ULM, Germany — Krieghoff hadn’t run its namesake trophy competition since 2005. That changed June 13-14, when the German gunmaker brought the event back to life at Dornsberg Shooting Ground as the centerpiece of its 140th anniversary celebration, and 232 shooters from 13 countries showed up for it.
The sporting clays course came from Ben Husthwaite, a world champion course designer whose layouts have a reputation for punishing complacency, and the weekend added a separate side event called Target Impossible for shooters who wanted an extra challenge beyond the main field. Between rounds, competitors could walk over to a demo course and shoot current Krieghoff firearms, with company gunsmiths on hand for service work.
Frank Hasekamp of the Netherlands left with the biggest hardware, taking both the Challenge Cup and the men’s High Overall title. Rogier Tanger, also of the Netherlands, finished second, and Luke Mortimer of the United Kingdom took third.
The women’s divisions split by experience level. In Ladies I, Sweden's Rebecka Bergkvist won ahead of Julia Heuten of the Netherlands and Zeljka Kepic of Switzerland. Ladies II went to Nicole Hewing of Germany, with Karen Shoreman of the United Kingdom and Lilian Lischer of Switzerland rounding out the podium.
Switzerland’s Alexander Gottschling topped the junior category, followed by Germany’s Mick Keinath and Paul Keller. Stefan Vaes of Belgium won the senior division over Gilles de Siebenthal of Switzerland and John Edmunds of the United Kingdom. In the veteran category, Germany’s Johannes Lippert finished first, with Denmark’s Morten Gram and Belgium’s Franciscus Van de Laer close behind. The master division, reserved for the field’s most decorated shooters, went to Switzerland’s Erich Hollenstein, with Keith Wood of the United Kingdom and Germany’s Hubert Wild taking second and third.
Dornsberg’s own shooters contributed 25,000 rounds of ammunition to the event, distributed as prizes across the various categories and during a raffle that closed out the weekend. The raffle’s top prize, a custom-built Krieghoff K-80 shotgun, went to Ueli Galli of Switzerland during Sunday’s awards ceremony.
Full results are posted on the Dornsberg website.
Krieghoff credited Markus Leibinger and the Dornsberg team, along with a group of volunteers, for pulling off the event, and thanked sponsors including Land Rover, represented through the Auer Group, along with Hanwag, Castellani and Pirsch magazine publisher DLV Verlag. The company plans to run the Krieghoff Trophy every other year going forward, with the next edition set for 2028 at Dornsberg.
