The Extreme Benchrest Pellet Challenge is a part of EBR tradition. It has been run ever since the earliest days, it’s tightly contested and – you know – it causes a surprisingly large degree of competition and emotion among many competitors.
The 2025 Extreme Benchrest Pellet Challenge winner was Jessica Kilgore. Above we see her receiving her prize from Ross Marshall. (As many of you will know, Jessica has her own, wildly-successful YouTube Channel, Iguana Solutions).
But what is the Extreme Benchrest Pellet Challenge?
Well, it’s an integral part of the Extreme Benchrest competition. It’s that target right there in the middle of the bottom row of sighting bulls.
The rules are simple. Take one shot at the printed pellet. The winner is the person who hits closest to the center of the pellet head. See, really simple!
The target above shows one hit just to the right of the letter “E” at the end of the word “Challenge”. That’s close, but not good enough!
Below we see Jessica’s shot. It was absolutely right through the head of the target. At 75 Yards!!!
In fact, this year the Pellet Challenge was probably the closest-fought in years. The difference between the top three shooters was – almost – too close to call.
I certainly had several people telling me excitedly that they were sure to have won because their shot was so good. In the end, the call was made by a panel of AoA judges, working together to find an agreement.
The Pellet Challenge is sponsored by my friend Ross Marshall. Ross is a Scot who has lived in England for many years.
As a whisky connoisseur, Ross has undertaken extensive research to find what he considers to be the finest whisky available. Then he brings a bottle of it with him to Extreme Benchrest as the prize for the Pellet Challenge winner.
Amazingly enough for a Scot, Ross has selected this whisky from an English distillery as his favorite!
In addition to his tireless search to find the best whisky, Ross also takes his duties as judge very seriously, as we can see from the photographs here.
In fact, he even gets down on his knees to check some of them. That’s dedication!
So, congratulations to Jessica for winning the 2025 Extreme Benchrest Pellet Challenge. Commiserations to those who were so, so close.
And it will all happen again next year at Extreme Benchrest 2026. See you there!
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