(Above picture by Per-Ole Lindell)

The ISSF World Shooting Championships

As the 52nd ISSF World Championships have come to an end, it’s time to take a look back at the amazing results by Lapua sponsored or team shooters – and there are many successes to share!

Denmarks Steffen Olsen became champion in 50m rifle prone with an total score of 628.2 points while using his specially selected Lapua X-Act ammo. 

Germany’s Isabella Straub won the silver medal in the ladies’ prone event only 0.2 points behind Seonaid McIntosh from the UK. Isabella also uses Lapua X-Act. 

The German Ladies’ Team (Amelie Kleinmanns, Jaqueline Orth and Isabella Straub) won the Prone team gold! All three use Lapua Midas+ or X-Act ammo. Team Denmark came second. Rikke Maeng, Stine Nielsen and Stephanie Grundsoe all use Lapua. 

The German ladies using Lapua were truly on a roll, as they also took home the team gold in the 50m 3-positions match. With an overall result of 3521 points Jolyn Beer, Jaqueline Orth and Isabella Straub set an new World in the Team match. The silver medal went to Denmark with a score of 3518 points. 

In the 25m ladies’ Pistol event Lapua Team member Monika Karsch took Team Bronze, while on the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Lapua Team’s Christian Reitz (GER) took silver both individually and in the team event He finished 4th in the men’s Standard Pistol. 

In the men’s 300m Standard rifle, Lapua sponsored shooter Aleksi Leppa (FIN) took gold, team shooter Karl Olsson (SWE) claimed silver and Odd Arne Brekne (NOR) took home the bronze also using Lapua. Aleksi continued to excel, clenching the gold also in the 300m Standard rifle, with Lapua sponsored shooter István Pení (HUN) taking silver. 

copyright: ISSF

In the women’s 300m 3-position Lapua sponsored shooter Lisa Mueller (GER) claimed victory, with Lapua shooter Jolyn Beer (GER) coming in 2nd with the same score of 1161 – a new World Record! 


And the German Lapua ladies – Lapua team shooter Eva Roesken with Lisa Mueller and Jolyn Beer – also ruled at the team’s event, with Germany taking gold with a new World Record. Lapua Sponsored shooter Franziska Peer (AUT) finished in 4th place and claimed silver in the Team’s event. Eva Roesken also took silver in the 300m Women’s prone event. 

Congratulations to all our athletes!

As usual, Lapua Team members smashed it during the Nationals this year. Congrats to all on theirgreat achievements!

Kevin Nevius Long Range National Champion

Kevin Nevius from Team Lapua, became the 2018 Long Range National Champion with a score of 1245-64Xs. He also placed second in the Leech Cup Match and the Canadian Cup Match. At Nationals, Nevius was part of the ARC team, which won the Roumanian Team Trophy and the Herrick Team Trophy. 

Cathy Winstead–Severin 

Cathy Winstead–Severin took second place at the National Smallbore Championship. Cathy also took the National High Powder Rifle Silhouette 2-Gun Championship and the National High Power Hunting Rifle Championship.

Jack Neary

Jack Neary placed first in Heavy Varmint Grand at the Annual Pennsylvania State Championship Benchrest match.


Lisette Grunwell

Lisette came back to her first match in a long time and took first place at the New Hampshire State Champion and Regional 3-P Metric Championship, shooting Midas +.

Philip Hemphill

Philip Hemphill took fifth overall at the NRA Precision Pistol National Championships, while also taking High Law Enforcement and High Senior.


Jeff Lindblom

At the NRA Long Range and Midrange National Championship, Jeff Lindblom took third overall in the Calvalry Cup (300yd rapid fire) and won the McCann Trophy for the Rapid Fire aggregate. In Midrange, he placed as Second Service Rifle overall. He took High Service Rifle in match 806, the 500 yd match, and finished in Fourth Place overall. In match 809, also a 500myd match, he took High Service Rifle.

Eric Cortina
Earlier this year, Erik Cortina decided to start shooting some PRS matches. He won his first match at the SoTex club match on July 23.

The next Hunting Rifle Shooting World Championships take place during 15-21 July 2018 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. This discipline is the ultimate challenge for the competitive hunter: it tests the hunter’s abilities to judge distance as well as understanding ballistics, reading the wind and shooting from various positions while under a time limit. The ranges are designed to simulate field hunting conditions very closely, so the hunting skills play a big part and not only the accuracy of the rifle.

One of the competitors at the World Championships will be Lapua sponsored shooter Peder Mørch Pedersen from Denmark. In this article, Peder gives us insight to his life, his shooting sports background and his preparations for the championships.

Most of my life, I have been living in Jutland, the largest Island in Denmark. In my family, shooting and hunting has always been a natural part of life, so both things are in my blood and have been more or less since I was born.

After time as a soldier, I didn’t shoot competitively for many years. In 2012, I found the desire and the time for it again. I won several competitions in that first year and became a sponsored Lapua shooter. I have since participated in 76 competitions with almost 14000 participants and been on the podium 45 times. I have met a lot of exciting challenges and inspiring people, for which I am very grateful. In my opinion, hunting as well as competing is not only about success or winning, it’s a journey through preparation and understanding… and success is the result!

I like most types of hunting as well as many shooting disciplines – whether it’s breaking clay pigeons with a 6.5 bullet at 600 m/ 660 yds, or waiting several seconds for the sweet sound from the metal target being hit by the powerful .338 Lapua Magnum at 1200 m/ 1300 yds. One of my favorite disciplines is field target shooting with hunting rifles. It’s very popular in Scandinavia with more than 700 participants in some of the biggest events. The shooters use hunting rifles to shoot at paper targets of animals, both static as well as flipping and running targets. These targets can be combined with clay pigeons or steel targets. It’s close to real hunting, and just like the big variations we experience in hunting, there are big differences between the shootings – it will never be “just another day in the office”.

These days, I shoot a little less myself. Instead, I spend time helping other shooters and hunters to get better, pushing their limits. Many people experience shooting as complex – a fundamental principle for me is simplification.

Preparations and load development

As with the former World Championships, the shooting ranges in Bloemfontein will be in unknown terrain and targets at unknown distances up to 400 m/yds. This calls for ammunition with extraordinary performance, and I chose the 6.5×47 Lapua for the task. The 30° shoulder angle combined with small primers should produce good velocities compared to the 6.5 Swede which I used last time in the World Championships. Next, I decided to use 6.5 g/100 grs or 7 g/108 grs Scenar bullets and try different types of Vihtavuori powder.

Normally, I use Lapua’s 120 grain Scenar-L factory ammunition that gives 5-7 mm groups of 100 m/yds (0.15-0.25 MOA) in my Blaser R8 rifle. But in this case I’m willing to sacrifice precision to achieve flatter trajectory.

The best accuracy with 6.5 mm bullets can normally be found with a muzzle velocity around 850 m/s (2790 fps). The 7 gram bullets were pushed up to V0 976 m/s (3200 fps) with the N540 powder, but I believe I’m going to stick to a V0 955 m/s (3120 fps) N150 load because of the better precision. In this case, my 6.5×47 Lapua has a 0-400 meter trajectory quite similar to a factory 6XC load. We’ll see how far it takes me in the competition!

– Peder Mørch Pedersen