The 2021 Austrian Open 1500

Austrian 1500 Open

The Austrian Open 1500 took place over the first weekend of October in Hopfgarten im Brixental. With Covid 19 travel restrictions lifting five people made the journey to Austria. We took three different paths through Europe: Doug Green travelled via Hull, Neil Jones and Ken Williams via Dover and I traveled from Portsmouth to meet Andy Pain, who lives in France.

We had arranged with the organizer, Pepi Laiminger, to meet at the range the afternoon before the shoot for some much-needed practice – most of us had not shot a pistol since we last attended Hopfgarten in 2019. The first few shots were a little shaky, but we soon settled down and I was pleased to see that my sight settings from 2 years ago were still valid.

Line of Shooters

It was a real pleasure to see so many friends over the weekend and to be shooting again on Hopfgarten’s well organised mountainside range. Most of us took part in 6 or 7 events over the weekend with matches being held for both Revolver and Pistol 1500 together with an optical class and the various short 48 shot matches for 4-inch revolvers, 2.75-inch revolvers, 5-shot revolvers and “stock” (i.e. fixed-sights) semi-auto pistols. The Austrians run the Police Pistol 1 match, which is normally shot with a “stock” 9mm semi-auto pistol, in several different classes, including “super magnum” and rifle.

With all this shooting going on and the number of different guns we use it’s easy to get confused but I think we only had one occurrence of “right gun wrong ammo” and this was very quickly resolved. The Austrian ROs run the two available ranges very efficiently to get the maximum number of shooters through and manage to do this without the shooter feeling rushed. Shooting finished by 5pm and by 6pm prize giving started.

Trophy

Prize giving is always fun in Austria; Manfred Hörl keeps the whole thing moving along at a good pace. The trophies are unique and make a welcome addition to any trophy shelf. Due to the lack of practice none of us managed a top three this year but we did all achieve at least one certificate for being in the top 10. The free raffle for the prize table is the highlight of the weekend and we are pleased to report that we went away with enough of the locally produced cheese and ham to see us through to next year.

I would like to thank all the Austrian organizers, ROs and helpers for, once again, inviting us to take part and for all the help they give us with firearms and ammunition; without their assistance we would not be able to attend. Next year’s trip is already being organized so we will return to Hopfgarten in 2022.

Medals

Full results can be found at www.wa1500.org

David Harris
SLG Bisley e.V.

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