Leaking batteries caused minor damage to LP10E

After being away most of March I came back to find my electronic trigger wasn't working. I took the cover off and saw that the batteries had started leaking acid and had been for awhile. These batteries were only a few months old. What the!?

I removed the bad batteries and replaced them but nothing would power on. I took the electronic components out and noticed a lot of white powder had leaked out and was corroding the metal. I used some vinegar, water, and a dozen or so Q-tips to clean everything up, but there is a bit of damage to the wood grip (more of a stain) and the battery cover plate had some damage. A bit of paint will clean it up.

Metal plate (bottom left) and top right of electronics compartment shows damage.

The lesson here is that I'll be removing the batteries completely if I plan on letting everything sit for more than a few weeks.

2013 BC Air Champ... 2 yrs in a row

Had a great shoot this weekend in Richmond, BC for the 2013 BC Airgun Championships finishing 1st for the second straight year. My scores were 563, 556, and 567 for a total of 1686, only 6 points ahead of fellow BC Team teammate Edmond Lee.

On day 1, the first match I shot a 99 and 98 in my first 20 shots which was my best start ever. My score dropped a bit in the afternoon so I need to work on that. It can be a bit draining shooting a second match only a couple hours later. Endurance!

The second day started out decent with shots 11-20 resulting in another 99. Below is my scorecard for the 567.

567/600 score card from 2013 BC Airgun Championships

Taking a bit of a break the next few weeks and then will start ramping up training leading up to June when I'll travel down to Fort Benning, Georgia for the 2013 USA Rifle & Pistol National Championships.

Complete results from 2013 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix

Here are the complete results from the 2013 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix that was held in Toronto.

In my last post I forgot to mention Team BC won the bronze in the team event!

Good way to start 2013

It was great to be in Toronto again and to see shooting friends from across Canada at the Canadian Grand Prix. I arrived Thursday night wearing multiple layers expecting it to be cold... it was! -13 ºC at times (8.6 ºF). I didn't go out too much although Team BC did venture out in the cold to walk about a half mile to a restaurant. It was pretty much one of those 'in the snow uphill both ways' kind of things. Haha.. The wind and wet snow didn't help but it was good to get out of the hotel for a bit.

Saturday I shot a 562/600 and right near the end of the relay I was on the power went out in the entire building. Elevators were on emergency power and it was pretty much pitch black except for a few emergency lights. Later that night the fire alarm went off in the hotel around 10pm. Twice!

Sunday my combined score of 562 and 558 got me into 7th position going into Finals in a field of 58. The main highlight of Finals was the fight for 1st place between Roger Daniel from Trinidad and Anthony Munoz Choez from Ecuador who were tied for 1st place. Roger Daniel, who has been to the last 3 Olympics had an amazing Final and finished in 1st. Experience definitely coming into play.

I'm off to Ottawa for a couple days then back to Vancouver to get ready for the BC Championships.

Will be at the Canadian Grand Prix in Feb - Toronto

Happy New'ish Year!

Been a couple months since any new posts so here goes the first one for 2013.

Only a couple weeks until the largest indoor 10m shooting event in North America. More details about the event can be found on the CAGP Facebook page. I'll be arriving on the 14th and spending the weekend there and then heading over to Ottawa on Monday for a couple days.

The event organizers announced awhile back that it wouldn't be using the 2013-2016 ISSF rules changes which I'm sort of happy about as I haven't completely bought into them yet, but I guess I'll need to at some point. ;)

A couple weeks after this match, will be the BC Championships, then I'm taking part of March off. Yes!

Match Winner! Finished the weekend with my highest score of 2012!

Great weekend of shooting! My scores for the weekend were 552, 563, and then I finished Day 2 with a 569. For my non-shooting friends the points are out of a possible 600 and 563 is the minimum qualification score for the Olympics.

569 is the highest score of 2012 for me and for the better part of the year I struggled to get into the 560+ range so this was awesome for my 'competition confidence'

Here is the cool Match Winner trophy for the competition:

Match Winner Trophy!

I need to board a plane but will post up results when I get them. :)

One last competition for 2012

My last shooting competition for 2012 will be a local event called The Hibernation Match in Richmond, BC. I'll be taking a very short break (2 weeks tops) after that and then will start getting ready for the 2013 competition year.

I hope to see lots of BC shooters out for the Hibernation Match next month on Nov 2-4! Registration information can be found here.

Catching up on updates

You ever have one of those days (or weeks?) where you feel like you're off course by just a few moments in time? That sort of sums up my trip to Nationals. It all started when I was driving to the airport and in the parking lot ahead of me a car kept speeding up and slowing down as they passed each row of cars looking for an empty space. It seemed like they were in a panic and being the airport parking lot I can safely assume they were running late for their flight. Each time they did this as the car slowly crept forward I could see their head turn to the right, then to the left, then back to the right, then back to the left. I was following behind, patiently, waiting to get to the far end of the lot where there are always spots. Only a few rows in they stop, turn their head back to the left and point at something. Without hesitation they put their car into reverse and sped backwards so they could turn into that row of cars. They sped backwards. Without looking. Right into my car. Luckily there was no damage other than what looked like my license plate stamped into the back of their bumper.

I wondered what would have happened if I had left home a little earlier (or even later), would I have been right behind that car at that moment or just have driven into the lot, parked my car, and carried on to catch my flight.

The next 'off' moment came when I had finished shooting the 10m event and saw I was not going to make it out of the qualification round. I went and had lunch and dropped off my gear at the hotel. I got back to the range to watch Finals and they announced that I was in 8th position (non-Canadians had been removed from shooting in the Canadian Finals). There I was, without my equipment, and expected to shoot in about 5 minutes. I borrowed a gun I'd never shot before from Team BC's Jamie Berta. No shooting glasses, no flat soled shooting shoes, not even my competitor number to wear on my back. Uhhh. I had 8 minutes to get the gun sighted in not fully knowing which adjustment did what or by how much down range. No shooting glasses? No problem, I just squinted to block out the extra light (normally I shoot with a blinder and an almost closed iris). No competitor number? Not a problem a piece of paper, a pen, and some tape can't fix. I was definitely 'amateur hour'. I finished the Finals the best I could with a gun that didn't fit my hand... I had nothing to lose anyway, you can't drop from 8th (last in Finals) to anything lower.

If I had taken a few more seconds to look at the results maybe I wold have noticed the non-Canadians ahead of me in the standings. Maybe I would have kept my equipment with me and maybe I would have shot with my gear and maybe I could have climbed to 5th, 6th, ,or 7th.

No point trying to play the would have, could have, should have game though. It's done and I need to move forward, learn, plan, and adjust.

In the 50m event I got gold in the Sharpshooter class so that was pretty cool! Plus our Team BC (John Berta, Edmond Lee, and me) were able to snag silver in the 10m team event. Top shooting by Edmond Lee who was able to secure 3rd place in Canada in the 10m individual!

50m Gold in Sharpshooter class

Back to the range tomorrow! :)

Less than 2 weeks until Nationals in Calgary

It's been awesome watching the Olympics the last while. I wish they showed more of the shooting events on TV though... I'm sure other countries show more shooting event coverage. So far the best coverage I've been able to find is from the NBC Olympics website where they have full event replays.

I've been pretty busy the last 2 months since my last blog post. I took some time off and spent 2 weeks in Peru trekking to Machu Picchu (I want to go back!), I was in San Francisco a week for work, did a weekend in Las Vegas for fun and then spent some time in Portland for work. Busy!

Pretending to be doing some serious climbing. :)
Machu Picchu in the background.

In my last competition in Munich I noticed some issues with the grip on my Pardini FPM and have since replaced the grip with a new one that is better fitted to my hand. I've spent the last couple weeks dry firing and getting to the 50m range, when I can, to get a good feel for it.

Nationals are in Calgary this year and I'll be there Aug 17-20 to shoot 10m and 50m events. Stay tuned for more posts!

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.