Hi All,

Once again we made the long drive from Holland to Vienna Austria for the Int Helmut Schaiger Trophy Challenge. Last year I had a tough match , with some gun problems and some mistakes, and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do better. Although I won last year, I was pleased with my performance.

This is a tough match. There is a lot of fast simple shooting, but there is also a good share of tactics and tough shots. One of the most difficult aspects is that almost all ranges have 2 stages in them, which are shot hot range. so the shooter has to prepare to shoot both stages back to back. And they are not small or simple stages either... In one case I even had to load magazines in between the stages, as they were both more than 20 round stages.

It is tough to prepare for 2 stages, and I see this as an added challenge in this special match. The range design requires this format, so I am not complaining about it. It is, simply put, another challenge to overcome (like the long drive).

Stage design this year was fantastic. Some people stay away from Indoor matches because they think that the stage design will be restricted due to the range layout. But believe me, in this match that is not the case. You will not see better stages in any open range match! With use of dozens of portable bullet stops, they build stages in which you shoot in all direction on every bay! none of this "all shots down range" in the indoor range in Vienna! Great stage design - and this year, a good number of tactical stages, with required some serious consideration. That, in fact, was the toughest aspect of the match. We did not get a lot of time to walk the stages, and since the frontal stage in each bay cannot be viewed while other competitors are shooting - you really only got one look during the walkthrough to make your decisions. You have to be "all there" and working hard to get it right within a few minutes....

My match started well, but was not great. I made some unforced errors, and then lost a good number of seconds on a big stage when my trusted long magazine decided to retire for good, as a piece of metal cracked off the lip and caused a serious jam. That long mag, my favorite, has been cracked for ages, and it eventually gave it. Just another example of why you should not go into a match with gear that you know is not 100%! I new that mag was about to break, but "hoped" it wouldn't. leave nothing to chance! Remember that in this sport, if it can go wrong it certainly will.
I did shoot some good stuff, and some poorer stages, and at the end won the match, and the very special HUGE trophy for the 2nd year. And once again, had  great time at the match. I highly recommend this competition to all!

Top Open results

1 1244,8475 100,00 129 Kirsch, Saul ISR
2 1145,4438 92,01 144 Kraushofer, Gabriele AUT L GM
3 1141,4699 91,70 239 Schneider, Patrik SUI
4 1140,7741 91,64 52 Fabricius, Georg GER
5 1135,4095 91,21 297 Weber, Günter AUT GM
6 1114,9340 89,56 232 Schallerbauer, Harald AUT GM
7 1055,6058 84,80 155 Kummer, Patric GER J
8 1042,7175 83,76 312 Zeindl, Stefan AUT M
9 1039,6278 83,51 173 Lindenmayer, Oliver GER J
10 1010,4879 81,17 96 Hiebler, Wolfram AUT M

Top Standard results

1 1267,8098 100,00 110 Jaime, Juan Carlos ESP
2 1202,0320 94,81 37 De Cobos, Eduardo ESP
3 1101,5480 86,89 190 Midgley, Gregory SUI
4 1053,5008 83,10 156 Kummer, Steven GER
5 976,9582 77,06 328 Bicanin, Dragan SAM
6 965,6255 76,16 112 Jakob, Herbert GER
7 960,7190 75,78 76 Glicza, Csaba HUN
8 947,0949 74,70 116 Jereb, Uros SLO
9 946,6201 74,67 186 Mayrhofer, Klaus AUT M
10 933,7170 73,65 248 Schütz, Michael GER

Top Production results

1 1264,8118 100,00 319 Nagy, Ernest SVK
2 1135,8374 89,80 318 Penov, Anton SVK
3 1116,2034 88,25 321 Ravas, Eugen HUN
4 1061,8949 83,96 323 Michalak, Norbert SVK
5 1061,6736 83,94 237 Schmidt, Tino GER
6 1009,2276 79,79 25 Braun, Jürgen GER
7 970,5234 76,73 168 Lentz, Arne GER
8 966,7664 76,44 244 Schuhmacher, René SUI
9 953,3191 75,37 292 Von der Tann, Joachim GER
10 936,0812 74,01 286 Trautvetter, Ingo GER

As always I have my sponsors to thank for making this possible.
Drummen Custom Guns
Berry's Fmg
Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED)
Mpro-7
Arredondo accessories
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Lapua/Vihtavuori
Aimpoint
BUL Transmark

Best regards

Saul Kirsch

Picture:

Movies:
All just under 2MB