OK, I got out this morning for my first Cold Bore prep.
Equipment:
Christensen Arms Summit Ti in 270WSM
Swarovski Z5
Ammo is Unknown Munnitions, Bertrand Brass, 140 Berger Classic Hunter ontop of 63.5 gr R19 cooking at 3249fps on the chrono
The farthest I’ve ever killed a deer at is 450, so I was going to choose 500 MER (don’t want Sam breathing down my neck lol).
From the bench, I checked zero at 200 (my center hash) from last fall. Shoot sub-MOA at 1.75” for 3 shots but found I was about 3 clicks high at 200 so I adjusted.
Then moved to 500 and switched to 2-shot groups, first two groups from bench, then
went to prone using my pack, and a rear bag, (same gear I’ll use for the official CBC) for the rest of the session.
But even in light winds (5-10 measured) this morning, and not cold bore, I was only 50% keeping in the 10” vital.
So I pulled up the target to 450 and put 3 out of 4 in over (2) 2-shot groups shot 20 minutes apart.
Noted that my group sized continued to shrink the more I shot.
My thoughts:
Like Cold Bow, the practice shots after a cold bore do make a difference, you get better, even if it’s slightly
I’m not ready for 500 MER. Need to do a few more true Cold Bore sessions at 450 and if I hit 100%, I’ll think about 500.
MIght have to wait for opening day of CBC to decide becuase if winds are high that even 450 isn’t doable, I’d need to pass that day. I can’t win anything so that doesn’t really matter, but a member would be in a pickle in the even the challenge is filling up. We deal with this in the Cold Bow on windy days and I’ve had to skip days as per the rules, you can’t shrink your MER due to wind so you gotta wait.
In all, super exctied to do this after this morning, although it showed in CBC fashion that it’s gonna be harder than many of us imagine.
Pics below. Top one is from last year at same range/same gun becuase I forgot to snap a pic this morning.
Here is the target. Tapes cover holes and are noted which group. Confusing but the more I shot the smaller my 2-shot groups got, and there are 3 different yadages on that target: 200, 500, 450. The black circle was added digitally as it was too hard to see my 10” ballpoint pen circle. Ignore the black dots and the muzzleloader hole in the 3” bull—recycled target
