Hi guys,
Apologies for the slow reply!
Firstly, a huge thank you for the awesome support and well wishes.
So leaving Cape Town was easy enough, flight was good (managed to get an emergency seat!)The moment we landed in Dubai is when the fun really started, after a mad dash to the next security checkpoint we started queuing. I think I was one of the first ones from the SA gang to go through…that was until they scanned my bag and discovered the spare Hawke I had in there.
So the rest of the team managed to get through without too much of an issue, while I’m still trying to explain why I have a rifle scope in my bag, at that stage I told my girlfriend to go with the rest and that I will catch up with them.
When the security guy was eventually satisfied that I’m not doing or smuggling anything illegal, I was on my way!I’m convinced I broke Bolts 200m Olympic record carrying a back pack and trying to put my belt back on chasing after the others! 🙂
The last leg of the flight was all good until we started getting these little red cards explaining the luggage situation…not cool.
So after we realized the luggage is only going to be arriving much later, we went exploring. My word, what a beautiful city.
Evening came and finally also the rifles and luggage. Piloting a space ship on the wrong side of the road is kinda “fun”.I think we planned to be on the sight in range at 8am the next morning…that did not happen.
I was very fortunate, no scope issues or nothing.
My first shots were hitting the intended target…happy days! I was somewhat surprised that the chrony readings were much lower than expected, not that it bothered me that much…POI was still all the same.
After some hours of shooting we went home, I was satisfied and ready for the next day.
I woke up the morning feeling good and excited for the day ahead. At sight in all was still good. After the safety briefing it was the long walk to lane 10 on Alpha course.
At lane 10 I met my one shooting partner from Poland, awesome guy. We waited and waited and then realized the other person is not coming.
The whistle went and the game was on, I’m up first. All good and 2 points in the bag 😁 I had a fantastic start, dropping my first 6 targets, then a wobble of 2 face plates in a row. After that wobble all was good for a while until I missed a few more. My word…no feedback from the targets and no idea where or why you missed.Tough day at the office 🤔
Day 2,
Sight in was good and then the rain came…I think we waited about an hour for the rain to pass.
The shooting went well, I could feel the pressure towards the end.
Good thing Brett was shooting not too far from me, a joke and a smile here and there kept everything in check.I was very chuffed with my score for the day. It made up for the disappointment of day one.
All in all this was another fantastic trip and experience. Made lots of new friends!
I am jealous of the guys living in Europe that can attend events like these on a more regular basis.
Thank you again to everyone for the support and help.
The road to Poland 2019 starts here.
Michael Olivier – SAHFTA – Team ZA
