2026 Cold Bore Challenge

[JohnB]

Rifle: Tikka T3x .270win RS1.2 scope, Sports match rings
Spotter: Swaro STM65 with Ollin phonescope
MER: 450 yards, but may push it a bit further on the second shot or shoot sitting off sticks.

Day 1: HIT
Shot: Prone off of pack for rear rest & LSWild for a front bag off of a convenient rock.
Distance: 450 yards.
Wind: None
Position photo:

Pretty easy shot all in all, maybe .2 or .3 mil wobble and I probably could have build my position a bit better but kind of half assed it like I would hunting.

Result: Hit! These custom plywood targets don't give much of an obvious sign of being hit. I was convinced I missed until I got within 5 yards of the target!
Video:

Target photo:

Day 2: MISS
Distance 480 yards
Shot from prone over my pack.
Video:

I was absolutely getting lit up by mosquitos and felt good about my shot, then after I missed realized I completely forgot to hold for wind. I shot 3 more real quick afterwards holding my best guess and went 1/3 of those. I was shooting diagonally across a drainage so think my call was bad but it likely comes back to sucking at shooting long distance in wind & the damn bugs.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

MER: 550 yards
Rifle: Tikka T3X, 6CM, 22" Ace Barrel, Rokstok, RS1.2 in UM Rings, OG Can

Day 1 - 06/12/26 at 8:12 PM - Shot prone off pack with Molinator and puffy rear rest. Miss. DOPE was 2.8 U and 0.4 L.

Even with the benefit of reading the wind while painting the target I couldn't call it correctly. Plugged 5mph from 270* into the Revic. Very tricky in this canyon. Usually left to right even when it seems dead calm. It was nothing to about ~6mph on the Kestrel at target and shooting position but with gusts I didn't read. Direction inconsistent. I wasn't confident in holding the "full value" wind hold so I essentially split the 10" circle with the dot and 0.5 hash. Should have held at least 0.5 at center.

Didn't love the built position either. Puffy wouldn't compress enough so I think I may have forced it a bit which, combined with the bad wind call and aiming error probably contributed to the miss. I left the jellyfish bag at home that I usually have for rear rest because H had the molinator and don't typically carry two bags.

Day 2 - 06/12/26 at 5:52 AM - Shot prone off Spartan bipod with a different puffy rear rest. Hit. DOPE was 2.8 U and 0.2 L.

No wind detectable wind this morning, but I still held on the left edge of target. Might actually have been no wind. Also held a bit low since my shot yesterday looked a tad high. POA and POI were pretty much the same.

Lessons learned

• Trust the dang kestrel and hold the real wind call.
• Practice more off pack and try to identify MER's for different positions.
• Decide on whether I'm going to carry the Molinator, Jellyfish, or both. Stick with it and practice with that setup. Too much fiddling with gear...
• I'm still way more comfortable/confident with the bipod than off pack. I have the cheapo twist adjust Spartan and wanted to upgrade before deciding I would try to shoot off pack more. I will probably look again at upgrading it.
• I suck at shooting (still).

Thanks to Justin, the other mods who help run this, and all the sponsors! My heart always races a little more when I know I'm filming a shot to upload for all the great shooters here to see. It's a great challenge, wish it was more than once a year!

 

[TheCougar]

Going for a 670 MER from a seated position, tripod in the front and trekking poles in the rear.

Rifle:
7mm Tikka, 162 Precision Hunter, Rokstok, Scythe Ti, Bushnell LRHS, UM rings, chopped barrel. Using some CostCo trekking poles with the Quik Stix adaptor from Wiser, I think.

Final total: 3/4 (H-H-H-M)

Day 1 qualifying shot: HIT. Full Disclosure, this target is at 545. There are no targets between the 545 and 670, based on how they have the range set up. So it’s qualify at 545 and then bump out to 670, or don’t qualify at all. It was… windy. It seems like every day I go out to shoot, it’s super windy lately. I keep getting my clock cleaned. I do have the benefit of using the range routinely, and there are other shooters, so I have a decent idea of what the wind is doing, after getting my ass kicked all winter and spring. At the shooting position, I had a near direct crosswind of 10G20. It’s supposed to be like this all weekend, too. Yaaaay.

Day 2: Hit… barely. Judging by the spin of the plate, it was a 2 o’clock hit near the edge. Can’t see the impact because it’s so dang windy again. Crosswind was 12G20 from about 4 o clock. Like the first shot, this qualifying target is a little inside the criteria: 542 yards. It’s what is available at my range.

Day 3: HIT. I honestly wasn’t sure when the shot broke if I hit it, so I was glad for the downrange report. Finally no wind! Well, not much wind. It was 1-3mph at 4:30 or so. The originally 670 target I was going to shoot got clobbered by a falling tree in a previous wind storm, so I had to use the next closest target at 615yds, which they set up as a replacement target. I decided to update my MER criteria to seated trekking pole front support and a backpack support in the rear. Holy crap, that was so much harder. I tried multiple ways to stabilize the rifle, and I was getting 1.5-2 MOA wobble. For the most part, I could keep it on the plate, but this was definitely harder than my original plan of 670 with a tripod front support and trekking pole rear support. Plus I absolutely could not spot my shot and it took me a sec to reacquire the target. The is certainly room for improvement.

Day 4: MISS at 615 yards. Calm winds, little to no hold. Again going with the trekking pole from support and backpack for a rear support while seated. Still having 1.5MOA wobble. In retrospect, I think I need to focus more on frame to ground to rifle support to get the wobble down.

 

[MissScarlett]

This is my @TheCougar ’s daughter. She is going for a 550 MER from a seated position, tripod in the front and trekking poles in the rear.

Rifle:
7mm Tikka, 162 Precision Hunter, Rokstok, Scythe Ti, Bushnell LRHS, UM rings, chopped barrel. Using some CostCo trekking poles with the Quik Stix adaptor from Wiser, I think.

Final Total: 2/2 H-H
Day 1 qualifying shot: 545 yards, HIT. At the shooting position, it was a near direct crosswind of 10G20. She is not fast a setup, so we are trying a lot of getting the tripod and trekking poles set as quickly as possible. She has a Wyoming elk hunt this year.

Day 2: 542 yards, HIT. Dead center. I was coaching her to wait for a “break” in the wind at the shooting position. Wind was 4 o’clock at 12G20 at the shooting position.

I think I might try to have her call these qualifying shots and try for 600+. Nope. Ran out of time. She’s going to stick with her sub-600 MER. I changed it up and had her work on tougher shooting positions that she is likely to face in the field.

 

[oregonoutdoors]

My other rifles are all under work, load development ect so im using my 7mm rem mag as its my only fully dialed in rifle at this time. Trying for a MER of 850.

Gear: tikka superlite 7mm rem, Leupold VX6 3-18 ( my last one), sythe ti supressor, 1st Gen rugged ridge bipod, bino harness for a rear bag.
Berger 175EH, RL 23, CCI mag primers, neck sized gunwerks brass= 3000fps

Day 1 hit @ 600. Wind 4-6mph @ 11oclock. Held a half minute for wind.

Shot #2 same range, 2-3mph wind @ 11oclock, held edge of plate. Took my kids out shooting on father's day. My daughter on a T1X .17hmr and my son on a tikka .243.

 

[pbroski]

I'm setting my MER at 450 yards this year and am shooting seated, supported with sticks in front and a pack in rear. In my hunting area it's hard to get a shot from prone because of vegetation, so I primarily use the sitting position.

The rifle is my custom Kimber Adirondack .22 ARC with an NXS 2.5-10x42 m-rad scope, shooting 80 gr. eld-m handloads with Varget powder and Lapua brass. The velocity is about 2840 fps from the 21" barrel. The first shot is from 460 yards with about a 2mph wind from 10:00.

For my next shot, I'm going to stretch it out a bit. Probably over 500 yards.

The rifle is very light at 6 lbs. 2 oz. To see if I hit it the steel, watch the video, lol.



Stay tuned for shot 2. Probably will be posted the weekend coming up.

Shot 2 I stretched back to 588 yards. Same position - sitting with stick and pack. Wind was about 2-3 mph switching back and forth from 12:00 to 6:00.

 

[Big_wals]

Finally got out to shoot before work this morning. 500 yd mer, set my gong on a rock at 510.

Tikka 20” .243
109 ELDM @ 2950 fps
Gen 1 SWFA 3-15
AB A10 suppressor

Wind was pretty calm today, around 3 mph from 1 o’clock. Shot off my pack with bino harness and an ultralight LS Wild bag for a rear rest.

Day two in the books. Wind was 3-4mph from 10-11 o’clock, I just held left edge of plate. Looks like I could have held a bit more, but still a hit.

 

[YaakRiver]

First time participating. I was going to go for an MER of 624 yards but @Yukon Cornelius told me it was boring for all 4 shots to be at the same distance. So I did 2 qualifiers at 624 yards with impacts and my MER shots will be 715 yards from prone.

Environmentals (from home weather station) can be seen in all 4 videos and target measurement is in the first qualifying video and the first MER video. Front support is a Spartan Javelin Bipod and rear support is a Shoot2Hunt Molinator. Recorded the video through my Kowa TSN-55 with Kapture Gear digiscope adapter. Shooting hand loads with 116 TMKs at 2630 fps.

RIFLE INFO
- 6mm ARC built by @Unknown Munitions
- Tikka action
- 20” Ace Barrel
- @Unknown Suppressors OG65 prototype
- Rokstok
- Unknown Munitions rings
- Tikka factory trigger with Unknown Munitions trigger spring
- Maven RS1.2 scope
- Spartan Javelin Bipod

First qualifying shot 6/16/26 was an impact near left edge of plate.

Second qualifying shot 6/17/26 was an impact just left of center (target was repainted yesterday). It was a chilly 37° this morning and some mirage coming up off the field and pond.

This is my first MER shot at 715. Impact looks slightly high and slightly right of center.

This is my second MER shot at 715 yards. Impact was centered.

To the folks who are putting in the time and effort to organize and review the challenge, and to those who donated the prizes -- THANK YOU.

 

[AKmatt]

First time doing the CBC. Just starting to get into long range in the last year or so. In fact, of the dozens of animals I’ve been fortunate to take, not one has been over 200 yards. I’ve also never shot a target past 400. So with that

Going to go with a 500 yard MER

RIFLE:
Tikka 6.5 creed modified by @Unknown Munitions
Maven rs1.2
20” benchmark carbon barrel
Resilient Jolene S
MDT hnt 26 stock
Spartan bipod on the front with a stuff sack for rear support.
AMMO:
Handloads. 130TMK over a healthy amount of h4350. Producing an average muzzle velocity of 2910 with single digit SDs.

Like I said, I’ve never shot past 400. 62f partly cloudy minimal wind 3-5mph coming from 4 o’clock. Got behind the gun dialed elevation, leveled the bubble….breath….exhale…squeeeeeeeze. Hit. Trust your system.

FIRST SHOT: 529 yards

Second Shot: 555 yards. Hit.

Same position. Prone of bipod with stuff sack rear support. 65f, 2-3 mph coming straight from the rear.

 

[YukonCorneliusAurelius]

I’ll join. Rifle is a Tikka t3x with a 22” Proof prefit in 6 creedmoor. It’s in an AG Composites Visigoth stock. Maven RS 1.2 mil-shr reticle mounted with UM Tikka rings. Can is an US OG-L with a SRS OG-L brake. Shooting 109 eld-m hand loads at 2953 fps, Peterson SRP brass, Fed 205m primers, H4350 powder. I’ll be going for an MER of 750 yds.

Edit: shot from prone off of a Spartan Javelin bipod with a UM molinator rear bag.

First qualifier at 624 yds: hit

37°f, 93% humidity, 26.8 hg

Second qualifier at 624 yds: hit

3rd shot/1st at MER 750 yds:

I made a cardboard spray shield using a bowl I had in my kitchen that was ≈9.5”. I figured it didn’t need to be exact because I wouldn’t make an edge hit anyways, right? Right?

Damn, if it wasn’t close, but it just squeaks in. I made a stupid call based on previous shots early in the morning hitting high across a flat field. With this target being up at an angle, I should have known not to factor in the lift from the up draft off of the field .




4th shot/2nd at MER 750: Hit

Challenge complete with epic vapor trail all the way to the target! It was a fun challenge, and I definitely learned not to change dope based on a silly assumption. Now I can back to burning down my .223 trainer/main hunting rifle!

I’ll echo everyone else and say thanks to all the organizers and those who donated prizes. It really does encourage us to put up or shut up about our on demand max ranges and shows us what we know and what we don’t know. Thanks again guys!

 

[sndmn11]

500yd MER---> 2 hits
Weatherby Vanguard action
Stockys vg2
HS precision fluted barrel chambered in 30-06
Berger 180eh at ~2935fps
Unknown Reaper
Nightforce SHVf1
Timney


8" circle painted black for day 1

10-15mph wind from about 7 o'clock
Prone with LS wild triple S and squeeze bag.
2.2mil in elevation and about .25 in wind




Day 2, similar conditions as above; maybe more gusty but same wind hold. Hit

I did switch spinners to a true 8" after @KickinNDishin pointed this one out to me last time and saved me from needing to bring two paint colors.

 

[beerbucksducks]

I hope this works, my first attempt at posting video/youtube stuff.
I’m out of practice having a a 3 yr old and a 3 month old at home and rarely shooting. Typically I limit myself to 500 MER but I dropped down to 470 yards for this year because I haven’t been shooting and haven’t shot this gun since last summer. I set my target part way across a valley and shot from a switch back on a trail. A very similar shot to what I would see hunting whitetail here. Sorry for the video, it’s an Amazon special phone adapter on my leupold spotter and my phone keeps refocusing.
MER 470 yards
Gun: Christensen Ridgeline 6.5 CM
Load: Starline, RL 16, CCI 200, 139 Scenar
Scope: Burris Veracity 2-10
Can: SilencerCo Harvester Evo
Rest: Harris bipod and light rear bag
Shot 1 calm conditions grass barely moving. 80 degrees
No wind hold
Dialed 8.25 moa
10” plate is in the circled cottonwood
Hit

Shot 2: Miss
Calm morning no wind hold
My plate twisted on my ghetto tie wire job after the first shot. I missed just left, might have hit if I squared it up after yesterday’s hit, damn it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KickinNDishin]

500 yards at an 8" plate.

I have a 7-08, a Nightforce scope, a bravo stock, and an og suppressor.

Wind was 10mph from the 7 O'CLOCK.

2nd shot, didn't hold enough for wind.

 

[Nine Banger]

2026 Cold Bore Challenge
MER: 600 yards

Site Prep:
- had to prune a bit, and mow; we are entering wet season and our fields are choked with invasive warm season grasses and this target is in the jungle

- the target is an upgrade from last year…from this:



- to this:




It's hard to get distance here in the east. This shot is like Sniper Golf. Back by the big pine, over the hill, past the Cub Scout trailers, over the fields, between the bull thistle, over the ditch, into the timber, thru the clearing, into the jungle...nothing but steel.





Gear:







Shot 1:

Established MER: 490yds Sitting Supported (Established Cold Bore 2025…)

Challenge MER: Pushing it to 600yards for 2026

Shot 1 Date: 6/20

Shot 1 Time: 1015AM

Target: 10” stencil on gong

Target Distance: 600 yards

Wind Speed: 1-3mph

Wind Direction: 90 degrees

Shot Direction: 30 Degrees

Temp: 80F

DA: 1600 (real elevation 7 feet)

Rifle: Tikka T3x 16" 6mm Creedmoor…Minox ZP5…OG65…Rokstok…UM bolt handle…Sako 2 stage trigger

Ammo: Hornady 6.5mm Creedmoor brass, Whitemarsh Energetics primer, 112gr Barnes Match Burner 2.800, 2760fps...40gr h4350

Position: Seated Supported: sticks in front, Exo K4/Terratorn rear

Result: Miss…wobble zone appeared 10MOA, gut said hold left .3, stubbornly shot center…no wind at target and shooting position, but there was wind between...go with the gut

Shot 2:

Established MER: 490yds Sitting Supported (Established Cold Bore 2025…)

Challenge MER: Pushing it to 600yards for 2026

Shot 2 Date: 6/21

Shot 2 Time: 930am

Target: 10” round stencil on gong

Target Distance: 600yds

Wind Speed: 0-1

Wind Direction: 270 degrees

Shot Direction: 30 degrees

Temp: 87F

DA: (real elevation 7 feet) 2100

Rifle: Tikka T3x 16" 6mm Creedmoor…Minox ZP5…OG65…Rokstok…UM bolt handle…Sako 2 stage trigger

Ammo: Hornady 6.5mm Creedmoor brass, Whitemarsh Energetics primer, 112gr Barnes Match Burner 2.800, 2760fps, 40gr H4350

Position: sticks in front, Exo K4/Terratorn rear

Result: Miss... mirage was awful, and I think I may have been at 3.8 yesterday; something seemed different when I locked in at 3.7 today. I'll shoot this target for practice and see if I can reign this in or at least confirm that 600 yards is a bridge too far in this position.

 

[Sawyer1115]

Hi everyone, this is @eric1115 's son.

My MER for this challenge is 400 yards. I am shooting a Tikka .223 compact with a 16" barrel, Ultra 7 suppressor, and a SWFA 6x scope.

Ammo is a 77 grain BTHP with XBR powder that I helped load. It is the practice round we use before switching to TMK's for hunting.

Shot was prone using a backpack. Hit was near the top of the plate.

Day 2 I missed my shot, this was shot sitting with my gun on a tripod. The far left plate in the rack is the 10" that I was shooting at.

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

MER 440 yards as I have not been shooting too much lately.
Gun: Tikka T3x in 7mm Rem Mag
Rokstock, UM tikka rings, Nightforce SHV 4-14 f1
162 eldx

Shot 1
60 degrees with a cross wind at about 7 mph shooting across a valley/pond.

Day 2
55 degrees almost no wind shooting in the same location. After watching yesterday’s video and seeing I was high I adjusted .5 moa down.

 

[Stumpy208]

After being successful last year at 450 I decided to push myself a little bit this year and call my MER at 500 yards.

Howa mini
22 Arc 16" barrel
Dead Air Nomad TIXC
SWFA 3-15 gen 2
Hornady Precision Hunter 80 ELDX @2756 fps

I decided to paint my target with some of my tan paint to make it a little harder to find. It definitely added some difficulty trying to find it for the video haha.



Day 1: MISS
508 yards
It was 73 degrees on and off light rain. Wind was about 5-10 mph from 2:30 to 8:30.
Shot was downhill and across a canyon.
I shot kneeling supported off my trekking poles in the front and EXO K3 for rear support to get high enough to see over the grass.



I was not very stable and my wobble zone took up the whole 10" target.
I dialed 3 MILS based off quick drop and tried to get the shot to break on the right edge of the plate.
It looked like my elevation was good but I missed off the left side of the plate. I should have built a different position to get more stable and held a little bit more for wind.

Day 2:MISS
510 yards
It was 80 degrees and a slight breeze from behind me.
Shot was downhill and across a canyon.



I found a couple of bigger boulders to shoot off of my pack as a front rest with bino harness for the rear while wearing it. I was in between standing and kneeling for height.
My wobble zone was a bit better this way but still about 3/4 of the target.

The shot looked like it went high. There was quite a bit of mirage today.

I also had what looks like a pierced primer. (Left is from day 1. Right is from day 2)



I had some issues with this factory ammo showing pressure signs when I shot in 90+ degree temps. I didn't have any heavy bolt lift after this shot like I did with the higher temps.

There is some excuses, but regardless I should keep my MER to 450 yards unless I can get a shot prone (pretty unlikely where I hunt). I tried pushing for the challenge and failed haha.

Thanks to you guys that put this on every year. It's always a blast to get out and get creative with the challenge.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Well, this is my first one!

MER: 403 yards. Why 403? Because that is the distance from our elevated, covered shooting position to our full sized deer target. We can shoot to this target from about 200 yards further, but that would require much more mowing and the fawns are dropping around here so we limit mowing to prevent chunking them in the bushhog.
Rifle: Custom Tikka, chambered in 7-08AI. Barrel is a Bartlien 8.7 twist, 20” long, spiral fluted, Rem Varmint profile, and threaded 5/8-24. It was chambered and fitted by Greg at Southern Precision Rifles. Stock is a McMillan Game Hunter (edge fill). Bottom metal and mag are Mountian Tactical. SRS hunter rail. Trigger is factory. I had a MCarbo spring in it, but went back to factory after reading about various failures here. Suppressor is a Dead Air Sandman Ti. Scope is a Nightforce SHV 4-14X50 with the Mil-R reticle. It is mounted on Mountian Tactical rail with Burris XTR Signature rings. This is not a “mountain gun”, unless you mean the WV mountains.
Load: 150 gr ELD-X, over Big Game Powder, CCI200 primer, Lapua brass with 7 firings on it. 2825 fps
Firing Position: Seated with rifle on a tripod, using my bino harness and my right leg as a rear stabilizer. The tripod is a Bog-Pod Deathgrip that I pulled the head off of and replaced with a Zero Fox Given ARCA head.
Environmentals - 73 degrees, slightly overcast with occasional sprinkles, 85-100% humidity, no wind to speak of. Elevation is 640 ft.

Here is a shot of the range.

A zoom in on the berm.


The target


Because the rules state a 10” circle, I painted the remainder of it on.


The setup:


The shot:

The result: HIT!



Day 2
Decided to change up the position this time. Went prone using a Caldwell Deadshot front bag and a Caldwell flat bag for the rear.
Time of the shot today was right around noon, so while it was only 2 degrees hotter than yesterday (75), the sun was right overhead and there was a good bit of mirage.
Unlike yesterday, there was a slight breeze that was right to left at about 120 degrees and about 5mph (I don’t have a Kestrel, so it is a guess). I tried to confirm that it was consistent using the mirage and it looked that way.

Result - HIT! Just barely. Due to the way the hillside and river (on the left) funnel down to the end of the field, the wind down there was pretty much a dead 180 to the shot. I held just right of center and hit pretty much right where I was aiming.



Video

This was really fun and I stressed about it quite a bit more than I probably should have. I need to clean off another pad further out so I won’t have to mow or lay in chigger infested grass next year.

 

[waspocrew]

Wasn’t sure I’d get this in due to my schedule, but decided to head down to the family ranch to make it happen this weekend. MER 500.

The gun:
- Sig Cross Sawtooth 18” 6.5 Creed



The gear:
- Gunwerks Elevate 2.0 bipod
- NF NX8 2.5-20x
- LS Wild bag
- Filmed with Swaro ATC
- Why the brake? Going to hunt sheep in Canada in 6 weeks, so no can. Otherwise, my Scythe Ti lives on it.

The target:


The ammo:
- Palmetto’s 140 gr Sabre Black tip. Average MV of 2515 (I put a few more rounds over the chrono after snapping the pic).


The shot:
- Day 1: Calm, cool morning after hours of wind all night. 63* and slight breeze at my back. Set up steel at the bottom of the canyon and found a place I could shoot down from. Ended up being 513 yards. Correction was 12 minutes. **HIT!**

Day 2:
Spend most of the morning thinning out prairie dogs and once I had managed 125 of them, I decided it was time to let the AR barrel cool haha. I had my steel with me and set up the target. Drove to an outlook and ranged it at 535. Temp was warmer at 80* at around noon. Correction was 12.9 minutes. Left to right wind at about 5 MPH, I ended up holding left edge of the plate and sent it. **HIT!**

The brake makes spotting shots easy at the bench, but I hadn't shot with this in the field prone prior to this weekend. It really sends dirt/debris back in my face. I have a 338 diameter Hellfire 3 port brake I might toss on this just to see if helps mitigate this. I really don't need a brake for this rifle, but spotting impact is nice. Again, after my sheep hunt, the suppressor goes back on this permanently haha.

 

[ARK_Ginger]

Well I’ve missed the past two years with my MER of 500 but I’m at it again claiming a 500 yards as my range. The exact distance here at my home range is 482 yards.
Day 1:
86 degrees with a swirling wind at about 5mph. 3100 DA

Shooting my tikka 223 with OG can and a SWFA 6x with 75gr ELDs @2700fps. Molinator bag up front on my stone glacier bag and a jellyfish and sitting pad for rear support.

Managed to hit the top of the plate.

Hard to tell in the video with the smoke from a brush pile but you can hear it.

Day 2 6/23/26
Same location and setup. Weather was nicer at 75 degrees, no wind, almost 2000’ even DA

Hit