2011 Canadian National Pistol Championships details

Details for the 2011 Canadian National Pistol Championships taking place in Calgary, Alberta can be found online here:

http://www.sfc-ftc.ca/en/calendar/competition/24.html

A few notes about the event:

• The ISSF Dress Code rule 6.4.2.1 is in effect for all ISSF matches. The complete rule book can be found here in English and in German
• All 10m, 25m, and 50m events will be shot on Megalink electronic targets. The CDN 1800 (2700) and Reeves Memorial Revolver Match will be shot on paper targets
• The tentative match schedule puts a big gap between events if you're only shooting 10m and 50m events. Currently the 50m event is scheduled for July 29-30, and 10m MEN isn't until several days later Aug 5 -- I might need to find more events to shoot! ;)

2011 Canadian National Pistol Championships Program 

2011 Canadian National Pistol Championships Registration Form

I'll definitely be there!

Gold in 10M and 50M team pistol events

I don't have all of the final scores with me but our 10M team consisting of Edmond Lee, Stan Wills, and I took 1st place. This is the 3rd year in a row that Edmond and I have had the top team at Nationals. It definitely helped getting Stan Wills on our team this year. Our 50M team consisted of John Berta, Edmond Lee, and I. I'll see if I can get the scores all posted up later.

Gotta run.... time to board the plane!

New personal best in 50M Pistol!

I shot a 522 / 600 and a 532 / 600 in the 50M Pistol event at the 2010 Canadian Nationals. The 532 / 600 is a new personal best for me in this event. My scores were high enough to finish 3rd overall in a field of about 30.

This is an event I don't spend a lot of time training for due to the lack of nearby shooting ranges back home where I can shoot at 50 metres. The last time I shot 50M was at last year's Nationals. I will be making more of an effort to train for this event and putting some time into making a few modifications to the grip when I get back.

National Team Trials in 10M this afternoon and then Finals!

Arrived in Granby, Quebec!

Edmond Lee and I got into Montreal yesterday morning after taking a late flight out of Vancouver. *yawn* We met up with John Berta, another BC shooter, who arrived about an hour ahead of us. *yawn* I didn't get any sleep on the plane, but after the drive to Granby, getting some food, and checking into the hotel a small power nap fixed that.

This morning we went to the outdoor range to get our equipment checked and registered. After that we got in some training time on the 50M range which went really well. The weather was excellent, sunny, not too hot, a light breeze... compared to the cold and rainy day yesterday it was beautiful.

Getting my Pardini sighted in at the 50M range

Once we finished up at the outdoor range, we headed over to the indoor range to get some 10M training time in. The indoor range feels a little dark, but it's using similar light conditions to how I train back home so I like it.

After getting some time in on both ranges we went out for some lunch and ate poutine, apparently the best in Granby according to a few reviewers. It was pretty good!

Competition Round 1 begins tomorrow morning - 50M at 9am and then 10M in the afternoon.

Flying to Montreal next week!

Final training preparations are wrapping up for my trip to the 2010 Canadian National Pistol Championships being held in Granby, Quebec next week.

I'll be shooting my new Pardini FPM in the Olympic 50M event. I decided to retire my old Pardini and picked up this one:



Being a restricted firearm, there is some extra paperwork you need to do to be able to transport it. I sent it all to the Canadian Firearms Program with the RCMP and I received my authorization a couple weeks ago. I am all set!

I fly out late Tuesday night and return on the 31st. I 'plan' to do daily updates while I'm there, but we'll see... I really don't want to be on a computer too much. I do that enough as is. ;)

Back!

Well I didn't really go anywhere, but this blog did. It had to be moved and going through that process kind of put the brakes on any updates from me.

But...

The 2010 Canadian National Pistol Championships are coming up in August near Montreal, Quebec and I will be there!

More to come!

Tied for 1st place at 2010 BC Airgun Championships

I ended up tied for 1st place at the 2010 BC Airgun Championships in Richmond, BC. The way the tie-break is done though is by counting back from the last shot to find who ended better. Out of 3 complete courses of fire (180 shots) both Edmond Lee and myself ended up at 1686/1800 points.

Congrats to my fellow Team BC teammate Edmond Lee who had a slightly better last target than me.

I'm off for a few weeks before getting ready for Provincials in Campbell River (early May) where I'll break in my new 50M pistol which should arrive in a couple of weeks. Next up after that, will probably be the 2010 Canadian National Pistol Championships being held in Granby, Quebec August 25 to 31, 2010.

Defending champions BC Team wins Gold at 2009 Nationals

We did it again! The BC Team won Gold in the 10M event. This is the second year in a row our team has won the team event.

Individually, I missed Finals by 1 point and finished 9th. I found the indoor range to be a challenge to shoot in due to the changing lighting from the overhead skylights which were located over a few of the middle positions. My scores were 553/600 and 561/600, which are lower than where I was hoping to be.

gold medal for the BC Team consisting of Edmond Lee, Tyler Johnson, and myself

I ran into a few preparation problems before the 1st relay due to forgetting my competitor number and gun check information. I didn't have time to drive back to where I was staying to pick it up without possibly losing competition time so I made a new competitor number by hand. Awesome. Luckily I was able to get a photocopy of my gun check information from the officials. Small issue but that burned through 20 minutes of time which I normally would have used for getting ready mentally and physically.

After the morning relay I drove back and picked up all of my paperwork and competitor number and made it back with lots of time to run through my regular pre-shooting routine. By now, the sun was almost overhead and shining through the skylights and reflecting right off the floor. I couldn't sit in my chair without having a really bright glare in my eyes. Bright. Sunshine + squeaky clean linoleum floor = Arggghhhh.

Good learning experience to make sure I have everything packed and ready (I thought I did! :)) before shooting as well as to train in different lighting conditions... maybe even pack some sunglasses. 10M is always shot indoors so I didn't anticipate possibly needing any kind of tinted lenses.

For the Finals, they used an electronic target scoring system which is projected on to the wall and shows changes to the leader board in real-time. Very cool. It was great to have my two BC teammates shooting in Finals. Edmond Lee (553/600, 573/600) finished in 3rd behind Mark Hynes (Ontario) and Stan Wills (Alberta) thanks to his impressive 573 he shot in the afternoon relay. Tyler Johnson (558/600, 559/600) finished in 6th.

Sitting at the Calgary Airport now and waiting to fly home.

Back into 50M Free Pistol Shooting! 3rd place finish for Team BC.

Last week I was issued a an authorization to transport permit so I could take my classic Pardini PGP 75 .22 to Calgary for Nationals. Shooting the 50M event is a natural progression from shooting the 10M air event.

I didn't have much in the way of expectations considering I haven't fired a .22 pistol since 1994 but it's an event that I wanted to start competing in. My 15 minutes of sighter shots were basically all the practice I would get to shoot before shooting my first scoring shot.

what the 50m range looks like from my phone's camera

I ended the day with a 512 and a 484. My BC teammates, Tyler Johnson and Edmond Lee both shot 502 on their first round and then brought their scores up in the 2nd round. Edmond Lee made finals and finished in 7th overall. Our combined score gave our BC Team a 3rd place finish.

My main event is on Friday... I shoot at 8:00 am and again at 12:30 pm. I'll be off tomorrow and will probably take a look around the city. The 10M range isn't open for practice times until around 6pm tomorrow evening.

Flying to the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships in the morning

Excellent day at the 2009 World Police and Fire Games today. I was a volunteer helping with scoring and tear down of the Air Rifle venue in Richmond, BC.

air rifle shooters at the 2009 world police and fire games

Flying to Calgary in the morning...

Now that I have all of my registration, authorization to transport, and all other paperwork in order I'm taking my .22 Pardini PGP75 Free Pistol to Nationals. I haven't shot it in 14 years! I've got it all cleaned up, double locked and ready to transport.

I'm shooting 50M Pistol on Wednesday and 10M Pistol on Friday.

I better finish packing. Updates as I write them this week. Bang Bang.

3 more weeks until the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships

Only 3 more weeks until the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships in Calgary, Alberta. I was reviewing some of my training material and journals and decided to update the performance tracking chart I created last year.

I also included an update to reflect the new 10M Pistol World Record set on April 12, 2009 by Jin Jong-oh.


There are 3 notable lines on the chart:

594 - The World Record
578 - The BC Provincial Record
563 - The Olympic Minimum Qualification Score (MQS details)

There is a gap from July 2008 until May 2009 when I was recovering from a shoulder injury. It would have been nice to get some more shooting competitions in this year but I think it was good to ease back into it.

I'm travelling to Kamloops, BC on July 24th to begin the process to get my coaching certification. Then I'll be helping out at the 2009 World Police and Fire Games before flying to Calgary for Nationals.

Registered for 2009 BC Provincials and 2009 Canadian Nationals

I've sent my registration in for Provincials in Campbell River, BC next month and for the 2009 Canadian National Handgun Championships in Calgary, Alberta in August. The 2009 Provincials next month will be my first competition back since last summer when I injured my shoulder.

It will be busy weeks leading up to both events. Next month I might be going down to San Francisco for a few days for a conference and I'll be volunteering at the 2009 World Police & Fire Games right before flying to Calgary. I've signed up for 10M and 50M pistol events for Calgary and will only be shooting 10M at Provincials.

2009 Canadian Nationals Pistol Championship details...

Updated information for the 2009 Canadian National Pistol Championships is now available at pistolcanada.ca.. it's going to be in Calgary again and I will definitely be attending.

Also... results from the 2009 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix! Congrats to my fellow BC team mate Tyler Johnson who had the top Canadian score going into the Finals!

No Zorb! ...but Calgary Zoo today!

Well yesterday I finished Finals and ended up in 7th place, not to bad considering that was my first time making Finals at Nationals since returning to the sport.

me (on the right) shooting a 10 on thursday's 2nd relay.
phillipe tousignant is to my left.

I also found out at the Awards BBQ that our BC Airgun Team consisting of myself, Edmond Lee, and Tyler Johnson got the gold medal beating the Saskatchewan team.

My camera's SD card seems to be corrupted so I'm unable to get any photos off of my camera. The Z-Trip zorb adventure was cancelled as there was a massive thunder storm all day. We drove out to Canada Olympic Park and checked out the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum and Ice House there to watch the National Development Bobsleigh Team practicing. We also drove past the Zorb area which looked like a long ditch which was almost flat -- apparently they moved it there. It does not look fun, maybe it was the rainy day, but I expected it would be a steeper hill... scratch that... I expected it to be on a hill... any hill!

Today, I went and checked out the Calgary Zoo and was impressed! I sure hope I can get my photos off my camera.

Back to Vancouver tomorrow.

2008 Canadian National Finals Tomorrow 8am - Currently Tied For 5th

Today I shot a 560 / 600, one point shy of making the cut to possibly qualify for Canada's National Development Team. The score, combined with yesterday, puts me in a 3-way tie for 5th going into the Finals tomorrow morning. It also makes me the top 10m pistol shooter from BC.

Result	Competitor	Province	Score
1	Prakash Nanjappa	ON	1145
2	Stan Wills	AB	1132
3	Wayne Salhany	ON	1131
4	Yuri Movshovich	ON	1128
5	Sylvain Ouellette	PQ	1119
6	Josh Riker-Fox	AB	1119
7	Allan Harding	BC	1119
8	Mikhail Oussovitch	ON	1118

Finals will take place at the Calgary Rifle and Pistol Club. Everything is setup and ready to go for the Top 8 shooters. I am currently in a 3-way tie and with the count back I will likely be shooting in Position 8 (photo below) as positions 1 and 10 probably won't be used.

i'm currently in a 3-way tie for 5th

Gotta rest up tonight to fight for every point tomorrow!

Once the competition is over a bunch of are going over to the Canada Olympic Park to Zorb next to the 1998 Olympic Ski Jump.

Competition Day #4 - My shooting glasses take a tumble

Well my first day of shooting at the event got off to a slow start. The range didn't have a scale to measure how much CO2 gas was left in my air gun, so I was cautious with how many sighter shots I used before starting my first competition shot. During the equipment check on the line my shooting glasses were accidentally pushed off the table and hit the cement floor. I was afraid to look, especially when I felt something hit my leg! With the kind of impact it made, you expect to see shrapnel and debris everywhere. Luckily, everything was fine. The plastic case made a loud noise when it dove into the cement and there was no lens in the frames to get injured. No lens in my glasses?? Yes. I took it out on Sunday and have been using them without a lens since. They still have the adjustable iris in place (not shown in the photo below).

what not to do!

After about a dozen sighter shots I began and it took some time to get into a flow. The competition consists of 60 shots; 1 shot at 1 target. Of the 1h 45m to shoot I used all but 3 minutes. Normally, I would be finished earlier but getting off to a slow start with double checking that my glasses were aligned and functioning properly. Despite a few equipment hiccups and making a last minute change this week to opt out of using a lens in my shooting glasses (the lens helps keep the gun sights clear and in focus) I'm happy with my score of 559 / 600. I know I can do better than this and will continue to fine-tune my self, equipment, and approach to shoot better.

I have yet to see where I currently stand against other shooters from across Canada. I'll look tomorrow after I shoot again.

Arrived in Calgary!

I landed in Calgary this afternoon to find Vancouver-like weather with a mix of rain and sun. Mostly grey skies and rain, not like the great day yesterday back home in Vancouver:

the view yesterday, aboard a ferry cruising back to Vancouver

After getting settled in, I went out to the two ranges hosting the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships and got signed in and my equipment checked. I put some practice time in at the range to get my gun sighted in and get an overall feel for the range. I competed at the Calgary Rifle and Pistol Club last September for the Western Canadian Airgun Championships so I was familiar with how everything was setup.

The Dark Knight movie opens this week... must see!

Focus Al :)

My first relay of the competition begins tomorrow morning at 10am.

2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships start tomorrow!

The 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships start on Sunday July 13th in Calgary, Alberta. I fly out of Vancouver on Tuesday morning and will arrive with time to register and get in some practice time before my first relay of the event starts on Wednesday.

June was a really busy month and it seems like it's been almost non-stop between life, work, and trying to find enough time to practice. I'm looking forward to this week off to unplug a bit.

I'm going to be posting progress from the competition daily (well... maybe almost daily) and will put up photos of some of the non-competition adventures I'll embark on... like tumbling down a hill side in a giant plastic bubble! ;)

Travel details sorted for 2008 Canadian Nationals in Calgary

There are 6 weeks left until the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships in Calgary. I just got my flight and accommodations sorted out and am very much looking forward to this trip. I found a seat sale at West Jet which made a big difference from some of the deals Expedia found for me online.

I quickly put together a Google Map of the two shooting ranges that will be used for the event as well a couple of attractions I might check out. Last September when I was in Calgary I was thinking of checking out the Zoo so I'm probably going to do that and I'm also going to spend more time at Canada Olympic Park (COP).

I only spent a few hours last time at COP but I'm going to spend at least a day there this Summer and plan to try Zorbing! Rolling down a hill inside a giant plastic ball... Sold!

Registered for 2008 Canadian National Championships

This week I received confirmation of my registration for the 2008 Canadian National Pistol Championships. Registration can be done online at www.pistolcanada.ca.

registration for 2008 nationals
is available at pistolcanada.ca

There was also a change this week regarding the venue and the available practice times. If you're planning to attend it would be a good idea to get registered early:

DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES OF SCHEDULING, THE 2008 MATCH COMMITTEE HAS HAD TO CHANGE THE VENUE OF THE 2008 CANADIAN NATIONAL AIR GUN MATCH.

THE LOCATION WILL BE:

CALGARY RIFLE AND PISTOL CLUB
1910 – 39 AVE. N.E. – CALGARY, T2E 7Y9

THIS CHANGE WILL ALLOW SOME GREATER FLEXIBILITY IN CHOOSING SHOOTING RELAY TIMES AND WILL ALSO ALLOW FOR A COMPLETE OPEN DAY OF PRACTICE TUESDAY JULY 15.

Less than 2 weeks until the 2008 BC Handgun Championships -- I'm currently scheduled to shoot 10M and 50M pistol events.