Sanderson is in position...

[IPshooter]

...to make USA history. Check the results from RF Day 1:

http://www.issf.tv/showfile.asp?file=Q1 ... /2006/571/

Also, if you go to this site, you can pull up all of their targets and see their hits:

http://streljastvo.vogon.hr/livescore.aspx?eid=42

Ennis is in good shape, too.

It's been a long time an American won or even medaled in RF in a big match. That's even true for any pistol event.

Sleep well, Keith!

Stan

[IPshooter]

Sanderson finished 5th and should be proud. It's been too long since an American was in the RF finals. Zhang shot a hot final. Also looks like some gun troubles doomed a number of shooters, including Bickar.

http://www.issf.tv/showfile.asp?file=C1 ... /2006/571/

Stan

[deleted1]

Noticing that Ralf Schumann did not make the cut to the Finals. There is no doubt that the new pistols take a good deal of getting used to; 1000g trigger, .22lr recoil, and that old bugaboo the 4 sec strings. The "new" pistols, specially the Schumann Pardini which is awesome, they are having much "fun" with poor behaving electronics. Let's hope the "persons in charge" don't get fed up with the newer versions of the older guns' crankiness, as well. Frankly I loved the old .22 short guns, they were generally a pain in the ass, but eventually produced damned good scores as well. I think it was part of the mystique and nervousness over whether or not if I was going to be able to shoot all my strings without malfunctions. My old Schumann loved to double, regardless of the ammo I used.

[Steve Swartz]

Notice how tight the scores were.

Keith was very close to a bronze.

Just goes to show how absolutely important every single shot is . . .

With Ennis and Bickar on board and shooting well also, RF is looking up for the USA.

Steve Swartz

[IPshooter]

Notice how tight the scores were.

Keith was very close to a bronze.

Just goes to show how absolutely important every single shot is . . .

With Ennis and Bickar on board and shooting well also, RF is looking up for the USA.

Steve Swartz

Hi Steve,

Yes, it is. But we need more RF shooters in the USA. The pool is still too small. Also, it looks like some gun troubles reared their ugly heads. May have cost them a team medal.

CF is tomorrow, and if the guys are on their game, should be an interesting result.

Stan

[dhurt]

Out of curiosity, doe's anyone know what pistols were in the finals? It really stinks when pistols malfunction you out. What pistols seem to be leaders of reliability? Bickar shoots a Walther GSP, normally fairly reliable. Anyone know what happened? Thanks

[deleted1]

Schumann shot a wild looking Pardini---it looked huge forward of the magazine well. Some of our other shooters were also shooting Pardini's and they had a world of hurt with all kinds of maladies. Not exactly sure whether it was the electric triggers or not, but I did hear there were some ejection problems with the "lighter" ammo. Bickars was seen on some pictures with what looked like a Walther (GSP). There hasn't been a lot of information regarding the weapons choices as I think everyone's trying to sort out the choices and adjustments before Beijing. As far as why there isn't more of a pool of USA shooters---simply put Bullseye, Cowboy Action, IDPA & IPSC are much more popular---witness the growth of the CAS. Notice I didn't mention Internation let alone RF---they ain't many of us'n left that ain't the ancient of days. AP being most popular because it's cheap to get in the doorway with an IZH46 and be competitive---no other pistol event even comes close to that---$250+ and you are set. The other events require outlays up to $2500+ to come close to being competitive and then you have ammo costs from there. Don't expect to shoot Remington or CCI SV for practise----and remember Schumann shoots in excess of 150,000 rds./year in practise.

[IPshooter]

As far as why there isn't more of a pool of USA shooters---simply put Bullseye, Cowboy Action, IDPA & IPSC are much more popular---witness the growth of the CAS. Notice I didn't mention Internation let alone RF---they ain't many of us'n left that ain't the ancient of days. AP being most popular because it's cheap to get in the doorway with an IZH46 and be competitive---no other pistol event even comes close to that---$250+ and you are set. The other events require outlays up to $2500+ to come close to being competitive and then you have ammo costs from there. Don't expect to shoot Remington or CCI SV for practise----and remember Schumann shoots in excess of 150,000 rds./year in practise.

Bob,

If you take a look at what people are paying to get started in IDPA or IPSC (with the most tricked out pistols), there's a lot of money being spent by those folks. Lesser amounts for BE and CAS, but if you choose to get into those games, you'll probably need a budget of nearly two grand, minimum.

As far as ISSF shooting in the USA, you can certainly be competitive with a $250 (or less) AP which costs almost nothing for pellets and a Ruger .22 LR with cheap American ammo. You don't have to buy the top level stuff to get started.

My own pet peeve is the lack of emphasis on 5-shot AP in this country. I think there are a gazillion reasons why the two courses of fire should be adopted and pushed hard.

Stan

[David Levene]

My own pet peeve is the lack of emphasis on 5-shot AP in this country. I think there are a gazillion reasons why the two courses of fire should be adopted and pushed hard.

That's not just a US problem Stan.

You would have thought that, as we cannot shoot 25m cartridge pistol in the UK, we would be clamouring to shoot the "Rule 8.20" events here. You would be wrong. Although the major meetings have the events on the programme the firing points are rarely full.

At least people are still shooting ISSF style 25m pistol though. Guns like the LP5 and LP50 are remarkably accurate at 25m. The lack of recoil does not replicate the cartridge events, it actually creates new events, but it's better than nothing.

[Bruce Martindale]

I would venture a guess the the new standard pistol format is a benefit as anyone with a BE gun can play. Case in point;

I shot RF in the Nationals for the first time this year and didn't even have a classification. I used a Hammerli 208s with SK Std + ( same as Wolf). Day 1 I would say I was lucky but I shot a 553 with two misses and I think a 6th place finish. Day 2 was something like a 519. Heck, I was happy with it and it was FUN! I didnt see a lot of malfunctions in 22LR.

In the Empire State Games (where shorts are still allowed), I only qualified for RF because I was in Kuwait during the FP quals. "They" said I couldnt win against "real" RF shooters using shorts. Well ...day 1 was a pair of 264's for a 528 and first place ! Day two heat 1 was a 271 and heat 2 I was less consistent and also had my first crash in the 4 sec series. End result after finals was still a Silver Medal and a tema Bronze. My partner and I are not RF shooters and were the only ones using 22 LR.

I simply said to myself, 8 and 6 seconds are easy and I have good trigger control from my other shooting venues and I look HARD at the sights. I had trained in first shot drills and practiced the swing from the waist.


I think even with the std pistol, I will be doing a lot more of this sport!

sorry for the long wheeze