World Shoot XIII,  Pietersburg, South Africa

DAY  ONE, tuesday 10 september, somewhere over the North Sea

Well,  we are airborne, but things did not go as we planned this morning. We where halfway throug the check in, when suddenly the BA personel stopped us. We had way too much ammo in our bags. IATA rules states 5kg max and that was non negotiable. We where sure the travel company had arranged this for us in advance. But NOPE they had granted us excessive luggage, not ammo. So there where we, 30 shooters and almost no ammo. So then started the phone race.... I think we tried all available options without any luck. So we had to go to plan B. 

We did not have any plan B so that one was made quickly. We started unpacking all ammo so that we where in comply with IATA rules, and checked in the bags within the 5 kilo limit. So then we started arranging for a seperate cargo transport company. They was not sure what we where talking about so they sent two representatives up to the BA check in island to inspect the ammo. They started smiling as soon as they saw the pile of ammo. So it did not look to good. 

The flight to Heatrow was scedule to a 12:05 take off and we had almost run out of time, so we took a master chief decision: Hans, Even and myself forfeited the 12:05 flight and we sent the rest of the pack with that plane to London, while we continued with safeguarding the ammo and dealing with the cargo people. Our bags where then unloaded of the plane again and sent back into the departure hall. The lady from BA was an inch of giving us up, but the bags came back and we continued with the cargo people.

After some 30 minutes with discussions and explanations we started to convince the cargo company to handle this hotchpotch of ammo. Their biggest concern was how much explosive is the lot???. We started calculating powder in grains and  took some shortcuts. We ended up with approx. 8 kilo of powder, then they were happy. 

So then they went a long with 16 000 rounds, 8 kilos of powder and some 300 klio total cargo. They promised to get it to Johannesburg within 6 days....at what cost.... I do not know, but I am sure we will get the bill. We were quite relifed, but without any boarding card to London. So Plan C : ticket to London P L E A S E......

Next BA flight to London was 17:00 and that's too late to connect with our original flight to Johannesburg. We where transferred to SAS and got tickets for a 15:00 flight. In good spirit we walked over to the SAS island and started all over again with weapons, ammo and overweight. Weapons ok, ammo ok (we had only 5 kilos each), but now overweight was a problem. We had 110 klios for three persons and that's no good. So big smile and we started  with explanations and so on. Finally via my SAS card we got acceptance for the overweight and got our boarding cards, yes we are back in business.. at last...

So now the rest of the crowd is in transit hall at Heatrow and we are on a SAS plane to London... The only uncertainty now is will the ammo arrive in Johannesburg and in time ???? Well we do not know. We have ca 300-400 round each so we are okay for the first two match days, but on wedensday we are out of luck......  time will show..

Webmaster, live somewhere over the North Sea

DAY  ONE and a half....... tuesday evening, somewhere over Europe in seat 33 B

Things went from bad to worse. The ammo will not be in Johannesburg in time for the match. The best estimate we got from the carrier was sometime during next week, and as mention earlier the cost for the freight was not known , but it turned out to be enormous, so we ended up with sending only the 38 super and .40 for the national team, the rest of us will have to go with plan C. Thomas does not travel until tomorrow and he did a tremendous job a the cargo office. First getting an overview over the left over ammo, which was a total mess since everybody had packed their ammo individually and name tags was non existing. I would guess a million phone calls between OSLO and London where made to sort this out. But Thomas kept his cool and got the business done deal. NICE Thomas!! there are a few people down here that appreciate your effort. Your first beer in the bar is on ME. Thanks.

So what is plan C actually ???... well that is reloading new ammo in SA, testing and finally another session with the chrono. For the standard shooters this is actual possible, the open lads have a huge problem at hand, because there is no .38 super brass available in SA. So if they do not get the cargo ammo, they are in for two options, one is picking brass every day and reload every night... the last option ... take a hike to the park....:-D

So Morten has faxed a pre order to SA, asking for some 10.000 round of ammo beeing reloaded at our specs. We'll see what happens.

So after finalizing this intermezzo, we went to the next one, abit more worrying... namely our guns. Since we missed the BA flight from Oslo and had to go with SAS, we also missed the dedicated cargo for all the guns. So we had a creeping suspicion that our bags will be halted somewhere on the route off the SAS plane. Yupp 10 points gained for beeing wiseguy. We checked first with BA, and they did not have any info regarding our transfer, but we where told to report at the gate very early. So we did and they where already expecting us. They had been alerted by the Airport Defense Intelligence regarding weapon in the luggage. So we where escorted down a few levels to identify our bags and examination of the items. The ADI where very thorough thats for sure. Papers, passport, BA declarations, licences and you name it. It took some 30 minutes to convince them that everything was OK and in good hands. So we got onboard the BA flight to SA at last. Not sure where this will end... I'll keep you posted.....

Webmaster, live from seat 33 B, somewhere over Africa.

DAY  TWO....... wedensday, somewhere between Johannesburg and Pietersburg  in a bus seat

We are on the road again, this time on a bus taking us from the airport to Pietersburg. The drive is some what 5 hours. Quite hassel free landing, got off the plan and was meet by an IPSC representative. He guided us through the passport control and then we started waiting for the baggage. We was not sure if the bags with guns will also show up on the band. Quite right except for my bags... it must have slipped through at Heatrow. We collected the ordinary bags and had to be guided to the SAPS office, they had the guns....except mine so I carried my gun through the whole passenger area... hehe... caused some raised eyebrows when I arrived at SAPS WITH my gun. Papers, passports and an hour later we where almost cleared. Two bags and two guns where missing... great . Took another hour to spoof it up. Then we walked out of the airport... and next surprise gave us litterally a chilly feeling down the neck... it was absolutly freezing outside... temperatur was about 12 degrees Celsius and we where not dressed for this.... so everybody to the bags... Rune is badly missing his pink mittens.......

All aboard and off we went with the bus. The ammo story is still alive. Our RD in Norway Jan is pulling every string possible, so we are now putting together a ordering list for new ammo made here in SA. This ammo will be delivered at the range probably on saturday. The cargo from Oslo is beeing sent and will maybe arrive here on wedensday next week. 

After an hour of the bus travel, the bus pulled over and stopped at a gas station. Punctured front wheel. Great, but it was fixed in 10 -15 minutes, but in the meantime Chris had disappeared... so we had to find him .. took some odd 10 minutes to get underway. So after another hour the local Sheriff stopped us. The bus was overweight.. Can you believe it.. overweight??? heard the story before or??? Well it took 20 minutes and probably some RANDS's to get underway again....

Arrived at the hotel 17:00, and started in-checking. We have been on the move for approx 32 hours now and we are dying for a room and a shower. So Tommy took the lead and started express in-checking so that went really quick. But when all where happy and gone, we was left standing without room's, yess... we're so lucky.. but after a few checking the papers, ringing the phone we finally got a room... THANKS.. needed that. Going for a nap... could last some hours...

Webmaster. from the hotel rom.

DAY  THREE....... thursday, Holiday Inn :  room 518

Yes, things are looking brighter now. A good nights sleep can really make your life easier. We where up around 08:30 and started off with some breakfast. It seems like the food is quite ok, no one is in trouble for the moment. After the breakfast we got a mini wan taking us to the range. The wether is clear and really cold in the mornings. There is strong wind from the coast and that is causing the low temps. Registration took some time, first we collected the equipment sheets, then we rigged on the gear and went over to the GUN CHECK point. He checked the torso length, mag length for the open shooters and for standard all mags inserted in the gun in the box. Haakan had a few mm more than 170mm so he had to brush of a little. The guy at Rescomp was really nice and fixed that in a sec. otherwise that went OK, except for Hans and Steinar who did not bring all their magazins, they jetted of back to the hotel. 

After registration we had a walk around the area. The temp has risen alot and the sun was starting to bite quite hard now. The Pre-match was allready started so we watched some of the shooters. Big Gee was coming by, and warned us for the sun, its a real threat. DO not ignore. Well we have started to get the wether picture right now. Its freezing in the morning, by lunch is hotter that some other warm place I know about. Steinar got sun burned and so did some of the others as well. 

The stages are well constructed, no fuss and KISS is obvious the baseline for all stages. They have put in some excellent props, like a chopper, jet plane, bus and a bull rider, we are in for a treat I think. The range is divided in 5 areas og 7 stages and we shoot one area a day for five days. It going to be a test on our fysical stamnina.

Thomas and Geir arrived around 17:00, so now we are complete squad. We had a chat with William also, he has been shooting the prematch. He told us that Danne and Peter from the swedish standard team has pulled out in the very last minute, so he was not too pleased about that news. Mike is here as well, he is absolutely impressed with the whole package so this is looking good. 

After walking the areas, we had a look at the stands, and by accident Kyrre came over 500 rounds of 38.super, we did not even ask for the price, we'll take it.. so now we have some ammo for Thomas. He did not bring anything because he had to split with Geir. We will know on saturday how status is, but we optimistic. 

Webmaster

DAY  FOUR....... friday, Holiday Inn :  room 518

Started off with breakfast and then we took another trip to the range. Rune had to replace his red dot sight with a new one. So the gun needed a recalibration at the training ground. Steinar and Hans has bought some fabric ammo to the 40, total length is 28,5 so they are much smaller than the one we normally uses. That did not go to well, both had hick-ups. Kyrre tried out the .38 we bought yesterday, and that was no good in his gun. Thomas tried the same ammo in his and then it was acceptable. We are not at easy with this......

We will receive the ordered ammo at the range tomorrow at lunch time, so we will have to take another trip to the range.

More and more competitors are arriving. Every nation has it's national flag with them and they are assembled in front of the registration office. 

In an temporary boredome this afternoon we made a stunt video in the hotel room, making fun of the ballerina kex commercial. We think we have great potential, you are welcome to call our agent. It will mabye be published on web at a later stage.

Rune says hello to Iris......the good feeling is coming ;-D

Today has not been the most thrilling day, but there is more to come. Saul Kirch and the other Israel shooters are going to shoot one area (7 stages) tomorrow. This is because monday is a holy day for all jews and they are not allowed to compete, so we will try to get a glimps of that tomorrow. 

Webmaster

DAY  FIVE....... saturday, Holiday Inn :  room 518

Action packed day, started off with exiting breakfast. (cornflakes) Then we drove to the range again....We found the Israeli squad in area One called LION Park. Saul was just about to shoot stage 5, so we got there just in time to get it on tape. Clean run and good time aswell. We followed the Israeli squad through stage 1, 5, 6 and seven. Saul was very unfortunate on stage 6. Weak hand shooting and he got a malfunction which took 5-6 seconds to clear, lost approx 20 match points there. Saul was kicking the dust afterwards. And the one from the french team was smiling,  and reporting back to Eric I guess.

Around noon we got the word that our pre ordered ammo had arrived. We jetted of to Franco and Rescomp to get our hands on it. IMI cases, local powder and some strange bullets, not like the frontier we thought ordered. Well.. next stop was chrono. Steinar had talked with the chrono boss and fixed us some free slots for testing. This was a spescial deal for the Norway squad because he did not want the whole range to get free chronos. 

We started off with Steinars gun, 180 in factor...Hans got 175 -> perfect, and I got 180 . We all shoot the same gun BUL M5. When he chronoed my gun he even got a jam... nice! now I am fu?ked??. Next stop was the training ground to check functionality of the ammo. Toltal chaos at the training ground, seems like everybody wanted to test shoot ammo, guns or what ever. We cancelled and headed back to main area for some lunch. 

Finally at the training ground we started testing at 20 meters, then 30 and at last 50 meters. The results are very disappointing. Precision over 30 meters is like shit. We where spraying the whole target. No use at all. Total waste of time and money. And it bites quite hard also, very different than my own ammo. Seems like the feeding is okay, but it feed very uncomfortably... don't like it. But again many thanks to Franco and RESCOMP for fixing us special ammo, otherwise we would be sitting on the grandstand watching all the others.

We have had a confirmation that the ammo sent from Oslo is on route and will land in Johannesburg on monday, so that will save the national teams, but not the rest of us. We are stuck with the local ammo.

Ran into the Swedish squad also, they are in good spirit, had a little chat with skoogis, with nice triggerfreeze.com caps, appriciate your efforts skoogis... keep it up and good luck for the match.

The General Assembley has held today and we have already got an confirmation that ECUADOR will host the next World Shoot. The other candidates was Denmark and Canada. 

Ammo drop test is next on scedule, then something to eat.

Webmaster

DAY  SIX....... sunday, Holiday Inn :  room 518

This has been a rather quiet day. Some has been at the range for training, some has been at the local mall, Savannha, some just stayed in at the hotel. Kyrre had to go and check his aimpoint, it started suddenly to fade out so he was concerned about that. Thomas had some feeding trouble with the local ammo, and also trouble with the primers. They seem to be ever so hard. Three rounds did not go off. Presicion is not good at all, old news.

At 15:00 was the opening ceremony at the local Stadium. All the teams marched in and the nation's flag was raised. All the big boys made their speech (jada jada....)and then there was a big party tent with food and drinks for everyone.

Well back at the hotel in the evening the prep for tomorrow started. So everybody is busy. You can actually hear gun rattling down the hallway in almost every room. 

Do not know if there will be an update tomorrow, it will be a hard day. Breakfast at 05.00, take off before 06:00 and first shot at stage is 07:00.. back at the hotel some time around 18:00 at the earliest. That will take their tolls on anyone.

Webmaster

DAY  SEVEN....... WorldShoot XIII MATCH DAY ONE. Elephant PARK (AREA THREE)

This has certainly been a challenging day. Breakfast at 05:00, at 05:15 there was total chaos in the dinning room. We anticipated this and avoided it. Freezing cold at the range and lots of shooters every where. I am in squad with modified shooters from RSA and Brazil. The stage Ro's are well drilled and the briefing is 100%. There has been a few poppers issues this morning. Pling and no action, so there where at least three calibration shot, no luck for the gamblers they all fell down. 

At stage 16 there was some bad construction work. Sandbags in a single pile, behind targets. No need to explain that when we shot the sandbags to pieces, the sand ran out of the bags and the pile collapsed. This took time, and called for reshoots, same did the popper releasing the bonus target, did not work every time. All in all this led to a huge que. Stage 15 is a 9 shooter so we had two whole squads waiting. The last squad for the day did not complete this before the sun was down at 18:00. They got an early moring exercise. Rino not happy with that.  Our squad did not have time to lunch because of this, we just went straight to next stage. Squad 21 not happy with that.

Regarding our national team, standard: Even is doing well, so is Hans. Steinar and Jostein just behind. Open team: Thomas is well ahead Kyrre and Rune. Had a glance at the preliminary stage results and they are  fluctuating between 50 and 70 % of the stage leaders. Eric is accordingto close sources 15 to 20 points ahead of closest rival. And that's just on the first day....

There is dust everywhere and it is penetrating everything, I fear for my cameras, does not look to good. I am keeping the gun in the bag all the time. 

Back at the hotel at sun down 18:00, cleaning the gun, magazines, preparing the bag for next day, one shower, mabye some food ...and that is.. bedtime and another early morning tomorrow deemed to happen.

Webmaster

DAY  EIGHT....... WorldShoot XIII MATCH DAY TWO. Buffalo PARK (AREA FOUR)

William is doing a great job for the swedish team, he walking around and taking care of all the swedish guys, bringing, water, softdrinks, food or what ever they need. I cannot remember the name of the one who's doing this job for the norwegian squad........

Skoogis has had a terrible day, did the handcuff stage (strong hand weak hand stage) and it hurts like he.. If it gets worse tomorrow, he will probably have to forfeit the rest of the match because of the recent injury he has in the handwrist. Hope that does not happen.

The guys from TFS has had a more positive day today. Yesterday was a bit of a let down for them, with to much misses, no shoots and procedural errors. Looking good today, much better performance. Keep it up lads.

Mads has today's record of misses, 7 on stage 21. Its a  50 meters range...too quick I guess. Hans has a fast miss on the bp stage. Rino shoot this yesterday on 15 sec and is currently leading this. Marian Vishney has 16 sec, and low points on this. Might end up top five. Kyrre has had one of his worst match day ever, and is in a bad state of mind. Thomas is still on track and Rune is close, all though he had stupid miss, targets 4 feet away. Even is going steady at a high level.

Ammo has arrived so the national team are well supplied. The others are struggling. I had 3 definite hick ups caused by this local ammo. I am saving my own ammo to the long range and special starting conditions, cause the local ammo is feeding terrible.

Had a couple of small hurricanes rushing over the range, that almost took the whole stage away, Jimmy was just finished shooting the stage when it passed by. Cool to see five noshoots target 300 feet's up in the air. It is also enormous amount of ricochet's in the air. You can hear the busy bees every where and all the time.

 Webmaster

DAY  NINE....... WorldShoot XIII MATCH DAY THREE. Rhino PARK (AREA FIVE)

Rino still leading the bp stage, he is almost certain to win it. really coool, way to go. He trashed one stage today so he's not too happy with that. Kyrre has had another miserable day, not as bad as yesterday, but still not up to speed. The resten off the Open team has done very well all day. Rune started off with a terrible headache. 

Jostein got busy at a jungle lane, first man out in the morning. Briefing was only five mins and memorizing all the targets is not an easy job, got two misses. Steinar had a bad medium course, otherwise quite ok. Even still on track. shoot off ??? . Hans keeping it up, but some slow times.

I am struggling with the ammo, had to rack the gun on several stages, one clearing costed me incredible 25 seconds. Will start on using my own ammo tomorrow. That will maybe last the rest of the match, because this is ridiculus, and I am starting to get fed up. Last stage for the day was a long course with 5 bonus targets, 2 twister, 2 gliders and one dropper. It got quite busy on the briefing. Jimmy is doing fine in modified, so is also Guga Ribas, he will end up top ten. Skoogis is better in his hand today so things has turned to the better. Robban had a scare at the chopper stage, almost lost  the gun while exiting the chopper, but saved himself with a nice move.

DAY  TEN....... WorldShoot XIII MATCH DAY FOUR. Lion PARK (AREA ONE)

Seems like everybody is on an upturn this day. Kyrre has had a good start, Haakan did a very fast long run and was pleased with that. Thomas has slowed down a bit but still grabbing the points. Rune has had a terrible toothache this morning, and a bruised rib slowed him down some, but again all the points has been on the sheets. Geir has a loose comp and that caused much back and forth to fix it. Rescomp applyed new locktight and then they had to test shoot it. That did not go well, so it ended up with Geir lending Runes gun for this day. That again meant logging the gun at registration etc.. so the whole story took some focus of the match itself.

Hans had dropped one stage, Steinar and Even had done very good all day. I have started using my own ammo, and the gun is going like a train, no hickup whatso ever, so I am pleased, but not surprised. I know that my gun works perfect with the right ammo. Hans has given me 100 round of his spare ammo so I have enough for the last day also. Sounds good. 

DAY  ELEVEN....... WorldShoot XIII MATCH DAY FIVE. Leopard PARK (AREA TWO)

Last day of the WorldShoot XIII, seems like most of the squad are still up to it. It has been a really hard week. Early mornings, long days at the range and hot sun everywhere. Both the open and standard team has shoot top stage results all day so this is certainly going the right way. Squad 21 has been an abslolutely great squad to be in. Guga (Modified) and Salvio from Brasil shooting Production. Rodney, Andre, Joel, Niko (my only friend) Carlo, Fats, Dok, Dax and Paul from RSA all Modified shooters. Jimmy from Sweden and the Norwegian lads, Tom, Jørgen, Havard, Jon, Tor and my self. Thanks to everybody, hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did although  I had to raise my voice now and then. 

Hope to see you all again, the canadians did run a signature campaign to see if there is a possibillity that the next WS is not in Ecuador. The whole norwegian squad did sign so we will have to see the outcome of that case.

Provisional stage results are posted at the info wall, Rino has won the bp stage. Congrats to you Rino, the fastest strong hand shooter in the world. We stayed behind at the range and took a well deserved beer afterwards. Took the time to go through the verify and then went back to the hotel. The whole norweigan squad is going out for a dinner later in the evening.

Final results will be posted after the prize ceremoney tomorrow. There will be a shoot off at 09:00 at the range tomorrow and Chris is to be on the line in the junior standard class. Good luck to you. Guga is also in the shoot off for modified... go for it...Guga.....

Last update on this page, all the action has been done. We are now going into relax modus and doing nothing.

Cheers everybody.

Kenneth