Dear Friends,

A warm hello from Florida. Today is the end of this USA trip. It started almost 3 weeks ago at the very successful Las Vegas Shot Show, where I represented BUL  for the 6th time. Followed by a week of intense training in Phoenix Arizona with my good friend and Grand Master Angus Hobdell, and ends this weekend at the conclusion of the 4th annual Florida Open.

I'd been hearing about this match for the past few years, many saying this to be the best match in the US. This was my first time participating - and I must say this certainly is one of the very best, most challenging matches I have had the pleasure of competing in. With only 10 stages, one might expect this to be a "short" or "simple" match, but it's nothing of the sort. The average stage was 29 rounds, with the smallest being 26. Each stage was a cleaver, well designed field course, with multiple solutions and targets demanding precision and controlled shooting. There was not one stage where the solution just looked you in the face - on each and every stage you really had to analyze and think - and since the 5 minute walk-through time was strictly enforced, this made for some worries. Certainly the key to success was choosing the right plan, and sticking to it. Not an easy feat in some cases. Frank Garcia's reputation for being a master stage designer certainly showed.

Shooting on the super squad, with other Grand Masters, the likes of Max Michel, Chris Tilley, Don Bednorz and others made for fun and challenging company. Other GM's who shot the match on Friday, included former European Champion Angus Hobdell, former World Champion and repeat US National Champion Todd Jarrett, as well as Travis Tomasia. The competition certainly was at a high level.

Max Michel and I soon established a lead over the others, and shot the hole match neck to neck, with never more than 15 point between us from the second stage on. He won, then I won, but always by just a few points. It was one of the most intense matches I've been in. We both knew that one error, one thrown shot, one miss, would determine the match.

Going into the last stage, we had calculated that Max was ahead of me by about 3-4 match points. ( this is after shooting a total of more than 1200 match points...).

I shot first.

This was a very complex stage, where the shooter entered a room with multiple windows and had targets to shoot from all windows in about a 150 degree arc. the targets were out there too, many at 25 meters or more, as they were throughout the match.

The super squad walked through the stage, looking at the options. Most shooters were looking to find a way not to go to all ports, or shoot on the move, rather trying to find a couple of positions where targets could be seen through all ports, and shoot from there. The problem was that this required precise positioning, and you ran the risk of not seeing all the targets, or shooting at the same ones twice. Since I had only 5 minutes to look the stage over, I didn't feel comfortable with any of those, and chose to shoot from all ports up close. Some times you have to do what you feel ready for, and nothing else. I also knew that stage winner Angus Hobdell had shot this way, with a flying time of 15.6sec.

I shot a good solid run, with 16.1 sec, and 10 points down. it was now up to Max to shot as well.

He went with the more complicated solution of shooting further away from the windows, shooting from multiple windows at each position. A bobbled reload cost him some time, and he finished with a 16.7 second run, 8 points down. I had beaten him on that last stage but would it be enough...

No, it was not. We entered  in the results in my lap top (I hate to wait for official results), calculating in all the stage winners, and came up with:

Saul Kirsch 1363.7 points

Max Michel 1363.9 points.

Max had won the match by 0.2 of a point!

The official results had him as match winner by 0.8 of a point, with me placing 2nd with 99.95%.

Todd Jarrett was third 96%, Angus Hobdell 4th at 94%.

Obviously I was very disappointed, specially considering the prize money of $1000 for match winner...

This was a wonderful match, and the close race with Max made it even more so. My congratulations to him on yet another win. He is a great shooter, and good sportsman, and I will have to settle for this close 2nd - for now!

I owe many thanks to my sponsors for the great equipment and generous support they offer me:

Drummen Custom Guns

Arredondo Accessories

Shoot fast, accurately and safely,

DvC