TFB Interview: Eirik Larsen (Team HK) - IPSC Rifle World Shoot 2024

This is an in-depth interview with Eirik Larsen of Team HK Norway, touching on a wide range of topics from how he trains to how he tunes his Heckler & Koch for success.

The 2024 IPSC Rifle World Shoot in Finland is one of the major international shooting competitions organized by the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). The Rifle World Shoot gathered over 800 competitive rifle shooters from around the world and put their skills in dynamic shooting to test. Competitors had to demonstrate speed, accuracy, and precision while navigating 30 diverse stages that included targets between 5 to 355 meters, moving targets, different shooting positions, and various props.

In a series of interviews, TFB will talk to some of the best rifle shooters in the world, and pick their brains about how they configure their rifles, optics, gear and optimize their strategy. They will also share their best tips and tricks on how our readers can improve their own training and drills - hopefully, things that you can apply today and improve your own skills.

If you missed the background, please update yourself here: TFB Report: IPSC Rifle World Shoot III - 2024. Our first interview was with Keith Garcia from Team USA.

Let’s begin with some general information: Eirik is 31 years old and lives together with Tone and their 2-year-old daughter, Johanne, in Norway. His education is a Master's degree in Cybernetics and Robotics, and his current occupation is as an electronics hardware engineer at Muybridge. He’s also a Staff Sergeant in the local Quick Reaction Force in the Norwegian National Guard.

TFB: Congratulations on the silver medal. Please let us know how it feels now that some time has passed since the big competition?

Eirik: The world shoot was a great challenge and a nice chance to measure myself against the best rifle shooters in the world. Although I’ve felt some disappointment regarding the silver medal I think Kyle Litzie (Team USA) is a great shooter who shot very well and consistently over many days and he definitely deserved this win. It’s still a solid achievement placing second so close to him.

TFB: Your Team HK also won a silver medal. How does it feel for the team?

Eirik: Finishing second in the IPSC Rifle World championship is a great achievement that makes us the world’s best factory shooting team, something we are really proud of. We are also proud that the team was considered the best in Norway and picked to represent the Norwegian National team. The Team consists of people like me with ordinary hectic day jobs and families who try to balance this with trying to become the best shooters possible with the resources we have available. We are of course a bit disappointed that we missed our main goal to become the best overall shooting team in the world, but the combined US team did an amazing job and got a well-deserved win this time. We are all eager to get back to training once the dust settles and prepare for upcoming championships.

TFB: Please tell us about your shooting background. When and how did you begin, and how has your career developed?

Eirik: At a very young age I joined my father on hunting trips, which since has been a very nice way for me to explore the outdoors. While the shooting part of course was an interesting aspect of hunting it did not seem possible to explore competitive shooting in Norway at the time. This might have been due to what seemed to be a lack of access and promotion from the shooting organizations. After exploring this back and forth I started shooting within IPSC pistol around 2016, while going to the university. This really took over a lot of my spare time and has since then been

a very engaging hobby.

In 2019 I finally got my own AR rifle and I joined the National Rifle Team as an “up and coming” shooter who got to practice with the excellent shooters there. Rifle World Shoot in 2019 was my second international rifle match where I placed tenth overall.

Since then I have been eager to improve my shooting, and all of my practice evolved around searching for deficiencies in my skill set and exploring ways to overcome them. Searching the internet for great talents like Ben Stoeger, Teemu Rintala and other top shooters who had content available at the time really helped me see what was possible. As a result of the struggle to find good shooters and their performance online at the time I tried to expose my own performance and release videos, mostly on Instagram, but I have also released all my Rifle World Shoot 2024 stages on YouTube.

For a long time, I was chasing the top competition in Europe to find improvement in my own shooting. Jarkko Laukia, being probably the greatest rifle shooter in the world for a very long time, was one of them. He struck me as an excellent competitive shooter and was also very approachable to discuss tactics with once I got to know him a little.

In 2020 I got the offer to sign with Team HK Norway, which provided me with the excellent rifle platform we use today. This has been a major breakthrough for me in how I could practice – the rifle is resilient to wear and tear and runs for a very long time without maintenance. This enabled higher frequency in practice sessions which is necessary with a hectic day job and a family.

TFB: Please describe how you train?

Eirik: For a few years now I have used shorter, less ammo consuming, practice sessions locked in on one or two elements per session with a single target setup. This allows for short sessions which can be squeezed in after the kid's bedtime or even in the morning before going to work. This in combination with the Kongsberg Targets has made for very effective practice sessions.

I do quite a lot of running - our dog is a good excuse to go outside - and some mobility training. The stamina training I get from running really helps me to stay focused during long days of competition shooting and the mobility training helps with weird shooting positions that we often encounter in rifle shooting.

TFB: How many shots per year do you shoot? Can you recommend any drills for our readers?

Eirik: Due to economical reasons, the ammunition supply is limited - ammunition manufacturers are welcome to reach out! For 2024 I have shot 14,000 .223 and only 3,000 .22LR. This varies a bit from year to year, but this year I really wanted to spend time on the .223 rifles leading up to the world shoot. The total consumption for all calibers varies between 15 and 25,000 rounds a year for the past years.

I usually set up a simple target setup with a few targets and/or steels that is easily reset and allows for many reps and experimentation in a short amount of time. Examples of this are Ben Stoegers “Track the A-zone” which is a great drill for both rifle and pistol.

Dry fire plays an important role and with the Mantis BlackBeard I’m able to dry fire very realistically, and it’s a lot more entertaining than a dead trigger. Team HK are lucky to have Mantis on our team as a sponsor so all team members are using their tech to dryfire rifles. The dryfire gear - mini 10% targets, poppers around the house - is always ready so it’s a short way from grabbing my rifle to dryfiring, enabling longer and short dryfire sessions whenever my schedule allows it.

Video analysis is also a big part of practice, so we try to use Shooters Global (another Team HK sponsor) SG timers as much as possible with a video overlay of stages on matches or during practice sessions when evaluated properly this is a very nice way of comparing different shooters on the same stage and see where you gain or lose time on your competition.

TFB: Apart from the IPSC rifle, do you compete in any other disciplines? Do you hunt?

Eirik: I still do some competition with IPSC handgun, it's not that often as I’ve prioritized hard on rifle for the last years, but I do look forward to getting back to more of that now that the RWS is over for now. PCC is also something I’ve done, but since all of my budget has been ammunition costs I’ve only used an army-issued HK MP5 for the last few years. With the availability of handgun matches, getting a PCC to compete with will bring more long-gun match experience to the table.

In an attempt to learn wind calling from the guys who are really good at it I started with some PRS shooting, so there have been some PRS matches as well over the last couple of years.

I do hunt and with my bird-hunting dog, we go outside during the fall and winter time to hunt grouse and other small game, but also roe deer, reindeer and moose. Hunting is a really big part of the area I grew up in (Hjartdal, Telemark in Norway), so being a part of that means a lot to me and is still a great way to explore the outdoors.

TFB: Heckler & Koch is a pretty odd choice for IPSC and 3 Gun competitions. I’m sure our readers are very eager to learn everything. Can you please describe your H&K rifles in detail, and why you chose those components and furniture?

Eirik: The Heckler & Koch HK416 has always been known for being a top-of-the-line quality assault rifle. With the Heckler & Koch MR223 (author's note: civilian version, only semi-auto, named MR556 in the USA) and some custom parts we have been able to develop what we think is the most reliable competition rifle out there right now.

The entire Norwegian HK team uses the original HK MR223 with 16” barrels, uppers, and lowers with the well-known gas-piston operation. Mekanix is a Norwegian machine shop that has gone above and beyond to develop “race gun” parts for the MR223, and what really makes the rifle run smooth is the adjustable gas block that is a direct replacement of the original gas block and allows for seamless adjustability of the gas-bleed resulting in less punch from the gas piston and a smoother shot.

Mekanix has also designed a great handguard with a slim and grippy texture that bites into wooden surfaces. barricades for instance, like a dream.

Going from front to back on our H&K MR223 rifles - In the front we have the TE-Titan SALEN compensator, 3D printed in Titanium out of Norway. A super effective design that also looks quite good with the handguard! This is great for recoil reduction and can be tuned to fit the shooter and his/her ammunition and buffer setup.

For triggers, I have used TriggerTech diamond for the last years, but as I approached the world shoot I switched to a HiperFire Eclipse for my match rifle as I had some issues with the TriggerTech trigger that was installed in my competition rifle.

I use the original HK MR223 Stock and buffer tube as well as grip - however, my grip is stippled to provide more grip when running with the rifle in one hand.

As for magwells, we use 3D printed magwells which works okay for around half a season, but at the cost they are excellent.

For magazines, I use both HK 30-round plastic magazines as well as Magpul 20-40 rounds with various +5 attachments and of course the Magpul D60 for long courses with lots of shooting!

As for the barrel, I have really been impressed by the MR223 barrels. The rifle I used for world shoot has approximately 8500 rounds through it and with the Hornady Vmax load I used for RWS it still groups around 3.5cm on 290 m.

My practice rifle has approximately 28,000 rounds through it, with a lot of heat applied during intense practice sessions. Around 18,000 rounds I was sure that the barrel was lost due to wear and tear as it opened up groups on 200 meters, but after doing some barrel cleaning, it was ready to go again – I am amazed that it still consistently hits mini-poppers at 350 meters considering the abuse it has gone through.

TFB: Your Heckler & Koch rifles are probably the only ones with a piston-driven system in the whole World Champion. My first black rifle was a H&K MR223, and it can be seen on a regular basis in my articles. But I kind of hate mine, especially for IPSC. What have you done to your H&Ks, because they look like a dream to shoot compared to mine?

Eirik: Adjustable gas and lightened buffer are the two biggest changes that will make your MR223 shoot flatter. Adding a compensator will help drastically from there. When adjusting the gas, as with any gas-operated rifle as well, you should adjust it to a bit more than “this barely runs”. When my MR223s are properly adjusted, they can go for several 1000s of rounds without cleaning with a few drops of oil on the bolt carrier. I went from shooting a gas AR platform on the RWS2019, cleaning my gun every third stage to ensure that it ran, cleaning it after every practice session – to my HK where I barely bother to clean the gun before the Nordic Championship because we know it will just run smoothly anyway, and practice session after practice session can go on without any need for messy maintenance.

TFB: What does Heckler & Koch think about your team?

Eirik: H&K is a manufacturer of assault rifles to armies across the world and have several large contracts they need to fulfill. This means that of course the civilian market does not get the same attention as many would like, especially since it’s a really small market in Europe compared to their main market. That said, Heckler & Koch does support us together with their Norwegian Distributor Bertel O. Steen Defence and Security, but not at a level you may see US manufacturers do.

TFB: Do you have a spare rifle, and does it differ in any way from your main setup?

Eirik: I have two complete MR223s and one extra upper. They are the same in terms of setup except that the main optic is different. Height of the optics mount are the same, which I feel is the most important when I jump between rifles.

TFB: What kind of main optic do you use, and which reticle?

Eirik: On top of the rifles we all use Spuhr mounts. Their new hunting mounts are perfect for IPSC as they are lightweight, yet robust (Spuhr SCP-3022).

For rifle scopes, we use a bit different scopes in our Team. Personally, I have one rifle set up with a Swarovski Z8i 1-8, which I used for the Nordic Championship in June, and the rifle I used for Rifle World Shoot had a Schmidt & Bender PMII 1-8. They both are great scopes with their pros and cons.

The Schmidt & Bender has an MDR-T6 reticle, a real “Christmas tree”. The CC mode on these scopes are really awesome, making it feel like you are using a red dot.

(Author’s note: The author knows the S&B very well, and the review can be found here: TFB Review: The 1-8×24 PM II ShortDot Dual CC – from Schmidt & Bender. On my MR223 of course!)

TFB: Do you click for each stage, or do you use a set zero and do holdovers?

Eirik: I zero my rifles at 200 m. Depending on the stages I do click to the most sensible distance for that stage. I.e. at stage 1 on RWS (170m Paper, 250m steel, 350m paper) I adjusted to 250 meters which gave me a small hold-under at 170 m, straight in the center for 250 steel and then 1 mil over at 350.

Without the Schmidt & Bender reticle, I could have just held 10-15 centimeters over the target at 350 meters - so this approach works well with any scope - but since the reticle is FFP, I used the 1 mil line in the scope. I misread the wind on this stage which gave me really bad hits sideways, however, the height was spot on.

If the stages are “only 15 meter” papers I also adjust my scope so that I hit closer to where I aim on these stages. I find this especially important with tight no-shoot targets on these ranges. This has been a very effective way for me to solve stages.

TFB: Do you use a secondary red dot, and how and when do you use it compared to your main optic?

Eirik: Yes! We are lucky to have the Scandinavian Trijicon distributor on our team ( Venatio.se) which has supplied us with Trijicon SROs and RMRs. All our team members use the SRO for a side-mounted 45-degree optic. This is great when shooting on the move - really deliberate on head placement - and when the scope is set on too high magnification. On some stages - for example on RWS stage 19 - you will see me use both 1x optic and red dot in the same stage while shooting on the move, this is to compensate for different ranges as well as the expected movement during engagement of the different targets. Whenever there’s more movement I go for the red dot. For less movement and longer range – the scope is the primary. My red dot is zeroed at 25 meters which makes the hold-over quite little on tighter no-shoot targets at shorter ranges, yet usable out to 50 meters.

TFB: What kind of ammunition do you use? Do you reload?

Eirik: For practice: whatever I can get the cheapest! For matches I usually reload, for the RWS I used Hornady 53 Vmax with Vithavouri N133 powder for my main ammo. In a 16” barrel I am able to get 160 in Power Factor out of that, which is nice for tipping steel and gives a flat and nice trajectory out to 300 meters. I reloaded these on the

new Frankford Arsenal X-10 which turned out great.

(Author’s note: The minimum Power Factor in IPSC rifle is 150.)

TFB: For the long-range, do you use a heavier bullet?

Eirik: Yes, especially if there is wind and steel targets that need to be tipped over. Although the 53 Vmax handles wind really well, there is not a lot of energy left at 300 meters or more for tipping large steel plates. The heavier bullets are nice to have on these ranges.

For the RWS I used Sierra 69 Tipped Match King loaded with Lovex D073.5 – this load gives approximately the same gas pressure in the gas block - a tad more, but function over feel - and it’s almost identical in impact out to 300 meters. I get a PF of 190 with that, which is sure to tip most steel plates unless they are very poorly set up.

TFB: I find shooting on the move with a rifle very difficult. Do you master the technique, and how do you do it?

Eirik: Shooting on the move with a rifle is a very hard task compared to pistol shooting. I tend to use the principle of one sight picture per trigger press to make sure that nothing has shifted too much - no double-tapping! Visual control is the most important factor here. Ben Stoeger has a lot of great videos on this explaining how you will hit where you look, for better or for worse, I really recommend looking at his videos and applying the same principle to shooting

on the move.

When doing my own classes, I observe a lot of weird habits leading to people walking very weirdly with crazy postures that they would never use elsewhere. I really think that people who can walk with a cup of coffee without spilling also are able to walk and shoot at the same time, but maintaining visual control of when to pull the trigger is key since the rifle will move – no matter what.

Practicing shooting on the move with 22LR can be super effective, as the rifle moves so much from the walking anyway that the added recoil from .223 won't really matter.

TFB: Off-hand shooting is an important skill. How far out can you take shots with reasonably good hits (A or C) on an IPSC Classic target, and feel confident that you hit?

Eirik: It’s getting there, but it’s a constant struggle! I often select off-hand over wall support in stage solutions, but that heavily depends on the amount of targets in the array to be engaged. I think 100-120 meters is my upper comfort limit right now, but rest assured I am fully capable of missing at shorter ranges than that!!!

TFB: Given your experience, you’re probably one of the best people in the world to ask. What do you think about the electronic Kongsberg targets (KTS)? Are they the future of long-gun competitions?

Eirik: Definitely! I have used the Kongsberg Targets for approximately three years now, and it has revolutionized my way of practicing. The fact that I can drive to the range, set up one target, have a barricade or a wall or just three cones for different shooting positions and make up endless scenarios with that is great. The target will show all hits with great precision in the sequence you put them there, so having a multiple-position exercise is not an issue.

The immediate feedback is what I gain the most out of. The fact that I can calibrate my “reading of the sight picture” when the shot went with a look at the screen after 3-4 shots makes you reflect a lot better over the shots you do instead of having to walk 50-200 meters to patch a target and you forget all the images you saw of your sight pictures while firing.

I have also arranged a few competitions with the KTS targets and with just a few targets like this and the Mekanix Autopoppers (also used at RWS) we were able to squeeze three long-range stages out of the same, shared equipment, without the need for any people out on the shooting range resetting. These are super effective tools that should be implemented wherever the cost can be defended.

TFB: How did you prepare for the World Shoot, and how did it help you during the competition?

Eirik: Lots of range time, focusing on the off-hand part was important for me – as I am not a big fan of the kneeling bipod. This definitely paid off on some stages where I could trust my off-hand shooting for swingers and 70-80 meter targets without concern. Other than that, it was really hard to prepare for specific things for the world shoot since there was no information on the stages prior to a few days in advance. This was a real disaster in terms of information

management from the match offices side – people are traveling from all over the world and aren’t even able to bring the correct amount of long-range ammunition because of a total lack of stage information.

TFB: What were your highlights during the Rifle World Shoot?

Eirik: I really like stages where you are able to utilize shooting on the move and are able to get some flow, so stage 19 was a really fun long course that I think really pushed competitors through the stage. I saw times much faster than mine and also much longer with almost the same hit factor indicating that people could utilize different approaches to find their individual balance between speed and accuracy – which makes it an interesting stage!

Other than that, it's all about the people you meet – this time I got to meet a lot of great new people that I have never met before as well as people I got to know better during such a long competition. Big shoutout to the great and supportive people that makes up the shooters in this sport. No matter if we are competing at the edge of each other we are all able to shake hands and even help each other out if there are issues. I think we all wish to see everyone’s

best performance - while still beating our competition of course!

TFB: And your worst stage?

Eirik: This is a tricky one, I had a couple of stages with detrimental mistakes, but I think the worst one was stage 7, “The running moose” – and not because I had some issues with the running moose itself, but because I left the last target (the bobber) with a sight picture I knew was bad, giving me a Charlie Miss which on this stage cost me 19 points due to the low hit factor, compared to if I had shot an A. One of a few big mistakes during the match that will haunt me in practice for the coming months.

TFB: If you got to shoot the same World Shoot match once again, what would you practice more?

Eirik: More high target count arrays from separate positions – 3 out of 5 long courses on the rifle world shoot were somewhat identical – move to a position, shoot 4-5 targets, move to another position, engage 4-5 targets and so on – it's not interesting when they are designed so similar – but if I had to shoot the same match over, this is definitely what I would practice.

TFB: Tell us about your sponsors and how they help you?

Eirik: Our Team sponsors support us with the equipment we need which means less money spent from our side, which in turn gives us the possibility to spend a bit more money on ammunition. We are quite picky about our sponsors, and we only accept sponsors or supporters who actually add quality and value to our shooting. Our main sponsor is Heckler & Koch in close cooperation with Bertel O. Steen Defence and Security (Norwegian importer of HK) – they also contribute with other brands like UFpro, Salomon and Tasmanian Tiger. Other sponsors include but are not limited to Trijicon / Venatio, GRS Riflestocks, Pilla Performance, Spuhr, Shooters Global, Atec, Explorer cases and Mantis.

I’m also supported by Mauser and Minox on the PRS shooting part, so I currently use a Mauser M18 LR for most of my hunting as well as PRS competitions.