Competing at Milan and Munich World Cups

I'm at Munich airport waiting for my flight to Frankfurt and figured I would use this time to get a blog post submitted. Competing at World Cups is a different experience than competing back home at Provincial and National competitions. Now that I've attended 2 back to back World Cup events I'm coming home with experience and knowledge about what it takes to compete at this level.

It's amazing to watch some of the top shooters who shoot 10 after 10 after 10 after 10 etc etc in an almost machine-like precision. It's awesome.

Panoramic taken from my phone showing the 100 position 10m range in Munich
Click for full size version

For the 50m event I did better in Munich than I did the week before in Milan. I know I'll improve more too once I make some modifications to the gun's grip. I found 2 trouble spots on the grip, which after raising and re-raising my arm may times during the match, caused some pain. I was hoping to get my grip worked on in Munich by one of the vendors but they booked up their appointments quickly.

In the 10m event, I shot better in Milan than I did in Munich. I started out strong but towards the end of the event I was having trouble with the trigger on my Steyr which resulted in a lower score than I would have liked.

Mentally, I know there are some things I'll need to work on. I could have spent more time preparing for what it would be like shooting next to guys who shoot extremely well. As well as just the overall experience and the kind of scores that would be shot. I knew they would be high, but it's different when you watch someone shoot at and near World Record levels.

All in all, it was a great trip and experience and I'm super happy and grateful I was able to attend and be part of Team Canada. Those were the last two stops on the ISSF World circuit until 2013... now I gotta get back to Vancouver, back to the range, make some modifications to my Pardini and Steyr and shoot more 10s! :)

Arrived in Munich

Arrived in Munich yesterday after travelling up from Milan. Always a bit of a paperwork process flying out of airports with shooting equipment... but we made it!

The Munich shooting range is pretty incredible and it makes me think that Munich is basically the center of the Olympic shooting universe. There are vendors all over the place here to fix equipment and sell you lots of stuff. This morning got through equipment check, with no line-up... awesome!

My gear ready to be checked through Equipment Control

I had my ammo tested by H&N and found that my shot group was too big, so then I took my gun over to the Steyr tent and had it serviced -- which is awesome because I always wondered if there was any 'issues' after it took a fall and hit the ground a few months ago.

After about an hour I took the gun back to the H&N tent and they re-tested it and everything was working sooooo much better. Makes me wish that this was available at the Milan World Cup last week because maybe some of those 9.9's would have been 10's. ;)

The main problem here is the number of athletes and the lack of shuttle buses to and from the range to the various athlete hotels around Munich.

Time to find some local food!

Results for 10m

I finished shooting the 10m event of my first World Cup and definitely found it challenging. I shot a lot of 9.9's which only count as 9 but just barely missed the 10 ring. The overall results can be found here and I finished in 78th with a score of 556.

Here is a breakdown of my 60 shots:

The first half of the match you can see my shots are spread out and I definitely attribute that to not being able to get myself settled down. The last half of the match went a lot better after I had gotten myself into a good groove. I ended with a 96 in my last 10 shots which was a great way to finish.

Definitely know what to expect now and look forward to next week in Munich. I shoot the 50m event on Saturday and will post up results.

Equipment is checked and ready!

Got to the range early today and beat the rush to get our equipment checked and verified. It got really busy later that morning!

Rifle shooters waiting in line to get their equipment checked

I'm officially competitor #1124 for this competition and can now also be found in the ISSF shooter database -- I need to update this with some info! :)

Afterwards, headed downtown for food and to check out the Duomo di Milano which was started in the 1300s! You can even go up on the roof and wander around. Win!

Standing in front of the Milan Cathedral -- free concert happening too!

Arrived in Milan

I made it to Milan, Italy after a long travel day flying YVR to FRA, then almost missing my connecting flight to MXP. Frankfurt is crazy busy!

Once I got to Milan I ran into fellow Canadian shooter Lynda Kiejko and started to see a lot of other shooting teams from other countries. The ISSF had hosts near baggage claim who helped us navigate and get our gear cleared with local police.

We took a bus to the shooting range where we checked our pistols and ammunition in and got Team Canada checked in. It's pretty cool seeing all the teams from various countries around. We had Mexico and Malaysia on our bus with part of our Canadian team.

After arriving at the hotel we began out on a search for pasta -- everything was closed within a short walking distance. Sunday night at 6pm... closed? what? :) Luckily we found a place and ate some tasty gnocchi.

...*yawn*

sleeeeeep...
..
zzz..
..

Back to the range this morning for equipment check, official training, and opening ceremonies later today!