Striking Gold In Holland

It's been a long and tiring trip to Holland for the European Steel Challenge Championships, but the results turned out well. I wasn't expecting any great results in the Centerfire Open division, as I'm still very new to the gun and the class, but I still finished solidly in the middle of the pack. No complaints there, but I still have a lot of work to do to get it to the level I want it to be. the Tanfoglio is working better and better, and I am showing improvement with it.

 Gold Medal for Senior Rimfire, and Bronze Medal for Team Rimfire.

Rimfire Open division turned out even better than I had hoped. In the US there is a Super Senior  division for shooters over 65, but in Europe there is only a Senior Division, and anyone over 50 qualifies. Needless to say, the competition is a lot tougher in the Senior Division over here than the Super Division in the US. Fortunately I had a good day in Winterswijk in Rimfire, besting last year's time by almost two seconds.

Hans Wigger, Me, and Peter Schouwink, 3rd, 1st., and 2nd., in Senior Rimfire. Also the three members of Team Dragonball.

Our rimfire team, "Team Dragonballs" also did well. All three of our team members are also Seniors, so to finish in third place was not easy against the younger shooters.

All in all, we had a great match. I have a lot more pictures to post, but typing on this tiny netbook is very frustrating, with almost every word having typos.

More later once I get home and back to my regular computer!

In Winterswijk

Sorry about the lack of blogging, but I've been on the road a bit lately. It is about 7am right now, Holland time, and I and in my hotel room in Winterswijk, Holland. I'm over here for the European Steel Challenge Championships, which start today (Friday) at 8:45 am and I'm in the first flight, so at 8:45 I will be shooting my Tanfoglio 9mm. Gold Custom in Open division. My score today will be recorded both in the individual category, but it will also be combined with the scores of two other shooters and entered in the team category. It was quite an honor to be invited to join a team with two other Dutch shooters, both very good, for the match. They pick a name of the team when they enter, and our Open Division is Team Mr. Completely! Another honor, for sure! I will be shooting Rimfire Optic class tomorrow morning, and again I will be on a team, this time on Team Dragonball, the rimfire team I have been on the last two years. Last year Team Dragonball was fourth, and the year before we were third.

Getting here to Winterswijk was an adventure in itself. It took a bus and ferry ride from Whidbey Island to SeaTac airport followed by a ten hour flight in a very cramped seat in an Airbus. The video controller was broken on my seat, so I wasn't able to listen to music or watch any movies. I was met by friends from Rotterdam at the airport, and I rode with them to their home where mostly I slept, but we got in a little sight-seeing in Rotterdam, and I visited a gun shop there. It was a small but well stocked place. The guys in the store and I had a good conversation, and I might be able to help them out a bit contact-wise for getting some harder to get parts from the USA.

I've gotta wrap this up for now, go get some breakfast, and get over to the range. There's some steel over there waiting for me!

May e-Postal Match is "On The Road"

Danno at Sand Castle Scrolls is our e-Postal Match Host for May, and once again we have a really interesting match.

I particularly like the combination of  high risk and high value vs low risk and low value spots on the target. Do you go for the big score and risk getting zero for the shot, or should you go for a bigger target you can easily hit but only get a small number of points? There's classes for just about anything you might have to shoot, so head on over to Sand Castle Scrolls, download the target, check out the rules, and head out to the range!

Have Fun!