That's it! I've made up my mind - this is my favorite match in the world!
The Fact that I could enjoy myself there this past weekend, even with all the terrible gun problems I battled through during the match, proved to me without a doubt that I love the Desert Classic!

I so wanted to do well there this year, but, alas, using a gun that was finished only a week before the match was not a good idea. I knew the gun was not match ready but I had no choice. that was the serial number I had on my ATF import license, so that was the one coming with me to America. It had behaved well the week before, so I was hoping for the best. But, in the match, I was busy clearing malfunctions on more than half the stages. Not a good thing by any means.

Although the match was over booked as always, many of big names were not there. Some tried to register too late and were turned away. When the Desert Classic is full - it is full! And there is no special treatment, GM or not. Max Michel was busy in the army, Jojo and JJ could not get it, so when I got there for the match I realized the top of the field in Open was rather thin. "easier to win it" I told myself, and really felt ready to do it. But...

The match consisted of only 11 stages, but with the exception of 2 small stages, all were well over 20 rounds and most around the 30 mark. Almost 300 rounds in total. The stages were packed full of great props - the kind you can no longer use here in Europe. One stage had us start in a real helicopter, holding a real (replica) .50 cal machine gun! Another stage had you run through a 40m tunnel built out among the cactuses, with huge metallic "spiders" with flashing lights over head. Really very cool.

My favorite stage was our last our last, stage 9, called "main street USA". This stage had the shooter begin pumping gas (real gas pump and real car). Then he had to run down a "street" with full size building on either size, shooting targets left and right, through the windows and doorways. Opening a door on the left activated a slider on the right which you could see in multiple ports. Because it appeared more than once it was deemed not to be a disappearing target, and would carry misses. You had to move fast to have time to shoot the 2 targets in the doorway and then spin to shoot the mover as it came across the second port. At the of the stage the shooter had to push through some bar swinging doors, which activated a swinger, and a NS swinger in front of it. Plus 2 more close targets. The sequence there was really tight, and few came away from that position smiling.

I knew that I had to win that last stage big time to have a chance to get past Burkett, who had shot the day before. I was ready to go, and knew I could beat his time - but, my gun would not allow it, and I jammed again, badly. Oh well. There is always next year. And I know I will be back for this match again.

Chris Tilley shot a clean consistent match and was almost unchallenged in Open. David Sivigny walked away in Production, like he does, with Angus Hobdell coming in 2nd. Robi Leathan pulled out one more incredible win in Standard, beating rising star Blake Maguez due to a miss/no shoot that Bake shot on the last stage. Robi won by 4 points.... He had every one laughing when he took the mike and thanked Blake for that last stage screw-up. Saying that "since I am getting old, and do not have too many wins left in me, I really appreciate you throwing me a bone, Blake"

Open:

Limited

Production:

As always I have my sponsors to thank for making this possible.
Drummen Custom Guns
Berry's Fmg
Competitive Edge Dynamics (CED)
Mpro-7
Arredondo accessories
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Lapua/Vihtavuori
Aimpoint
BUL Transmark

Now it is truly "off season". time to get these new guns up and running. I am going to preparing serious for the WS next year, and a pair of working guns is part of the plan.

Have a great off-season everyone - and see you next year,

DVD

Saul Kirsch