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.

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!

Less than 4 weeks until the ISSF World Cup in Milan

Really looking forward to representing Canada and shooting at the ISSF World Cup in Milan, Italy next month. Even better is shooting a week later at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany -- this will be the last stop in the World Cup circuit before the Olympic Games in London.

These 2 events will be my first outside of North America and my first 2 as an official team member of Canada's National Development Team. I'm scheduled to shoot 10M indoor and 50M outdoor events - both are Olympic events.

Still waiting for my new grip for my gun. I may have to wait to switch over to it until after I get back from the World Cup events because I won't have much time to get it setup and practice with it before I leave. Hopefully it clears customs this week!

Training has been going really well... I won't go into the details of it now. :)

2012 BC Airgun Champion!

The BC Airgun Championships were this weekend in Richmond, BC and I became Provincial Champion with scores of 556/600, 562/600, and 565/600. I'm still sorting out some issues with my gun's grip and it seems like I need to tighten the screws on the grip about every 10 shots or so.

New grip has been ordered anyway! :) Should arrive in April giving me a few weeks to train with it before the World Cup in Milan, Italy this coming May.

Also, before I forget here is a photo of our BC Team at the Canadian Airgun Grand Prix last weekend in Toronto wearing our awesome new BCTSA sponsored jackets:

(L-R) John Lublinkhof, Jessie Lublinkhof, Mathew Klein,
John Berta, Edmond Lee, Al Harding

I finished in 4th at the Grand Prix, which was a decent result considering I was dealing with technical difficulties.

Afternoon gun repairs

I'm in Toronto at the 2012 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix and had a 'everything that can go wrong will' type morning. My new batteries in my grip for my electronic trigger gave out after my 3rd shot so I had to get the screwdriver out and replace the batteries...good thing I pack spares! ;)

Several shots after starting my competition the electronic target carrier hooked on to the front sight of my gun and carried it about 4 feet down range before swinging off and crashing back down to the floor. No good comes from watching a highly technical precision crafted piece of machinery falling several feet. *cringe* ...disastrous. =/

It all happened in a split second...I press the button for the target carrier to go down range, it stutters a bit, swings over and hooks my front sight and drags it off the table. The next second is filled with not being able to do anything and a slow motion, "Noooooooooooooo". I finished the match as best as I could but was way off my average as I wrestled with some tools on the firing line to get things fixed.

Grip off to check for damage

I spent a couple hours with the grip off clearing out the broken wood chips from inside the gun. I'll most likely need to get a new grip.

On a positive note, it looks like our BC team is currently in 1st place. I'll get some photos of the BC Team with our awesome BC Target Sports sponsored jackets.

Back to making some minor adjustments to the gun.

2012 National Dev Team... time to step up!

I made the 2012 National Development Team! Yes!

Busy next few months...

February 11-12
I'll be taking my Level 1 Technical of the NCCP Coaching Course. I took the A+B components last year and now an opportunity to take the Level 1 Technical has come up so I'm going to do it. Details are available on the BCTSA website.

February 23-27
Going to Toronto, Ontario for the Canadian Airgun Grand Prix -- North America's biggest ISSF air gun competition. HUGE THANK YOU to BC Target Sports for funding assistance to attend!

Last year I finished as the top Canadian shooter, this year I plan to beat my scores from last year.

March 2-4
A couple weeks later I'll be attending the BC Airgun Championships in Richmond, BC. If you're planning to shoot make sure you register early -- Forms are on the BCTSA website! If you're interested in what this sport is all about, feel free to stop by and watch.

...and then I'll be going overseas to one of the ISSF World Cup competitions this year!

Going to the 2012 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix in Feb

2012 is here! It's been awhile since posting up an update. I'm getting caught up on a few things after a busy last few months.

My next shooting competition will be the 2012 Canadian Airgun Grand Prix in Toronto Canada on February 24-26. Event details can be found here and on the events Facebook page.

More details to come!