2011 Lithuanian Open, Kaunas 09-10 July 2011

The Lithuanian Open is one of the matches that is a must for Team Capsicum Danmark. It is simple one of the best trips we do. The only reason why I wouldn't attend is that its close to my son's birthday. As always I picked up Zig, Wessel and the CiC at Vilnius airport for the 1 hour exciting drive to Kaunas. The things you see on the "highway" is very odd for us. A cyclist in the left lane, pedestrian crossings and cyclist coming against traffic. This add to the experience.

The organizers usually arrange a good match hotel but we always stay at hotel Daniel which is right downtown Kaunas, perpendicular to one of the longest walking streets in Europe. We get a good deal at Daniela and they have always taken good care of us, so we'll most likely stay loyal to Daniel on our trips to Kaunas. Its also just up the road from a new shopping center where all the necessities for the match can be bought...we mainly end up eating a lot of ice cream an nobody can do that faster that Wessel, he averages a hit factor of 25 when it comes to downing an ice cream...

Squad 8 - including Team Capsicum Danmark. CiC, Zig, Dalmas, Wessel

The match was 20 stages, 313 rounds. With a good balance between long, medium and short stages. Any more rounds and we that travel by air will have a real challenge to bring enough ammo. Luckily we are fortunate to have good friends that can help out. The range in Kaunas has 3 bays that are at least 50x40 meters which create some really good opportunities to build awesome stages. We were hit by some rain during Saturday afternoon so we did not film any of the really big stages... bummer. The rest of the range has no problem of hosting 18 stages of varying size. Even the 9 round stages are well designed to challenge the shooter and I don't think of one that was boring, I fumbled the load on the cooper tunnel stage which made it crap, but that was a user problem.

Stage 8, our match started on this stage. 9 rounds standing on a elevated plank holding a rope. Scary first stage.

My goal this year is to find back to the mental power I had in 2008 and the life off shooting to allow for that. It sure feels as if I'm getting back on track. I shot a controlled match, making sure I got my points, not compromising points for speed and it paid off. I won with 9 percent... well I should have won by 9% as I did learn something new during this match. Always verify your score... and then verify the correction.

Zig's and my scoresheet was mixed up, we presented this to stats and they corrected the error, or so I thought. I was scored 3A 2C 3D 1M - 5,50 for stage 12... I shot 7A 2C - 6,4... The time I got after correcting the verification was 640 seconds.. just a little over 10 minutes. Instead of a stage win and 45 points the typing mistake could have cost me 44,5 match points. I lost a PM in Sweden due to WinMSS not flagging erratic scores. We all do typing mistakes, I have no quarrel with that but WinMSS not reacting on a HF of 67 (the PM I lost) or in this case a time of 10 minutes is simply not good enough.

Stage 9 with some really low ports. Safe shooting.

Klaus was heading for a win in Open Senior but lost the PM with 0.06% (0,9 match points). That proves that every damn point in this sport is worth fighting for. It was a painful realization. Zig shot really well on day 1 but on day 2 suffered a gun malfunction (primer shavings in the trigger group) that really shook him up, a round went off after dropping the slide on load and make ready. After cleaning all the shavings and tuning the sear spring the gun ran safely for the rest of the match, but it takes great mental power to come back after zeroing a 115p stage. Wessel dropped a few too many points to stay in touch but he's on the right track.

Stage 10 - Mini targets covered with tight pt's. One shot per target.

I won my first PM in two years and it was a great feeling. I shot controlled and followed my game plan the whole match shooting 95% of the possible points, with that I'm really happy. I tried a new setup for my gun testing a new buffer setup, short stroking my slide travel. It worked OK during practice but I needed to try it during match conditions and day 1 was not really successful. I had 3 malfunctions so I put the normal recoil system back in and after that my gun was back to its normal reliability. It was also the first match test of the XL magwell, it was tested in the box and fit like a charm, the feeling is great and my reloads benefit from the new supersize docking station.

The new docking station. I'm fortunate to shoot with the absolutely best equipment in the business.

Stage 1 - A fun stage with speed and precision.

Me and 3rd place Jevgenijs Zils

After the match we headed back to Vilnius, a city well worth a weekend trip if not shooting. We stayed in hotel Atrium in the old city - it may not be repeated - but we had a victory dinner at a fantastic restaurant, possibly the best steak in Vilnius can be found at El Gaucho Sano. We ordered their signature steak, a 500g behemoth file... sharing it would be sufficient if you want room for desert.

Below is my match performance in numbers. According to my calculations you need at least 93% of the possible points to win a normal match. Very few have the speed to win with less points. I'm satisfied with 94% of the possible points.

Make sure you mark the Lithuanian Open in your 2012 shooting calendar, no match nor trip offer better value for money. Thanks again IPSC.LT for you hospitality.

More videos can be found here.

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