Italia, surprise as rifle shooting country

Yes, I’d wait that some other country would be European leader on that field but they appers to be not so active

Competition

This year the whole story started in a bit unexpected way. As some readers may know, there are several shooting organizations in Europe and some of them compete between each other. This year an Italian shooting federation FIDASC happened to organise European Championship in rifle shooting at exactly the same time, as European Championship in Combined Game organised by FITASC. Since FITASC has been in charge of organizing rifle shooting European Championships for Combined Game have been organised. For rifle shooters this means that in addition to rifle they have to shoot also clays and they have no chance to become an european champion in rifle shooting - the best rifle shooter is awarded with Cup. I personally have been fighting for the international competitons for rifle shooters, but all attempts so far have been dead. In principle, it’s the same situation if you would like to compete in running, even if you know in the beginning that you cannot become a Champion on running, and in order to participate in running you are also asked to cycle between you runs. Yes there can be a lot of people, who like it in that way, but I don't. Many rifle shooters think and like it like me - rifle is rifle.

Yes, there are 3 estonian shooters on
the range  advertisement

In case of FITASC European Championships the best shooters are awarded with medal or cup. FIDASC introduced financial prizes in addition to medals - winners of each exercise for example were awarded with €500. FITASC European Championship 2015 in Combined Game was organised in Czech Republic and FIDASC Rifle European Championship in Italy on the first weekend of July. At the end of the day shooters had to choose between two European Championships. As FIDASC challenge seemed higher than Combined Game, enabling to focus only on rifle shooting and offering a chance to become a European Champion, the decision to drive to Italy was taken only a week before the Championship. I started to combine a team for European Championship in Italy. Within a week we succeeded to involve two seniors, one lady and one veteren - the team was completed! 

To be completely honest there was a background story I’d like to share with you. As said before there are many shooting organisations in Europe and some of them are competing with each other. Apparently FIDASC is a member of another shooting organization - FEDECAT, which is competing with FITASC. The latter has been claimed that FEDECAT in copying their disciplines and competitions. Well, they may be right, who knows, but punishing shooters is going far beyound ethical borders - FITASC has announced that shooters particiapting on FEDECAT competiitions would be cancelled their shooters’ licence in FITASC!

The panic department started on Monday - less than 24 hours before leaving to Italy - after we had clearly confirmed, that we are going to FIDASC competition we were threated to loose our licences if we really would participate on that competition. What is an athlete’s fault in this game? Why a shooter cannot choose on which competition he/she wants to go? Why a shooter is punished if he/she chooses higher challenges? Why shooters have to suffer beacuse two organisations are compeitng using unfair methods? Unfortunatly, by the end of these anfair games one team member, a good clay shooter, decided to withdraw - we had to find a new senior within less than 24 hours. Fortunately solutions are normally closer than we expect - we found a new senior to our team, who was able to pack things before midnight and jump into car in the morning. His main argument to join us was to play aginst unfair behaviour aginst shooters. At the same time there was no shooting team representing Estonia in Czech Republic. The whole story seemed weird, especially when the Combined Game team decided not to go to Czech. I really feel sorry for the Estonian Combined team as they couldn’t compete neither was Estonia reporesented on the Combined Game. At the same time I chose freedom to participate on compatition I really wanted to go.

trip story

So, our team was completed just few hours before we planned to start driving. Our new member was left handed and had used to shoot from his left shoulder, but as he didn’t have international weapon license he had to leave his weapon home. Finally he decided to shoot with my rifle, which had special stock for right shoulder - what a brave man! On late Monday evening we even found an extra stock to replace mine during the competition. Also, we found out that it is possible to shoot smooth bore as an extra competition in Italy - we decided to take this chance for having more fun. But for this exercise we needed and extra weapon, which we didn’t have. Our friend helped us with gun and Estonian police with issuing an international parallel weapon license within half an hour - Estonian police is really sufficient! They really understood our problem and were ready to solve it quickly. Probably there are not so many countries, where you can make bank payment during police department was printing our documents. A short weapon test at the shooting range, lunch and good buye, Estonia!

Opening

28 hours of endless jokes, some weird boxes next to road that were sometimes flashing when we passed true ..., the same weird way of highway payment system in Poland when you enter the highway - you pick up note in beginning and pay at the end, but sometimes there was only end of the highway, where you was surprised with payment.

Italy

Arles lost (or what a shoes Lilian has)

Arriving to Italy we took the direction towards shooting range. Each time in this part of Italy I really like the traffic there - not so much overmanaged and drivers can agree without any problem, who fits where. For Northern people it might look as chaos, but in real it is very efficient and friendly. And I like to think that my way of driving fits there well. We arrived just after they locked range, but nevertheless, for guests from far-far away the doors were re-opned and a private tour was provided. As usually in big countries, we used the international communication tool - hands. Our experienecs in international langage skill were improved a lot - we used it every day during the following days - they were talking in Italian and we showed ‘ok’ with hands. English was also used with some people, but mostly to show people that we are also able to talk with voice. Italian people were very nice - they usually agreed, whatever we told them in English, and then they continued whatever was in their minds. Anyway, Italians like to communicate and it doesn't matter whether the other side has any glue they were talking about or not. But we liked it. There was also people talking in english - but we happened to communicate with much more than only english speakers. On our way to hotel I got a phone call from the hotel wodering where we were - they were already waiting for us! According to the address it shoud have been a house, but it rather looked like a bank building, not apartment house. Surprisingly, still, they had apartments and pretty nice ones. Also, they organized parking for us even if they didn't promise anything during the booking. So, it was very nice, good located, fear price and good hosting! I started my evening with local craft beer that was offered just around the corner. And our team started to search for me ..

Training day

Broken boar

Our training plan didn’t match with the real life - the equipment for running boar didn’t work. But we managed to train other specialities, realising once again, that it is extremely hot to shoot when your body melts somewhere during shooting (it was more than +35C). While we were waiting  the running boar to ‘wake up’, we developed nice conversation with referees and by the end of the day we were even asked to became friends in FB. Finally, a bit before opening ceremony the boar was fixed and three of us managed to exercise a bit. Suddenly, 16:45 someone switched off the electricity control panel… because opening ceremony should have been to start at 16:00. Somehow the opening ceremony began exactly as soon we (Estonians) were ready with exercising. Like usually,  important speeches and a ceremony, where both rifle shooting countries - Italy and Estonia - were represented. Indeed, the title ‘… European Championship…’ would have been more worth if there would participate more than two countries, but maybe next year the competition will expand. After all ceremonial words a trick show started. It was nice to watch, so I try to add some clips to competition video. Our fourth team member managed to exercise the boar after ceremony. Probably for cooling down our eagerness to train any kind of targets, we were informed, that this kind of running boar target is not so popular in Italy as well and they are also not good on it. 

Beer, craft beer

After a long training day we had alomost no appetite and we could not understand how local people with such a heat managed to eat. 

Competition day 1

Best boar shooter in Italy

First competition day and my start was at 9:00. So, I was sitting there, heart pumping inside and shooting range officials talking something around. You know, there is +35 degrees outside in the shadow and I wear for this kind of shooting long trousers, long leaves T-shirt, training jacket and shooting vest on the top of it. 9:20 shooting started, 9:30 I could enter to the shooting place and 9:40 I lost my first kilo of weight. During those 20 shots the tension was really high, heart pumped like the hell and hands were vibrating so that it was hard to see my fingers. First 3 targets were without mistakes, but in boar I did two of them. Finally, 198 (out of 200) to small target is really good for me. After coming out from the range I tried to film our shooters, but my shaking hands made holding the camera impossible. After preliminary results were published, it started - every person in the shooting range steped to me, shaked hand and congratulated for the 198 points. Yes, in Estonia people would in best case say “good”, in normal situation there is silence. I liked Italian way more :). For next I had to shoot the running boar, so I went there early. Referees said 20 minutes namm-namm and left the range. Bon appetit, 20 min is not so much, so I waited there. Then someone came, did something with the boar and left. After an hour referees returned and I started. All the same clothes on as described earleir, concentration and … the boar didn’t work as it had to. So, I was waiting for anoher 10 minutes. After looking at the mechanism it was clear that I can wait for a bit more (later it appeared to be another hour…) As my only ask was to wait patiently I laid down on referees table (yes, they did photo from that :). So, after another hour we could start again. Shooting didn’t go so smooth as I expected. Other team members did, what they could, only one result was a bit weird - Igor’s result in running boar was 49, however he knew, he didn’t shoot that. So we went to referees and asked for clarification. At first they didn’t understand what was wrong (remember - international lanaguage - hands), but later, understanding that we were asking to lower the result, were a bit surprised. I don’t know, whether they thought we were idiots or extreamly ownest people. By the end of the day one, 3 first positions in ranking table were occupied by Estonians even with real result of Igor. 

They make it here?

As we were aware that restaurants were becoming full pretty fast, so we went to the city to find a nice restaurant. Apparently it was too early - all eating places were closed before 19.00 .. good surprise. But I got possibilty to taste some new local craft beers and walk in the Bergamo city - I liked Bergamo very much. In an ice-cream shop I was really shocked  - I had to keep the reciepe, otherwise a penalty for 300 euros follows. And I can’t be modest about Bergamo - this is very-very beatiful city with it’s dual old down and good atmosphere. In a lower part of the city there is a mixture of old houses, narrow and wider streets - you can even feel how new architecture blending with old one. Upper part of an old town in Bergamo is as old as Tallinn old town - from 13th - 14th century. Not being a specialist in history, but I still felt the same age of the city - not only in the buildings, but also in the air. If I’d have had more time, I’d enjoy this old part full day with some visits into older building or just drinking coffee or beer in the middle of this. 

Second day of competition

The start was planned at 9am and it started indeed at 9:10am. I started with boar and it didn’t go so well. About lunchtime there was a time window for 100 m range - we enjoyed the melting process under Italian sunshine, which at least me and Igor were extreemly good in. We were measuring our heart rate levels before and after shooting - just for fun. Normally my calm heart rate is around 52-55, but in Italy in the condition of psychological tension and heat the level it was 66, over 75 before shooting and still over 120 after shootiing. The second round of my strongest speciality - standing targets 100 m. Deer - one 9, fox - good, chamois - one 9 again, boar - vibration in the highest possible level - 8, 8, 9, 0, 10. Disaster!!! 

When there was a 9 in the target

By the end of the second day I was leading the competion in shooting of 100 m, Igor was first in 50m boar and second in 100 m. In total Tiit was on the third place and first among veterans. Lilian was first among Ladies competition. We decided to clean our weapons for Sunday’s 200 m shooting and test once again our weapons. During this testing Lilian was announced for reshooting as her result in running boar was equal to Laura - a young Italian lady. According to the rules in case of equal result in any speciality there should be barrage in 100 m of standing boar target. So, two nice ladies were waiting in range, their supporting teams behind them and .. at the moment of the highest tension referees came with Lilian’s target and explained, that as she had bulleye, she won. This way Lilian got her second medal - golds in 100m and 50m running boar. After some testing of smooth bore we left the range. Almost left - until we found that our 200m testing target was lost. I hadn’t seen Tiit being so angry before. He seemed to be the calmest man on the planet… We decided that he has to have some beer immidiatey, otherwise .. :)

We had dinner at a pizza restoraunt near hotel. While waiting for our dinner, some action started on the streets: police closed traffic, some people came and covered some part of the street with carpet or something similar. Then they installed some light and music started… we thought there will be some movie filming, but not. At the same time the same action started on the other end of the street - lights, music, people, who were just walking around, stepped there and started to dance - just like that. Vau. 

After dinner we were walking and discovering, what happened on the streets - this was really cool! Just after another 50 meters there was performed balley, then it was disco time, then some band playing and so on in teh entire city centre. However, even if the best is to see everything like that with your own eyes - I try to add a video here to offer you at least some feeling. 

last day of competition

After first problem

Start at 9am was real on the last day:) When I entered the range and left my rifle on the table to take cartridges happened something, that pumped my pulse to the sky - my rifle felt down on the floor. As my optic was extremely precisely adjusted on the rifle to get holes to the right place, then this kind of falling could result in shifting that. Number 10 in the target has diameter of 2 cm, 7 points (just smallest possible point area) with 15 cm. So, maximum mistake from centre not taking into account shooting mistakes could be 7,5 cm. But this kind of hit can easily have difference about 50 cm on the distance of 200m! I hoped the best. First shot was inside the points, on the top. I calculated my sighting point - correct point was keeping the cross in somewhere in the middle of the white area. But I succeeded 9 and 3 times10! Some smooth bore shooting to relax and new series. This time I was not satisfied with accuracy at first sight - I could see holes through the monitor and I tried do my best in correcting my position for the final shot. But my destiny had new surprises for me - the sound of the shot was different. And hole in the target as well - 20 cm below the rings. As cartridges for 200m were loaded and checked several times, there

And the big problem

could be only one reason why this could happen. And that was the fuze, which should had been faulty. Just a little bit slower ignitation to powder and … shit! At a result I got 4th place in 200m. And if there would be any other place inside the rings, I could have 1st position. Little bit better position …. so, Zenith fuze is forbidden since that moment. 

Pretty soon the final ranking was announced. Tiit - 2nd (475 points) in veterans, Lilian 1st (461) among ladies, Igor with my rifle (which was totally different fom his own rifle) - 2nd (506) and 1st place (542) was left for me. As a team, we had advantage about 100 points before the second rifle shooting country Italy. In fun shooting our team got second place, but this was more for fun. Also there was barrage between the best three in each category for Benelly Argo. I did a weak result - as I counted 192. Somehow there was created a mess about my shot being in wrong target, now I don’t even know myself, maybe I really shot to wrong fox .. but I saw my holes in my camera…Anyway, for fox I got 0 points, but Benelly came to Estonia - Igor took it with 187 points. 

Dream team

Ceremony, prizes and everything was over.

By the end of the day, I don’t know myself whether I’m now European Champion, Italian Champion or winner of Italian-Estonia friendship games. But I won this competition and I see potential for this competition.  And for FITASC there is still possibility to consider rifle shooting - I can help with developing the idea, in case it helps to make rifle shooting as hunting shooting more popular. 

Driving back during endless hours, a lot of silence in car, and Poland in daytime (it is much better to drive there during night as traffic is much more friendly). Competition video is here - please be free to share!

Thats mine!

Arrivederci Italia!

Special thanks to some my support team - Katre and Mait from home and sure for good travel/team companions - Lilian, Igor and Tiit!