The UEWHG “Union of the European Historical Military Groups”, a European umbrella organisation with over 85 different member associations from 14 countries, hosted the European Shooting Championships. This major event took place on 15th June at the shooting range in Mistelbach in Lower Austria. The Kremser Traditionsschützenkorps of the former Infanterieregiment No. 84 was commissioned with the organisation and implementation.
At the competition it was possible to compete in 10 different shooting categories. It was possible to measure your performance in an international environment. Visitors from 10 nations took part, among them Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Holland, Croatia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and Hungary.
You could participate with small caliber and large caliber, over 100 years old ordnance rifles, modern semi-automatic machines and with revolver and pistol.
After intensive preparations the competition ran at full speed, many participants came from half of Europe. A total of 70 trophies were awarded. These cups are custom-made and bear the UEHMG coat of arms.
At the award ceremony the Ukrainian defence attaché Colonel Andriy Tkachuk and the colonel of the cavalry Friedrich Gappmayr, representing the president of the UEHMG, Major General iTR Michael Blaha, presented the trophies. As representative of the provincial association for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, Captain iTR Alfred Wurmauer congratulated the winners.
The largest foreign team was the reservist comradeship Hesborn, which arrived with 6 men over 1,000 kilometers.
The result was impressive, all three first places went to the IR84 from Krems: The eightfold national champion Rüdiger Gruber (IR84) could get his sixteenth European champion title, the second and third place also went to the Kremser Schützenkorps: Dominik Scholz (IR84) won another title and Michael Kleinböck (IR84) could secure the second place at his first participation in a European championship.
In addition, a tombola with high quality prizes provided great joy for the lucky winners, who drew the right lot. More photos and reports about the European Championship can be found on www.ir84.at.
