Greetings all, This past weekend I had the pleasure of competing once again at the magnificent shooting ranges in Philipsburg Germany where the German Open and Revolver championships were being held. This range is without a doubt one of the very best in the word, and with the wild weather we had on Saturday, everyone was very pleased to be in a such a well covered facility. Out in an open field it would have been rough. The match scheduled required that each squad was slotted to shoot the entire 12 stage match in one day, either Saturday or Sunday. This format makes for a long day of shooting, but is preferred by most, as it makes it possible to shoot the match in one day, leaving time for other weekend activities. Most shooters on Saturday would have wished to shoot Sunday... It was warm and humid the whole weekend, but on Saturday there were two spells of extremely heavy rain. And I do mean EXTREMELY heavy, as you can see in the pictures to the right. The pored! The range crews did a great job of digging channels to run the ankle deep puddles of water which formed within minutes on some of the stages. In fact, through the professional hard work of the crews, the day ended on schedule despite stopping twice for heavy rain. The stages were challenging but some lacked imagination. Of course, the German gun law which prohibits shooting on the move makes it difficult to design free style stages, without getting into potential problems over this law. So the stage designers use lots of low windows, which you have to approach before your shoot through them. But there was a good mix of complex speed shoots, stages which activated 2, 3 or even 4 moving targets. And if you have never shot in Philipsburg before - you should! If only for the challenge of seeing the fastest moving swingers in the game. But these were placed at a close to medium range, and so were not too difficult for most. This was a special match for me - it was my first with my new STI Grand Master. For the past 10 years I have been competing exclusively with BUL M-5 race guns, but now., sponsored by STI it was time to change. My new STI's arrived just last week, and after only 2 practice sessions with them, I figured it was time to take them out for a match trial... The new gun (serial number SK0001 :)) performed fantastically. The accuracy is the best I have ever had, and while the trigger still needs a little work, the function and feel was great, and I look forward to shooting these guns for years to come! Perhaps because of the unfamiliar gun used, I was very focused and concentrated while shooting. I could not shoot perhaps as fast as I would usually on the close range targets, but the extra concentration made for solid good points. I shot an excellent, winning 11 of the 12 stages outright, and the match by 16%! Top 10 in Open: 1 100,00% 1018,3051 214 Kirsch, Saul ISR
2 84,68% 862,3443 24 Eggert, Timm GER
3 83,27% 847,9104 124 Wiegand, Maximilian J GER
4 80,92% 824,0003 125 Wilda, Christian GER
5 80,64% 821,1813 71 Loch, Marijan GER
6 80,33% 818,0336 27 Flass, Juergen GER
7 79,60% 810,5343 141 Kosiol, Timo J GER
8 77,51% 789,2873 82 Nothnagel, Nils GER
9 76,60% 780,0001 186 Bettermann, Heribert GER
10 76,25% 776,4448 62 Leenen, Hans GER Top Ladies Open shooter was Desiree Van Noord,
Top Junior was Wiegand Maxi
Top Senior was Blazicek, Johannes 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 | Pictures:
Pictures thanks to
Yael Dagan Click to enlarge       |
