Desert Midwinter Pistol Championships

Mark your calendars!

The 2009 Desert Midwinter International Pistol Championship will be held Wednesday, February 11 through February 14.

The 2009 Desert Midwinter Conventional Pistol Championship dates are Thursday, February 12 through February 15.

UPDATE!  The FINAL 2008 Arizona State Championship results are posted .  Sorry for the delays in updating the site for the past few months.  Relocating from Phoenix to Lakeside was so much fun, we decided to relocate from Lakeside to Sedona.  

'Nuff of that!  Time for shooting again! Jon

Three weeks ago at Fort Benning, Georgia, USAS held the Olympic Trials for Free Pistol.  The USA has two quota slots for Beijing in Free Pistol, and I'll be forthright with my bias in rooting for John Zurek to make the 2008 USA Olympic Team.

Along with John Zurek, Jay Shi and yours truly, Jon Milan made the journey east.  Personally, this was my first major Free Pistol match, so I didn't have the aspirations shared by John and Jay.

A final report of the event is at the USA Shooting web site, so I'll just add my comments on the event.

John's first day was spectacular, despite pistol problems leading to an extension of time.  John shot a 562 to take the lead going into the first day's finals. Jay Shi made the finals, also.

Jeff Katzman represented the Arizona Senior Olympics staff this year.  Yours truly, Jon Milan, was once again the Pistol Competition Commissioner.  Don Kling volunteered to call the line, while John Zurek and Joe Gianetti volunteered as block officers.  Thanks for volunteering, everyone!  A special thanks to Bill Weldon who prepared the targets for me on Friday afternoon.

I'll post an update when photos are available.

For now, here are the results:

John Zurek, Match Winner (2635-124x)

Additional Photos

International Pistol

With 13 Free Pistol shooters on the line at 8 am Wednesday morning, clearly the 2008 Desert Midwinter showed signs of a great turn out.  I saw a lot of Toz's on the line, and five shooters broke 500.

Last year's Marathon Thursday shooting schedule gave way to a more reasonable two day International schedule, even longer for shooters taking time on Friday to shoot Air Pistol.

With John Zurek actively training for the Olympic Selection Matches, he could be expected to win Free Pistol and Air Pistol.   He added Standard Pistol, Center Fire Pistol and Rapid Fire Pistol to the list to sweep all five events.

International Pistol Results

Conventional Pistol

Forty competitors shot the Conventional Pistol 2700 Match in two relays, one gun per day starting Friday.  On Thursday, after the International Center Fire Match, 22 shooters decided to turn the event into a 3600 and shoot the Service Pistol 900 match, won by Michael Gasser with an impressive 867-36x.

Service Pistol Results

Jason Hedrick led after Friday's chilly 22 match with an 883-41x, nudging Lyman Grover's 882-51x.  Eight other shooters bested the 870 mark.

By Saturday evening, Jason Hedrick's lead was down to one point over John Zurek, who shot an 878-32x to Jason's 872-41x in the Center Fire match.

John Zurek closed the door on Jason with Sunday's 45 match, shooting an 881-44x.  Steve Reiter snuck in to take the match second place by winning the 45 match with an 884-38x.  Overall honors went to John Zurek (2635-124x) followed by Steve Reiter (2628-115x) and Jason Hedrick (2627-124x).

Conventional Pistol Results

US Army Blue (Daniels, Grover, Barber, Gasser and Wilson) won with a 3488-142x.

EIC Match

Lyman Grover won the Gold Medal in the EIC Match (Leg Match) with a 286-10x.  Subject to approval by the CMP, Chuck Holt won the Leg with a 272-5x.

Service Pistol Team honors fell so the US Army Blue team (Daniels, Grover, Barber, Gasser and Wilson) with an 1108-34x.

Service Pistol Results