2026 Cold Bore Challenge

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.IMG_4110.jpeg

A zoom in on the berm.
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The target
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Because the rules state a 10” circle, I painted the remainder of it on.
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The setup:
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The shot:


The result: HIT!

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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 week. MER 500.

The gun:
- Sig Cross Sawtooth 18” 6.5 Creed
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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:
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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).
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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!**

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