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Champion by three points and 9 V bulls – the first non- GB shooter to win the title.


Here’s the final top ten: 1.


2. 3. 4.


5. Marco Been 6. 7. 8. 9.


10. Mark Daish


Vyacheslav Kovalshii Gary Costello


Dmytro Hrymalyuk Simon Rogers


Liam Fenlon Olaf Jones


Rudolf Eckbauer Vitaly Bragar


466.45v 463.36 463.33 461.45 461.39 461.39 461.33 460.34 460.33 459.43


Just a few years ago, you wouldn’t have seen a single foreign name in that list, now 50% are from overseas. Next year, we could see GB shooters in the minority for the first time!


You can see how important those V bulls are (places 4 to 7) – remember, that V bull is just five inches (125mm) in diameter – about the size of a CD. It’s fitting that the winner also has the highest V bull count – though Simon Rogers equalled it. Always the sign of an accurate rifle, I like to think.


Here are the stage winners for Day 2: 800 yards Ulrich Kwade


(V.Kovalskii also shot a 75.9v) 1000 yards Liam Fenlon


(V.Taveggia, S.Rogers & C.Caselli also shot a 75.11v) 900 yards Volke Zeitz


75.11v 75.09v


98.9v


Have a look at the equipment list further on in this artilce or go to the GB F Class website to see what the top ten shooters were using. If you are thinking of entering F Class Open, this is maybe where you should start with your choice of components, cartridge and gunsmith. As always, only an elite few are in contention for medals. For the rest of us, it’s a chance to shoot with and measure ourselves against the best shooters in the world and, when we aren’t shooting, have a meal, a beer or two and, as our Irish friends say - enjoy the craich.


F/TR - Laurie’s bit


This was my third ‘Europeans’, always as an F/TR competitor and my second year out with the 223 Rem. Savage. My objective was to hold onto, preferably


21


THE 2011 EUROPEAN F CLASS CHAMPIONSHIPS BISLEY - ENGLAND


better last year’s top 20 placement but things didn’t work out that way at all. Anyway... perusing my squadding details revealed I was assigned to the all-F/TR group and we weren’t on until the third and final relay in Friday morning’s Match 1 at 800. A nice leisurely start to the proceedings, but my fellow competitors rushed down to Stickledown to look at the wind or something and got soaked for their troubles alongside the unfortunates shooting on Relay 1!


I drove onto the range just as the second relay got underway in improving weather and against the backdrop of an impressive rainbow over the Danger Area. By the time it was my turn to move forward onto No. 50 firing point – right up against the tree line and very scenic – the cloud had broken up giving surprisingly warm sunny intervals. As a ‘November only’ Bisley visitor, this provided me with a novel condition in the form of a nice readable mirage at the far end of the range. It supported flag indications that just a smidgeon of left windage was needed, but almost as soon as we started in earnest, the 7 o’clock left wind rose to two minutes and ran between that and three for most of the match.


So far so good, feel confident, start with a couple of solid fives ..... then .... score shot 3, a near perfect wind call but a full 1½-MOA drop compared to its predecessor onto the three/four score line, and worse scored the lower value. Two points gone in a match that I was sure would see a barrel-full of 75s! Leave the elevation setting untouched, cross fingers mentally, shot 4 has perfect elevation, just a shame I missed a wind let-off and dropped another point. After that I lost another trio, a couple to poor elevation and another through a second unseen wind let-off for a distinctly mediocre 69.1v.


Nevertheless, many other scores weren’t as high as I’d supposed with only Ukraine’s Sergey Gorban and Altcar’s Mick Longbottom getting possibles with eight Vs to seven. Another couple of ‘GB Shooters’, Messrs Donaldson and Opperman were only just behind on 74s split by Germany’s Reinhard Lang on V-count.


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