14Oct
Limit European Challenge 2012 Championship Match Znojmo CZ
Hungary's Katalin Bodo was first in Lady's Standard Division
The Limit European Challenge 2012 Level III Championship Match was hosted at the Hodonice Shooting Range, near Znojmo in the Czech Republic. Held on the 29th and 30th September this Level III Championship Match consisted of 18 stages put together by Match Directors Lubor Novak and Milan Trkulja and their team for a 336 minimum round count. The Range Master was Germany’s Johann Kurz, ably assisted by two Area CRO’s Kurt Kreuzer and Wilfried Fischer.
Limit European Challenge 2012
Limit European Challenge 2012
Level III Championship Match Znojmo Czech Republic
The Limit European Challenge 2012 Level III Championship Match was hosted at the Hodonice Shooting Range, near Znojmo in the Czech Republic. Held on the 29th and 30th September this Level III Championship Match consisted of 18 stages put together by Match Directors Lubor Novak and Milan Trkulja and their team for a 336 minimum round count. The Range Master was Germany’s Johann Kurz, ably assisted by two Area CRO’s Kurt Kreuzer and Wilfried Fischer and their team of range officers. The Hodonice range complex is home to the Moravian Shooting Club and is located near the town of Znojmo in eastern Czech Republic, near the boarder with Austria. Znojmo is half way between Brno and Vienna. There is an airport in Brno just over an hours travel time away, but Vienna International Airport is a one hour 15 minute drive away and gives those who have to fly more flight options. For Prague Airport allow yourself three hours driving time to Znojmo.
Open Division winner was CZ Shooting Team member Martin Kamenicek, who was using a CZ Checkmate in 9mm Major calibre.
The organisers of the Limit European Challenge also organise the popular CZ Extreme European Open ( www.extremeeuroopen.eu ) match each year in June at this range. The fifth CZ European Extreme will be held from 5 – 8 June 2013 and will be a 32 stage – 570 round event.
A lot of work goes into making competitions at this range complex a memorable event and to present the Czech Republic as a successful organiser of practical pistol competitions and an excellent host. Year after year the organising team and the match sponsors work to apply new ideas to improve these events.
Entry into the Czech Republic with firearms is a straight forward process. You present your European Firearm Pass and passport to the police at the airport and as the Czech Republic recognises the European Firearm Pass you are able to proceed. If you are from outside the European Union you are issued with a visitor’s licence listing what firearms you are bringing into the Czech Republic for the duration of your visit. On leaving the country the visitors licence is returned to the police at your exit point. Land boarders with the countries surrounding the Czech Republic allow unhindered access.
Hungary’s Gyorgy Batki charges through a stage on his way to winning Standard Division at the Limit European Open.
The pre-match for officials, range officers and those who were working at the match was held on 28th September and the competitors started arriving on Friday afternoon to register for the main match, which started on Saturday 29th September. The competitors dispersed to their first stage on Saturday morning and match got under way and was concluded by early Sunday afternoon.
In the main match the competitors were grouped into squads of up to 10 shooters. Each stage was run by a range officer and / or an International Range Officers Association ( I.R.O.A. ) official. All the range officers put in a lot of effort to keep everything running smoothly and on time and with minimal delays.
Eric Grauffel put in another match winning performance in Production Division
with his 9mm Tanfoglio Stock III at the Limit European Challenge.
Match Statistics
Match StatisticsFour practical pistol competition divisions were represented at the Limit European Challenge. This also spread into the various categories of lady, junior, senior and super senior. Production and Standard Division were the most popular with 45 and 46 competitors respectively. Open Division had a total of 18 shooters in this category. Revolver Division had six competitors. A total of 115 competitors from 14 countries completed the match.
Serbia’s Snezanna Subasic finished in second place in the Lady’s category in Production Division.
18 Stage Match
18 Stage MatchThe 18 stages were positioned around part of the Hodonice range complex, which is capable of running 32 stages simultaneously. Indeed this range complex, with its multiple shooting bays would be capable of hosting a European Handgun Championship event. The range consists of multiple shooting bays with 180 degree arcs of fire. This means that in all the stages the targets can be to the left and right of the competitor, as well as to their front. This gave the Limit European Challenge Match organisers a lot of scope in how they set out the 18 stages. The match consisted of nine short stages of 12 rounds; six medium stages of between 18 and 25 rounds and three long stages of 32 rounds. The minimum round count for the match was 336 rounds, but due to the fact that all stages had either moving or reactive targets ( sometimes both! ) all competitors ended up using more; indeed some were using a lot more!
As well as static full sized and partial versions, the targets consisted of moving and swinging versions placed between two and up to 25 metres from the competitors. Many stages used different forms of metal reactive targets. Full size classic poppers, mini poppers and round plates complemented the fixed and moving paper targets in each stage.
All of the stages offered different degrees of challenges, with different ways to complete the stage. The walk through after the briefing gave each competitor the chance to decide their match plan for each stage, as were to take each target or perform a reload. With lots of pepper poppers, swingers and a couple of longer range steel and paper targets, difficult targets were combined with “run and gun” targets in most stages.
Sergii Shevchenko was one of a number of competitors from Ukraine. Sergii used a 9mm Glock 17 in Production Division.
Have you got the X Factor?
Have you got the X Factor?
In Stage 14 the start point for the competitor was standing at the centre of a pathway in the shape of a X. Running back and forward along all four segments of the X revealed a series of full size and partial paper targets and two steel pepper poppers. The competitor had to stay within the confines of the X pathway. Working out how to move in four directions to ensure that you engaged all the paper and steel targets and were to reload took a bit of working out in this stage.
In Production Division Tanfoglio’s Eric Grauffel was in first place while CZ Shooting Team members
Zdenek Liehne ( left ) and Miroslav Zapletal were in second and third place respectively.
Results
ResultsIn Open Division CZ Shooting Team members Martin Kamenicek and Petr Pijacek from the Czech Republic took first and second place with Finland’s Tony Ruohonen in third place. In Ladies Open Division Martina Sera from the Czech Republic and Austria’s Margit Steuer took first and second place. In Standard Division CZ Shooting Team members Gyorgy Batki from Hungary and Petr Znamenacek form the Czech Republic took the first and second place. Austria’s Juergen Stranz was in third place. Revolver Division was a clean sweep for the Czech Republic with Milan Kolao, Pavel Kotrous and Michal Radkovic in first, second and third place.
In Lady’s Production Division Russia’s Svetlana Nikolaeva was in first place and Serbia’s Snezanna Subasic took second place.
In Production Division France’s Eric Grauffel chalked up another win over CZ Shooting Team members Zdenek Liehne and Miroslav Zapletal. Production Division is also popular with lady competitors. Russia’s Svetlana Nikolaeva and Serbia’s Snezanna Subasic were in first and second place, with Austria’s Heidrun Lung in third place.
While running through a stage CZ Shooting Team member Miroslav Zapletal reloads his 9mm CZ75 Shadow.
The Limit Ammunition Company
The Limit Ammunition CompanyThis event gets its name from the company that sponsors the competition. The Limit Amunition Company manufactures and sells pistol ammunition and components for reloading ammunition. The company is specifically focused on the manufacture of ammunition in 9mm Parabellum caliber and components for reloading this caliber for use in practical pistol competition shooting. Production is carried out with reloading machines and components from Dillon, Sellier and Bellot and Camdex. All products are certified by the State Inspectorate of arms and ammunition and the Czech Republic complies with International C.I.P. standards.
The Limit Ammunition Company had a display of their products at the match. From the left is Limit European Challenge Match Director Milan Trkulja and from Limit are Lenka Latalova, Tereze Hetmerova and Marian Koutny.
The Limit Company ( www.limit.cz ) has supplied ammunition since 2004 and currently supplies the Europen market as well as the Czech Republic. Several members of the CZ Shooting Team use Limit ammunition. The company also makes specalist ammunition for the law enforcement market both in the Czech Republic and for export. Practical Handgun will be testing both Limit ammunition and reloading components in a future issue.
As she runs to another shooting position Russia’s Svetlana Nikolaeva reloads her 9mm CZ75 Shadow.
The town of Znojmo is based on an ancient settlement dating back to the 11th century. The remnants of the old castle and buildings can still be seen. You can also visit the tunnel complex under the town that the citizens used to shelter in from the numerous conflicts that afflicted the region over the years.
Both Znojmo and Hodonice are close to the Czech – Austrian boarder, which until 1989 was the former boarder between eastern and western Europe. When the Iron Curtain was finally lifted a duty free shopping center called Excalibur City, complete with restaurants ( including one in a jet aeroplane ) and casinos was built in the empty strip of former “no mans land”. As the Czech Republic is now part of the European Union the land boarder posts are long deserted and Excalibur City stills thrives with shopping centres and is complete with a castle with dragons on the roof! Think of Las Vegas on a smaller scale.
After the removal of the “Iron Curtain” a shopping and entertainments complex called Excalibur City was developed in the former
“no mans land” between Austria and the Czech Republic and includes a castle with dragons!
The Limit European Challenge was shot over two days with excellent catering provided on site. This was one of a series of competitions organised by the Moravian Shooting Club at this range complex. As previously mentioned a series of matches are already being planned for 2013. You can keep an eye on the competition web sites details of the various events.
For Further Information
www.hellsquad.eu and www.extremeeuroopen.eu