Until the last Stage. Just the long course with 40 rnds and 200 points. I´ve started with the three-mag-coupler. There´ve been two half targets on the left and two on the right at the start. Then a 50m Target etc. I shot the right two half targets first and moved then to the left, to shoot the left ones and the 50m target before my first mag change. But after the fourth shot to the right, I realized, that the bold kept open. Malfunction, I thought. I charged it again but realized then, that I could see the feeder of the first mag through the ejection port… Bad brainfade – I thought, I´ve checked my mags. Obviously, I forgot one… The rest of the stage was accordant. If a plan is destroyed, everything goes worse…
Lesson of the day. A mag has to be full. Always. Completely full.
But who cares. Next time, I´ll be better. For this time, I´m lucky about a stagewin, a jamless rifle (if the captain has no jams), a nice, sunny day with great people and lots of fun!
I started on saturday right on the 300m stages – first one 8 metal plates about 250m and one A3 target on 300m. I shot fast and safe the 8 plates and got a accoustic hit-feedback from every single one. So I didn’t wait for them to fall and shot the last three rounds of my mag on the A3 target (in Germany, we are only allowed, to use 10-round-magazines, so 10+1 is our limit to start). Bad decission. One plate was maybe hit too low and didn’t fell. So I had to reload and get this one with a second mag. Damned… But who cares. Two alphas on the A3 – so a full house and the time wasn’t so bad at all. Next one was 3 IPSC Targets on 300m, each one to hit with three rounds. I was able to get a really good sight picture with the 6x Kahles and shot them fast. 6A, 4C. Solid! I´ve zeroed the scope with the Geco 63grs ammo on 100m. Due to that, the small dot below the illuminated center dot was a perfect zero on 300m and for the 250m Plates, the centerdot on top of the plate was the right choice! Nice 🙂 Point for Kahles!
After the 300m stages, we had to shoot all the hoser stages up to max. 25m distances. I shot them all with 1x magnification. This went well and I had satisfying hits and times. Maybe sometimes one or three charlies to much, but nothing serious. Solid. I was able to go the speed of the top shooters of my squad which made me feel very comfortable. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep this for the last two stages of this day – the two “running and gunning” stages on the 50m ranges. Indeed, my hits were not too bad on the first one, but the time was comparable slow, which costs me several points. The second one, I decided to shoot more aggressive and faster. There was a position, were you had to shoot two bobbers at about 40m distance. I took the risk version and shot only two rounds per bobber and didn’t do a mag change. Unfortunately, there was only one hit on the left bobber. One mike. But the time was not bad, so the damage was not too big.
On Sunday, we had to shoot all the stages at the 200m ranges. Two 10-rnds speedies and two 20-rnds medium-courses. Half-targets on 50m, Plates at 100m and Poppers at 200m in different combinations have been the challenge. That was my day! I decided, to shoot these stages with the maximum 6x-magnification. A good decision! For me, it was perfect, because I could now see precise, where my hits have been when I pulled the trigger. I was able to call the shots! The result were two stage-wins! My personal highlight was a stage, where you had to shoot 5 Poppers at 200m amongst other targets. You could choose whether to shoot them standing leant against a wooden beam or from a bed some meters away. I choosed the offensive way and shot the from the beam behind. It was fantastic – hit them fast and precise and earned best time on this stage 🙂 Wonderfull! All in all, these good stages pushed me overall to a really nice 4th place. More than I expected. I was very very pleased with this result and my performance on this far stuff. Where I have to work on, is the speed at medium distance stages from 25 -50m. Trigger work needs to be improved. But this is nothing impossible.
Not to forget – before the match, Siegbert Papzien, Oliver Josi und Claus Rothweiler and me decided to sign up for the team event. Good decision. We made it! German Champions Team Score!
And finally, here are the results and a nice picture I got from Stefan Föll (www.photopsia.de):
I’ve tried also, to make a pic with the iPhone how the view through the Kahles looked like:
K16i – 6x @ 100m
After that, I changed to the 300m range. This looked like that:
K16i – 6x @300m (IPSC Classic Target)
second try:
K16i – 6x @ 300m (IPSC Classic Target)
And that was the result at 300m – 30 fast rounds (there’s also no time in the match for precise and intensive aiming). 17 Alpha, 12 Charly, 1 Delta! Now, I only have to shoot like this next week at the Nationals! 🙂
Long distance targets (even reduced 60%-ones), Plates, Popper, Drop-Turner, Beartraps, doors etc. All in all very challenging and interesting! Unfortunately, I had to switch to copper plated bullets because ARES haven`t been allowed on this range (don´t understand, but you have to follow the rules..). Luckily, I had some Frontiers left in stock. Unfortunately, they haven´t been as precise as my usually used ARES load. 20m groups, shot in practice last week showed only poor accuracy. If they caused my three miss or was it just me aiming not accurate enough? Who knows. I accuse the load. 😉
I shot the miss all on far distance targets (two on a long course, one on a speedy – the one on the speedy was a miserable one – scratched the target but just didn´t hit the scoring-line 🙁 ) Lessons learned, this is something, I need to improve now. Long-Range-Accuracy.
My speed was already there. I shot the fastest wheelgun on all stages. Even within the Classic Division, I would have been not too bad.
All in all I can say, that this was a successfull weekend with a lot of fun with my dutch friends! Thanks again guys for your hospitality!
as you can see at the pictures, the Kahles is bigger than my former used Meopta ZD and looks more massive. Allthough they are nearly at the same weight – 502 Gramms for the Meopta and 504 Gramms for the Kahles. I like very much the maximized magnification lever (“Cat Tail”). For the most other Scopes only available as expensive aftermarket products – here already integrated. Clever! Another very nice feature of the K16i is the zeroable indexation for the windage and elevation adjustment. Just release the screw on the adjustment knob and set the index ring to zero after zeroing the scope to your prefered distance. After that, you can easily get back to your zero setting for your distance after adjustments for example to specific conditions on a range (wind, separate distances etc.). Overall – the scope seems very elaborated to me for all intents and purposes. Like!
I´ve chosen the reticle SI-1, because for me, it’s the best compromise between fast sight pictures for fast near targets (big ring -> “hoser stages”) and precise aiming on far or small targets (small 1 MOA dot). The brighness can be set easily to all needed levels – from light glimming on dark indoor ranges to a daylight bright light for sunny outdoor ranges.
The first I did, was last weekend on my home-range at 25m/50m. I zeroed the scope first on 50m. That was easy to do. Then, I set the adjustable gas block according to the ammo, the lightened carrier, the lightened buffer and the comp. Nice… 🙂
Then I shot fast drills on 25m . That worked perfect! No need to get used to the scope first! Beep – rifle up – hit. I could easy find the dot on the target! Now, I´m very looking forward to the first test at 300m at Philippsburg! Stay tuned!
