The 2003 Dutch open was shot this past weekend in Druten and Ochten, two towns in the center of Holland, who's ranges host the match every year. Although the ranges are indoor ranges, this match has traditionally offered excellent stages, and this year was no exception. Proving once again that when experienced stage designers put in the effort, good stages can be built, even in the restrictions of an indoor range. To complicate things further for the stage builders, there were only 6 shooting bays to build 12 stages on. Not an easy achievement, but one which was well accomplished in this match. For me, the match started with problems. Only after the 3rd stage did I discover a broken screw in my mount had caused my point of zero to shift some 15cm to to the right at 15m. On the first 3 stages, this cost me a ton of points, and long seconds on a big field course which had a couple of 30m poppers I could not put down. UGLY! Once I sorted this out, I was able to shoot a good match, with few mistakes. However, in such a small match, I was unable to catch up with Belgium Champion Frank Witters who shot a good consistent match to win it. Congratulations to Frank for a well deserved win. The 100m range in Ochten traditionally has difficult tactical stages built there for the Dutch Open. This is the handy work of John Van Uitert - who seems to take pride in making all the shooters cry in frustration. :) 2 years ago that range had the infamous "Barrel boogie stage" which some of us still remember and talk about. This year, the 32 round stage on that bay, "Steel Nightmare" was not, perhaps, as complicated as Barrel Boogie", but it was certainly full of options. I did not realize the day before how complicated this stage really was, and so saw it for the first time on the morning of the match. Not good! We had small squads, shooting 2 stages back to back - and 5 minutes (300 seconds) to look at the stages after the briefing. There were complaints about that, not unjustified I think.
Well, I decided quickly on tactics, to help out my course shooters to make their decisions, and we went on to shoot it. I was happy to have shot it with no extra shoots in a good solid run. It certainly was a challenging stage - and one I would love to have a practice session with... Ochten range has a slippery floor, as some shooters found out all to well. At least half a dozen hit the floor there at some time. I had the idea to put Progrip on the soles of my sport shoes - and can you imagine - it actually worked to improve grip. Many others did the same! A new use for this excellent grip enhancer...:) After a fun weekend of shooting, the end results were: 1 100.00 929.4900 158 Frank Witters
2 96.51 897.0751 59 Saul Kirsch
3 94.82 881.3691 31 Timm Eggert
4 90.35 839.7745 72 Marcel van Laar
5 79.33 737.3693 89 Edwin Moesman
6 78.54 730.0020 122 Ronny Schoenmaker
7 78.01 725.1258 87 Patrick Meeusen
8 76.91 714.8684 17 Marcel Bus
9 75.99 706.3484 6 Patrick Beijer
10 75.80 704.5550 61 Michel Kleerebezem
As always, I have my sponsors to thank for their support:
Drummen Custom Guns
Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED)
Mpro-7
Arredondo accessories
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Nobel Sport
Aimpoint
BUL Transmark Next week I will be in the US for Open Nationals. I will report from there.
Meanwhile I wish you all exceptional shooting! Sincerely Yours Saul Kirsch | 
Belgium's Frank Witters won this years match with a good performance. I had to settle to 2nd this time.
Guido Gnoth was winner in Modified, with Israel's Eitan Elharar in 2nd. 
Israel's Yael Dagan was 3rd in Ladies. Winner was Desiree van Noord. Movies:
Saul Stage 9. 1.6mb 
Saul Stage 10. 1.2mb |
