History Channel's "Top Shot" on Sunday night

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Glockboy lost me with the trash talk about metal handguns, seemed his specialty was hosing rounds as fast as he could rather than concentrating on precise shot placement. Doing speed drills so often with a Glock, his body and gun began to act as one and put the rounds on target consistently. Give him a different firearm and his body and mind are no longer in sync and he's suddenly off target. Should confine his shooting to the Glock Boys annual reunions where he can be shine among the koolaid drinkers.....or.....learn to broaden his experience and work out with an broad assortment of other firearms. I see trouble in his future when he can't hose the range with arrows and slingshot ammo.

The truck driver (who's specialty is Mil-surp rifles), takes forever to squeeze off a shot? Some rifle matches shooters are given an allotted time of fire, and those shooters often use the entire time given for that shot.....seems he brought that habit to a speed/accuracy event. Hope he doesn't sell his truck in hopes of a new shooting career.

The targets on the zip line were interesting.....shattered like glass or maybe hard acrylic. I would have thought a second go around (knowing what to expect) would have seen higher scores.

Shooting is 90% discipline....those with military backgrounds seem to exhibit more of this and handle unforeseen variations of the rules better.
 
Shooting Berettas at 25 feet? Bullseye pistol starts at 25 yards and you only use one hand.

The only difficulty I saw was whether the pistol was sighted in so that point of aim equaled point of impact. I don’t care if you are the best shot in the world, if the sights are off, you are better off tossing rocks.

I predicted they would be swinging from vines, though I did not hear any Tarzan yodeling in the rip line event.

Lets see, future events: shooting while jumping from the highboard at the pool, spear chucking, tomahawk throwing, and ninja stars. :uhoh:

The whole show is designed to be a Soap Box Opera. Everyone gets to see how they voted, and they live in the same house, the whole set up is constructed so that competitors will get cranky and say nasty things to each other. The show is edited to create villains and paladins.

What they lack is a Gorgeous George.
 
Well Ben thought it was cool to see you on the show, after posting here.

I'll say it again, regardless of the haters, this is a GOOD thing to show for shooting. It's shooting in a positive light, not a bunch of beer swilling gun toting drooling redneck killers that so many of the anti's like to use portray.
 
Ben Stoeger said:
The show wrapped up in April. It took 30 days to shoot the entire thing.
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How many episodes are scheduled? They talk a lot about "next week this" and "Next week that"... Or did they shoot an episode a day or something?
 
Glockboy lost me with the trash talk about metal handguns, seemed his specialty was hosing rounds as fast as he could rather than concentrating on precise shot placement.
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I don't like Glocks. They don't fit my hand and I find shooting them uncomfortable. That said...I can shoot them and I could have hit any of the targets shown with one. Aim, press, find the POI and adjust your POA. It ain't rocket science.
Joe
 
For good or bad, Glock has now inherited a spokesperson. I wonder how many people are going to go buy a 92FS this week.

I do see a pattern developing here that I hope doesn't carry through the entire show: the person who is responsible for losing the challenge or one of those responsible states that they want to go to the elimination and chooses to go up against someone who has greater skill in a particular shooting segment. The underdog carries some steam, but mentally crumbles, advancing the more proficient shooter.

Hopefully, there will be two devices seen in the shows to come to break this pattern. 1) an elimination where neither marksman is proficient in that particular shooting segment. (next week with bows and arrows?) and 2) an underdog beats a more proficient shooter at their own game. (One may argue that this was already seen in Kelly and Mike's challenge, but old or young, if you've made the sacrifices to be on the USA shooting team, you are no underdog.)

I've enjoyed the show so far and will continue to watch.
 
If I were doing the ad buys for Versus and Outdoor Channel, I'd be buying up all the local cable ads for this show I could in order to show off my shows as the logical next step from Top Shot.
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The Vs. network has a shooting-related show in production currently based around 3Gun.

3-Gun Nation.

The production team was at Superstition Mountain earlier this year, and had a very professional setup. They're traveling to some of the biggest matches in the country and holding shoot offs between the top competitors at each of the matches, and it looks like it'll be a pretty excellent show.

I don't know if 3-Gun Nation will have the crossover appeal that Top Shot has, but I'm looking forward to seeing a show built around the sport of 3Gun.

Say it aint so! What about their accomplishments? There has to be some equipment issues too!
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The guy definitely got inside his own head. It can be pretty easy to psyche yourself out when you're in a situation like that. *shrugs*
 
I watched the inaugural Three Gun Nation shoot-off back in March, and all the contestants there had to use FNH pistols, shotguns and rifles, a line of firearms that they had not used in competition before.

And none of them complained about how the FNH pistol fit their hand or how the function of the FN SLP was different from their shotgun or how the bolt release on the FN SCAR was in the wrong place.

And yet we're treated to five minutes of moaning about how a Glock shooter can't shoot well with any other pistol except a Glock.

What's up next? Complaining about the grip angle on the longbow? B*tching about the metal in a throwing knife? :)
 
Were you at the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club for Superstition Mountain?

That match was a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the shootoff.

In fact, after the shoot off, a friend of mine said he overheard Adam Popplewell talking about buying one of the FN pistols so he could practice for the next one.

Not that I found that surprising or anything.


Agree about the whining. Brad didn't really come off looking all that great. All of the competitors went into it knowing they'd be shooting with gear provided by the show. Still, I'm going to tend to give them the benefit of the doubt, since the editing of the show is going to be geared towards playing up the drama.
 
I was one of the RO's on Stage 7, the pop-up target stage, and thanks for the kind words, all of the staff had a great time as well.

The 3 Gun shootoff was more exciting than I thought it might be at first, and it was done in a way that will definitely be exciting and TV-friendly. I think it'll be a good balance between the drama-heavy style of Top Shot and the more data-driven shows on Outdoor Channel. Either way, I'll definitely be tuning in. Whether my wife will watch it with me (as she does with Top Shot) remains to be seen.
 
So I figured I'd be getting lit up online this morning, some of which is deserved, but I thought I'd give my impressions to what went down with the Beretta challenge.

First off in regards to my Glock fanboydom, I can say that it's partially true. At that point I could think of a bunch of possibilities that would be considered more representative of a modern handgun (2011 to striker fired polymer). I didn't mean to speak ill of the Beretta in its entirety though, even for USPSA. Hell, Ben can still kick my ass with one! Everyone is correct in that it's all about the shooter behind the equipment. That being said, even though I'll be shooting my Glock in Area 1, I'm actually probably switching to CZ because I have small hands and it simply fits them better. The glock sits at an angle off the web of my hand because the frame is large (and in Cali, we can't buy the Gen4).

As far as that particular gun was concerned, I really did think that it was shooting to the right. I could have been wrong, but Bill and I keyholed a 1 inch group when we first shot it to dial it in. Now again, it's an unfamiliar gun to me, and I could have just been consistently pushing the shots over there. However, out of the 20 rounds I got, I had to shoot some fast because I had no idea what the challenge would be like. (IPSC course vs accuracy?) I had a pretty good idea of where it was shooting for me, but I'm very compulsive about these things (especially on national TV, where I'm supposed to be a pistol expert) and was worried about not being sure of its point of impact. On the first shot, I aimed at the left edge of the target and clipped the wood on the right. On my second shot, I aimed 1.5 inches off to the left and drilled it. Bill missed his next shot right, and I told him where to aim, and he delivered.

As with what happened with Mike, it's our responsibility as competitors to account for our equipment. Regardless of why it was shooting right for me (and I think it there's still a good chance it was my fault), I knew where it was grouping and should have hit the target on the first hit. That being said, in retrospect, it was wrong for me to start bitching about the gun. I was just worried about missing and looking like an idiot in front of 4 million people. (Both of which I did anyways) Although some things, like the comment about the sights being worn, were in response to a question by another competitor about if the gun for the elimination and the team challenge were the same. The elimination gun was different, which I could tell because it had newer sights.

Per the elimination challenge, Ben is correct, I should have hit more targets. The first run was a blur, but the second run I should have done much better. (They removed the closest two targets which gave us fewer scoring opportunities.) Out of the gate, I drilled three for three. However, I got hung up dropping two rounds at the bonus target on the left because I thought I was way ahead. The zipline went faster than expected, and I had to rush to catch up on the right. I was stupid (as I said on the show) and should have just cleaned the right side when I had time. I honestly thought Frank was going to beat me after that run.

I want to clarify one more thing. I have the utmost respect for the experts in my sport, like Ben and Matt. You can see their scores in comparison to mine, I don't need to explain that they're better than me at this game. I'm actually a fresh GM (which I got pretty much by accident at two consecutive matches by good classifier runs in the end of 2009) and have yet to really perform at that level after having only done USPSA for 3 years. I've been training hard to live up to the title. As a matter of fact, some of the advice Matt gave me on the show has led me to change my entire shooting mechanics. (See my shoulder hunch and head movement) There's a lot of progress to be made in a lot of capacities, but we'll see how it goes.
 
I was one of the RO's on Stage 7, the pop-up target stage, and thanks for the kind words, all of the staff had a great time as well.
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Oh man, my condolences. Thanks for RO'ing on what turned out to be the most contentious stage of the match. You guys took a lot of flack over those targets.
 
Brad, welcome to The High Road. I'm really enjoying the show you're on and intend to see every episode.

I know you can't share many details about the show while it's still airing, but when you can, I would like to get your response to a few questions:

1. What's the weirdest thing you shot during the show?

2. Those cool super slow-mo shots of projectiles leaving the barrel and hitting the target, are they really the contestants' shots or were they staged after the competition? Or both?

3. Would you sign up for another season?

Thanks for the hour of entertainment every week.
 
Brad, Bart here. Had the good fortune to meet you and hang with you at the CA IDPA championship last October. It is good to read your comments on here. Here is my take on the last episode, as I posted over on CalGuns. Excuse my levity at the end of the post. Good luck to you in the show, just do your thing.

I know Brad a little. I did not see his comments as excessive whining. Brad was confident going into the practice. When Brad did not do as well as he anticipated, he asked to try it again -- SMART! Brad tried to determine WHY he did not do as well as anticipated and decided it was due to his muscle memory with the Glock grip angle ( I think he missed the fact that the trigger systems are vastly different in feel, and the fact that his snap shooting style, an action-pistol-speed-transitions style, magnified these problems, at least he did not mention these factors). During the shoot-off practice Brad started with dry fire transitions, that was smart. Brad needed to see when he was breaking the trigger relative to the LATERAL completion of the transition, and where his front sight was VERTICALLY when that happened. He then went to live fire. In live fire, Brad still shot erratically but mainly high. I do think the more vertical grip angle of the Beretta contributed to the high shots. The instructor gave him solid advice: SLOW DOWN. When Brad did slow down, he hit better. All of that is consistent with what I have seen Brad do in competition. Brad is very fast. His accuracy is mediocre. When Brad is on, he is hot. When Brad is not hot, Brad's accuracy suffers. Brad is a mild mannered gentleman. NOW, THE COMMENTS ABOUT METAL PISTOLS; NOT NEEDED! AS A 1911 SHOOTER, I GOT MY HACKLES UP A LITTLE WHEN I HEARD THAT! But I mean, the others all talked trash about something or other also and a little good natured gun bashing has never been unwelcome amongst the shooters I know. No big deal, adds to the fun. Besides, the Beretta 92 does suck!
 
I'll toss in an idea for next season (or a competing show).

Get 12-15 top-flight shooters from a range of disciplines. Each gets to put together their own event - they specify the event, equipment, and (maybe) hold a brief training session. The other shooters compete in it - it being taken for granted that the "event host" would overwhelm them. Top shooter gets N points (the number of competitors minus 1), next gets N-1, etc. Whoever has the most points at the end of the season wins.

Slight variation...the host is restricted to specifying a recognized course of fire and equipment from his discipline.

With proper competitor selection, this format could get VERY interesting.
 
So I figured I'd be getting lit up online this morning, some of which is deserved, but I thought I'd give my impressions to what went down with the Beretta challenge.
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Welcome!

I'd be willing to bet I'd be doing an equal amount of on-camera, ah, commentary, if they made me shot a Glock in competition rather than my beloved CZ's. :)
 
My money says Adam Benson.
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I dunno.
The 1st week I was thinking the kid (Kelly) was just too full of himself to win.
After the 2nd week, I consider him to be the one to beat. He has really handled himself much better than most of the others, who complain about everything from sighting scopes to grips to targets and on and on. He has consistanly showed he indeed has a high skill level with FA's.
I'm still amazed that Mike (in week 1 )could not hit the target with the 1903 at 100 yds in 37 shots. I honestly think quite a few of us might be able to make that shot (with 37 tries) with no sight on the rifle at all. Then he almost missed the target when he was voting in the elimination.:what:

I do wonder how they went about selecting the players. What type of shooting skills did they have to perform to be accepted for the show? Was it a live fire dis[ply or simply showing their trophies?

My money is on Kid Kelly.
 
I think they should have had the opportunity to choose what weapon they would be using to eliminate the possibility that one guy has trained his entire life with that 1 pistol in the show while others used another pistol their entire life.

Or have all competitors use the same exact gun to eliminate possibilities that one gun had off sights or something.
 
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