You must shoot your personal MER, so if it’s 600 yards, you can’t shoot 100 yards because that's all you have at your range!
Minimum range for this challenge will be 400 yards. Push yourself a bit and make an effort--that's the spirit of the challenge.
So if we are “pushing ourselves and making an effort”, that means people are specifically making shots they would NOT attempt at game—either due to distance, position, conditions, or all the above. Hence we cannot extrapolate the hit/miss ratio results from this challenge to how people actually hunt.
 
I would just like to pre-empt the post-game armchair statistics micro-analysis.
This directly from the “rules”:

So if we are “pushing ourselves and making an effort”, that means people are specifically making shots they would NOT attempt at game—either due to distance, position, conditions, or all the above. Hence we cannot extrapolate the hit/miss ratio results from this challenge to how people actually hunt.
Ive wondered about this contradiction myself.. but I know how hard it is to stop myself from pulling the trigger when I have the opportunity I want but it's just 50 or 100 yards farther than I really would like.. and the less experienced me in the past wouldnt pass those oppurtunities.. so it's probly more realistic than we want to admit to push ourselves a bit past what we think
 
Quick rules clarification question (shouldn't matter much since as of now we don't have the "first 10 submissions" bonus this year like 2023, especially for those of us who don't have cell signal where we are shooting), but in the past there has been some confusion about start time.

Trigger press must happen after 6:00 MDT? Or shoot any time Sat morning and thread opens for posting at 6:00? Either way doesn't matter to me, I'll probably be shooting after 6:00 regardless. But I bet some of our eastern guys would like to shoot before 8:00 local.
 
I would just like to pre-empt the post-game armchair statistics micro-analysis.
This directly from the “rules”:

So if we are “pushing ourselves and making an effort”, that means people are specifically making shots they would NOT attempt at game—either due to distance, position, conditions, or all the above. Hence we cannot extrapolate the hit/miss ratio results from this challenge to how people actually hunt.
I agree. But personally I feel the vital zone of a mature deer that I would be targeting is a bit more forgiving than a 10" circle.
 
@The grunt well...perhaps. But I disagree. Here we have a minimum range with the urging from organizers to "push ourself" at or beyond our "MAXIMUM effective range". And zero consequences for missing, except possibly missing out on an additional drawing entry. All the incentives are pointing toward shooting beyond where you know you have a very high odds of a vital hit. Yet, we have people trying to take the statistical success rate from the challenge, and use that to quantify the actual hit rates of people hunting...where at least many (most??) people consider the consequences of a wound, try to get closer rather than maxmise shot distance, etc. I fully support the premise of this challenge, I think even if people miss it is eye-opening--which I think is the purpose. BUT I think it's flat-out ridiculous to try to use the results of this challenge to attempt to quantify large-scale hit-rates while actually hunting. Even given that the shoot/dont shoot decision is hard in the moment sometimes, It's just not a valid comparison enough to assign numbers to real-life wounding rates--which is exactly how a few folks have tried to use this--based on this challenge.
 
Just for clarity, I'm not the authority on this, I was just stating my understanding of the rules (I've participated and followed this closely every year it's been done). Hit or miss, you get your point for participating, but your video must show hit or miss on target and not just the shooter.

I really like seeing where people are shooting from, so I like including photos of the position before putting the phone on the spotter.
I took videos before and after shots last year. Showing/discussing position/wind/ etc and then a video walking up to target.

I think this year my plan is to go with your route. Snap a photo of the shooting position. Video of the shot zoomed in on target, and then photo of target after.

For fun, I’m gonna try and use my Revics with a phoneskope and then hit the range button on the binos, so the yardage pops up during the video. We shall see if this works.
 
Hey guys, in the Cold Bow, the main reason we say "push yourself" is because early on, people would try to enter with a short shot (like 25 yards with a compound) to either 1) save the embarrassment of missing at further yardages (that they'll hunt at anyways) or because they don't have an easy place to shoot farther. That's all.

If we don't say push it, some will just play it safe in Cold Bore and shoot the 400 yards to get in the drawing. That's not the spirit of either challenge.

If everyone scored 100%, I'd suspect they're playing it safer on the range than they actually would on mountain. In Cold Bow, I've personally shrank my MER from 70 to 60 over the years. If I'd just shot 50 all those years, I'd be 100% (probably) but what would I have learned?

Don't overthink it. It's just one exercise of many to establish a realistic MER.

Thanks!
 
@The grunt well...perhaps. But I disagree. Here we have a minimum range with the urging from organizers to "push ourself" at or beyond our "MAXIMUM effective range". And zero consequences for missing, except possibly missing out on an additional drawing entry. All the incentives are pointing toward shooting beyond where you know you have a very high odds of a vital hit. Yet, we have people trying to take the statistical success rate from the challenge, and use that to quantify the actual hit rates of people hunting...where at least many (most??) people consider the consequences of a wound, try to get closer rather than maxmise shot distance, etc. I fully support the premise of this challenge, I think even if people miss it is eye-opening--which I think is the purpose. BUT I think it's flat-out ridiculous to try to use the results of this challenge to attempt to quantify large-scale hit-rates while actually hunting. Even given that the shoot/dont shoot decision is hard in the moment sometimes, It's just not a valid comparison enough to assign numbers to real-life wounding rates--which is exactly how a few folks have tried to use this--based on this challenge.
Ya I agree with that I was misunderstanding a bit what you were saying.. Im wanting to do the challenge. I know the distance and the position I am going to do, and i feel like it is pushing my limits pretty hard so I've wondered what happens if I hit both shots am I going to actually take that shot then on a deer? Honestly even if I go two for two it would make me uncomfortable, it's only two shots done at the same spot
 
I've been accused of overthinking before🤢
all good my man, that's what this QnA thread is for.

looking forward to Saturday!

although my Rokstock/Tikka/6UM/Suppressor is still under the waiting period so not sure I'll be in early in the challenge or later. I can't win anything but it's fun and educational to shoot.

Did 450 the first year with the CA 270WSM, nailed both shots. Moved to 500 last year and dropped one.
 
I would just like to pre-empt the post-game armchair statistics micro-analysis.
This directly from the “rules”:

So if we are “pushing ourselves and making an effort”, that means people are specifically making shots they would NOT attempt at game—either due to distance, position, conditions, or all the above. Hence we cannot extrapolate the hit/miss ratio results from this challenge to how people actually hunt.
Lighten up, it’s just a bit of cardboard
 
Lighten up, it’s just a bit of cardboard
I see what you did there, ie thats exactly the point. Truthfully it’s a just a bit of lighthearted pot-stirring aimed at the next time someone says “long range hunters miss 50% of the shots they take…see, I micro-analyzed the entries from the cbc on this chart and this proves it”.
 
Man, you guys could mess up a nocturnal emission.

Just get out there, shoot and have a little fun. It's all a gentlemen's agreement / honor system game designed to get people out to the range and have it little fun along the way. Robby having a great relationship with his sponsors makes it more gooooder but let's not overthink it.

Test yourself, stretch you limits, learn something and HAVE FUN!
 
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