Scottish Open 2025

Day 1:
Today the Scottish Fullbore Open Championship started and with it the CURA Scotland Tour! We left the familiarity of our homely Bisley and arrived at the incredible and unique range at Blair Atholl.
The Scottish hills and sunny weather made for a fantastic start of the day at 400x. We shot two details at 400x, adjusting to the range, the landscape and enjoying the Scottish hospitality. Despite the sunny start, we were quickly also joined by the Scottish weather, with sudden downpours getting us scrambling to cover ourselves and our rifles, and adapting our shooting.
In the afternoon we fell back to 600x where we had to deal with Blair Atholl’s famous tricky wind for the first time. The fearless local fauna kept us company, without much care for our human concepts of danger areas and firing points (everyone, human or sheep, was safe!).
Congratulations to our top scorer Amy, placing 12th in the day’s aggregate with 221.21 out of 225.45 scoring possibles on both 400x details (75.5, 75.11). We’re all rooting for her to make the selection for England’s team in Saturday’s match against our hosts Scotland!

Day 2:
On Saturday we shot the Bannockburn and Presidents competitions at 500 and 600 yards respectively. At 500, Vita Chamberlain-Evans scored an impressive 74.11, followed by Amy Xu with 73.7 and Matt Bailey with 72.7. At 600, Bruno Iwanczyk scored 73.10, followed by Vita Chamberlain-Evans with 73.8 and Juntao Huang with 72.8. Finally, there was the Lawrence Cup also taking place at 600 yards, featuring Amy Xu on team England.
Through the strong performances from the squad across both Friday and Saturday, we retained the Schools/Universities Cup for the 2nd year running.
After the shooting we explored what Scotland has to offer at House of Bruar, and we finished the day by enjoying the dinner at the Atholl Arms Hotel.

Day 3:
The final day of the competition in Blair Atholl dawned with remarkable clarity, the ranges set against the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands. Sunday’s course of fire was particularly demanding, engaging targets at 900 and subsequently 1000 yards in the infamous Blair winds, requiring unwavering concentration against a field of seasoned competitors.
It was in this challenging environment that the team’s character truly showed. The 900-yard shoot was particularly strong, highlighted by 73.7s from Juntao Huang and Luca Schwarz. They were supported by solid scores from Vita Chamberlain-Evans (71.8) and Edison Thayer (70.11). When contending with the further 1000-yard distance, Luca Schwarz again led the squad with a 70.5, followed by key contributions from Bruno Iwanczyk (69.7) and Amy Xu (69.5).

With the competition concluded, a few of us embarked on a journey further north, leaving the ranges behind for the ancient tranquility of Glenmore Forest before pressing on to Nairn. Standing on the coast and watching the expanse of the North Sea offered a moment of quiet reflection—a perfect denouement to a weekend of intense focus and a successful campaign for the club.

It goes without saying that we are hugely grateful to the STS and Claire for having us at such a well-organised competition, and we certainly hope to return next year (and defend the trophy)! Thanks also to Luca, Matt, Vita, and Juntao for driving across the country to get us and all our kit there; to Firas for reviving our social media; to Matei/Bruno/Edison for the daily writeups; to Jacob Parsons for lending us kit.