Greetings all, After having missed the 2005 Florida Open, I was excited to once again return to one of my favorite matches of the year. And I was not disappointed! The Florida Open offered only 10 stages to over 350 shooters who attended the match, but each stage required 28 or more rounds to complete. So the round count was higher than you might expect. Personally, I enjoy the larger stages more, so a match which does away with all the small speed shoots, and offers only large field courses, is certainly "my cup of tea". So I was pleased that once again, the Florida Open was just a few days after the Shot Show, which made it possible for me to participate in both events, while making one trip to the USA. Those long flights in the small Economy seats are certainly no fun.... This year's match had a main attraction - a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was raffled at the prize ceremony. Each entry got one free raffle ticket -and more could be purchased. There was of course a lucky winner, (not me, I'm sorry to say) who went home with a $15.000 bike. not bad! But the main attraction of this match are always the excellent stages, the fine weather and the top class level of shooters who travel from around the world to compete here. This year was no exception. The theme to the stages was "Sports" with one stage being dressed up as a sky diving experience (complete with real helicopter in the foreground), one stage was a baseball theme stage, where the shooter had to round all the bases, and have a foot on each base while engaging steel... Another stage required starting with a golf club in hand - a new experience for some shooters, but certainly comfortable for guys like JJ Racaza, a top shooter, but also a serious golfer. No fair! The match developed into a one horse race in Open, with Eric running away from the get-go and never looking back. In fact, I must say this was one of the best matches I've seen him shoot in a while. He looked extremely sharp for so early on in the season. JJ, Chris Tilley and myself were left to battle it out for the other 2 podium finishes. I dumped a ton of points on the last stage of day-1, a stage involving a dice, 3 colors and lack of sleep...
So it was down to the wire, with Chris blasting past JJ and I on the last stage, with an amazing stage win to go from 4th to 2nd. A trigger freeze in the last stage cost me some points, and I needed a perfect run to make up the 10 or so I needed to pass JJ. He saw me shoot, and played is safe for a solid last stage, and I was stuck in 4th.. Not my favorite place to finish by any means, but the competition was of excellent class, and well, it is early in the season! Angus Hobdell demolished his competition in Production, and Todd Jarrett did the same in Limited. It seemed that each division winner managed to win by a land slide at this year's match. It was a special match for me for another reason too: I have just signed on with STI International, and now captain the STI Euro Team. So this match will probably be my last with a BUL M-5 race gun. I've shoot the BUL in competition for 10 years, and it will be strange to go on with out it. But, I look forward to shooting an STI, and being part of the strongest name in our sport! I know it was the right decision to make, be it a difficult one. I wish to thank BUL for the years of support. It has been a privilege and an honor to shoot for them! Here are the top results:
Top 10 Open 1 | Eric Grauffel | 100.00% | 2 | Chris Tilley | 90.70% | 3 | JJ Racaza | 89.89% | 4 | Saul Kirsch | 89.41% | 5 | Ronald Brown | 84.06% | 6 | Matt McLearn | 81.82% | 7 | Matt Burkett | 78.21% | 8 | Derek Janowicz | 77.31% | 9 | Dean Makkos | 76.21% | 10 | Max Michel Sr | 75.86% | Top 10 Limited 1 | Todd Jarrett | 100.00% | 2 | Travis Tomasie-M | 91.39% | 3 | Emanuel Bragg | 89.94% | 4 | Shannon Smith | 87.63% | 5 | Mike Seeklander | 82.77% | 6 | Carlos Colon | 79.04% | 7 | Bronson Collins | 76.52% | 8 | Keith Dilworth | 72.97% | 9 | Lacroix Christian | 72.28% | 10 | Lawrence Nied | 71.94% | Top 10 Production: 1 | Angus Hobdell | 100.00% | 2 | Chuck Anderson-L | 92.97% | 3 | Tino Schmidt | 86.34% | 4 | Tony Phan-L | 83.53% | 5 | Robby Johnson-M | 80.85% | 6 | Greg Wilson-M | 80.82% | 7 | Kevin Insco-L | 80.48% | 8 | Dave Marques | 79.54% | 9 | Andeas Kohler | 78.90% | 10 | Johnny Brister | 77.64% | As always I have my sponsors to thank for their support
STI International
Drummen Custom Guns
Berry's Fmg
Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED)
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Lapua/Vihtavuori
Aimpoint Until the next time I wish you all excellent shooting.
Saul Kirsch | 
