"Come shoot our match", Joel Gerard invited me, it will be a good match. And so it was. But somehow I forgot to realize that shooting an outdoor match in March, in Europe, was something I had not done before, and for good reason...

There is a reason that the shooting season in Europe is restricted to the summer months, and that is ITS TOO COLD IN THE WINTER!
So there I was, minus 3, snow falling, mud like you cannot believe and it just kept getting colder. On the morning of the second day, when we arrived bright and early to the range, under a clear sky I must admit, the ground was frozen solid, and as slippery as a frozen lake. Not easy shooting conditions by any means.

But, I have to hand it to the organizes and crew - they put on a great winter match. In fact, I was about the one who seemed to think it a little strange to be out shooting in the snow... The French are certainly hard core about their IPSC shooting. They are serious!

The match was great, ran like clockwork, on time, and as planned. One did get the impression sometimes that we could have been finished earlier, but I guess the guideline was to stay on schedule, not slower, and not faster. Still, we finished on time, and that's the main test of organizations.

The stages were good. some nice long courses mixed in with a good number of mid size and small stages. Perhaps too many small stages. But since we could not run very fast on the long stages anyway, from fear of falling on our asses, the short stages were welcome.

A funny thing happened on stage 3, our second stage of the first day: You had to pull open a draw to retrieve your first magazine, and identify the card in the draw "X" or "O" which told you what targets to shoot later on. Well, as I pulled out the draw - it came all the way out - and fell to the flow. I didn't hesitate too long, pick my mag out from the floored draw, and off I went. Moving into the second position, I slid into position, almost landing on my ass. a last minute left hand back, which keeping the gun safe, kept my pants clean from mud.. but precious seconds were lost. Immediately after my run the draw was modified so that it could not fall out. Later, our squad was called to reshoot because of this change, which gave me the chance to set this error straight. I shot it gain, almost 2 seconds faster, and no points down! It was a welcome reshoot. My "graceful slide" is shown in the clip to the right. (stage 3)

The targets were not too tough, as the match was geared mostly towards standard shooters. but the stages were not easy and required a good number of tough body positions, and some strong hand weak hand transitions and shooting. Trust the French organizes to make a tough and interesting match. I certainly felt challenged on some of the stages, and the slippery muddy conditions did not make it any easier.

All in all it was a great early start to the shooting season. I shot well and won Open, sorted out some gun issues, and feel more prepared for the next match. Too bad it's almost a month's time to the match in Vienna. Wish it were sooner

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

Pictures:

Movies:

Stage 2

Stage 6

Stage 7

Stage 10