Dear Friends,

First, I want to thank all those who wrote back to me telling how much they enjoy these match reports. I started writing them this season, and have seen the mailing list grow and grow. I will do my best to keep them interesting...

Just got back from the Swiss Open which was held near the city of Basel in the North of Switzerland. Everyone expected this match would be one of the largest and best in Europe this year - and indeed it was! 277 shooter from some 15 countries where there, shooting 14 stages, 250 rounds.

The range used is a huge military range, by a small village. Lovely picturesque Swiss country side, all green, with lots of trees and bushes. We were very fortunate with the weather too, having only sunshine the whole weekend long. The shooting bays were so big, that the match organizers could make even a small 12 round stage require 15 meters of moving or more, and a great deal of shooting on the move. In fact, there was not even one speed shoot the whole match. Well, not one that could be shot from one position. All the stages required moving, and most required ALLOT of moving. And allot of shooting on the move, which is always fun to do, although can be a little frustrating if you are trying to shoot only A's.

I shot a very consistent match, with only 3 D's throughout all the stages. I did have one big mistake, which cost me a miss and a penalty, when I shot a round with my foot out of the start box (you had to shoot three close targets before leaving the box. So, I was leaning out of the box, and was late on the last shot...don't you just hate when the RO pays such close attention ?! :), But other than that one incident I did well. There were plenty of small steel targets to shoot on the move, which also lead to many extra shots. I will be doing pleaty of practice on that now.

In the end, once again, Eric Grauffel was top gun, and I was 2nd. But since almost all the top shooters of Europe attended the match, this was a good result. The top 10 were:

1 100.00 1238.1578  87 Eric Grauffel                                         

2  93.35 1155.7909 112 Saul Kirsch               IPSC Israel                 

3  88.26 1092.7901 267 Martin Kamenicek    IPSC Tchech Republic JUN

4  87.59 1084.5258 237 Eddy Testa                                            

5  87.20 1079.7222 253 Christian Wilda           IPSC Germany                

6  81.93 1014.4003 215 Manfred Segessenmann      SCSO Solothurn              

7  78.46  971.5165 211 Andreas Schulte           IPSC Germany                

8  78.42  970.9369 145 Dominic Meier             SCSO Solothurn              

9  77.61  960.9075  12 Heribert Bettermann       IPSC Germany                

10  77.53  959.9442  36 Herve Charlet                                        


My congratulation to Manfred Segessenmann, who won the Swiss title, I believe for the first time.


AS Always, I owe thanks to:

Bul Transmark Ltd
The Makoff-Reifman Foundation
Winchester Ammunition
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Drummen Custom Guns
Vectan (Nobel Sports)
 

I'm off to the USA tomorrow, for the Area 5 and Area 1. I will report! Meanwhile, I wish you all fast, accurately, and above all safe shooting.

Best regards,
Saul Kirsch