Greetings all, The last few weeks feel like I've been away more than home, what with the IWA show and the Vienna Trophy match being back to back. I had just enough time to unpack from IWA, before starting to pack for Vienna, and drive along Germany's A3 again, in the opposite direction...
But - I am not complaining! The trip to Vienna was well worth the effort and long drive, as the match there was truly excellent! I like this match, always have. 14 stages in one day - what's not to like? And the team there really put a lot of thought into the design of their stages - they are almost all good stages, with options and challenges. And very few small stages. On average almost 20 rounds per stage! So great fun.
The stages offered lots of close targets, so there was ample opportunity to shoot fast and enjoy. But - mixed in with all that top speed shooting, were some really long shots. Particularly challenging was stage #6, in which the shooter faced no fewer than 6 42 meter targets... Granted, they were full size targets, but they proved too much for most competitors. In fact, when I checked the score boards, I saw that only 15 shooters out of a field of almost 300 got through that stage without picking up a miss - or more. In some cases there were as many as 10 missing on that stage. The average must have been 3 or 4 misses per shooter, which means that more than 1000(!!) misses were scored on that one stage. Now that is a scary number, and must be some kind of record It goes to show again that IPSC shooters are way too speed orientated in their training, and we are loosing the skill of accuracy. Something to keep in mind in your training!
The match was especially challenging for me, as I had to shoot with a sprained ankle which is still far from healed. I shot with a stiff sports brace on my right ankle, which made it possible for me to run, but my motion was rather restricted. But sometimes that kind of disability keeps you really focused, and I actually shot a good match, not making any major mistakes and not scoring any penalties. All in all, I was happy with my shooting, and was able to win by 14%. So once again I drove the HUGE trophy 1100km across Europe back to my training range at Dongen. The guys there are always pleased to see it come back.
The STI Euro team were there in almost full force, just short of our Italian members, and our new French shooter Emile Obriot. But those of us there had a great weekend. I won Open, Greg Midgley won Standard, and Ralf Jensen came in 2nd, with a borrowed gun and gear, as the airline misplaced his range bag on the way over. Herbert Jackob also shot well, finishing a respectable 4th overall in standard. Great job guys!
The indoor range allows for long days of shooting, and Eli and I were on the range each day until long after dark, shooting and maning the Double-Alpha Academy booth. So once again, we did not get to see Vienna. But then again, that was not the purpose of the trip. That was the shooting - and we had a blast!
Here are the top results: Top 10 Open 1 | 100,00 | Kirsch, | Saul | ISR | 2 | 86,11 | Wilda, | Christian | GER | 3 | 84,17 | Stettin, | Andreas | AUT | 4 | 83,68 | Huttner, | Eli | ISR | 5 | 81,80 | Eidenschink, | Bernd | GER | 6 | 80,52 | Volk, | Alexander | AUT | 7 | 80,20 | Kraushofer, | Gabriele | AUT | 8 | 80,07 | Bettermann, | Heribert | GER | 9 | 79,11 | Volk, | Franz | AUT | 10 | 78,42 | Schallerbauer, | Harald | AUT | Top 10 Standard 1 | 100,00 | Midgley, | Gregory | GER | 2 | 91,62 | Jensen, | RalfKarup | DEN | 3 | 91,06 | Schuetz, | Michael | GER | 4 | 86,09 | Jakob, | Herbert | GER | 5 | 82,12 | Stranz, | Jürgen | AUT | 6 | 81,85 | Kneringer, | Mario | AUT | 7 | 79,10 | Ziebart, | Friedrich | AUT | 8 | 78,97 | Astroth, | Marcus | GER | 9 | 78,68 | Mayerhofer, | Klaus | AUT | 10 | 74,61 | Grieder, | Peter | SUI | Top 10 Production: 1 | 100,00 | Momcilovic, | Ljubisa | SER | 2 | 99,22 | Nagy, | Ernest | SVK | 3 | 94,41 | Janjusevic, | Milorad | MTO | 4 | 90,46 | Lentz, | Arne | GER | 5 | 89,72 | Sklavis, | Alexandros | GRE | 6 | 89,57 | Pavlic, | Bostjan | SLO | 7 | 86,01 | Michalak, | Norbert | SVK | 8 | 85,64 | Pavlik, | Jan | SVK | 9 | 84,63 | Ivanov, | Sergey | RUS | 10 | 84,50 | Fegus, | Andrej | SLO | 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 
Movie clips available for download here.
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