Top Shot 3

[Dave2]

... I'm fairly terrified that a swat officer could shoot that terribly with her duty weapon. She blamed it on pressure...but come on! Serving warrants on dangerous felons isn't pressure? Sheesh. Remind me to stay out of IL if that's the shooting capability of their officers.

At first I felt the same too. [...] I thought this might have had to do something with the Friendly targets mixed up with the Enemy targets, as after all any LEO would catch heck in a hand basket if they accidentally shot a friendly. This sort of makes sense to me specially considering the bulbs weren't a Torso or the size of a B27 target.

Maybe, yeah. In any case, I've always wondered why they don't assign a higher penalty for hitting friendly targets, to try to keep it more in line with the high cost of hitting the wrong target in real life. OTOH, the military & police competitors will have "don't hit the friendlies" so drilled into them that it's probably a liability in competitions like this, so maybe the course designers leave it in there to try to cancel out the advantages that military or police training would give.

[A-R]

Sara's grip on the M&P was horrible. There was at least a half inch gap between top of her hand and underside of the beavertail. Methinks this contributed mightily to her shortcomings. Can't control the recoil if you don't have a firm, high grip.

I am sick of the "token female competitors " always going home early in the last two seasons. The need to get Jessie Abate or Julie Golob on the show

[74novaman]

Sara's grip on the M&P was horrible. There was at least a half inch gap between top of her hand and underside of the beavertail. Methinks this contributed mightily to her shortcomings. Can't control the recoil if you don't have a firm, high grip.

I am sick of the "token female competitors " always going home early in the last two seasons. The need to get Jessie Abate or Julie Golob on the show

I think the serious female competitors, like the serious male competitors would rather spend that month or two (however long it is) actually in touch with their families, going to work, getting on with their lives.

It takes a special type of person to want to be paraded on TV like that. We'll never see the cream of the crop, shooting wise on a gameshow like this.

But its still amusing to watch.

[texanron]

I watched the 2nd episode last night via the dvr. The team challenge was great especially since the blue team got beat! Nothing against that group as a whole its just the self appointed leader, the Seal, I enjoyed seeing get a taste of defeat. Not really sure why he went off on the red headed kid after the challenge. The elimination round was great! Especialy since the Christian Camp Leader self taught shooter from Texas beat a military LE trained shooter. Way to go kid!!

[LeonCarr]

We will probably never see the top of the heap (USPSA Grand Masters, Jerry Miculek, Julie Golob, etc) on Top Shot, unless they are instructors (I think Taran Butler will be on next week), because pretty much all professional shooters/sponsored shooters are required by contract to shoot X amount of matches, do X amount of personal appearances and TV segments, and don't have time to take off from making money and keeping sponsors happy to film a reality show.

It is nice to see the different challenges involving alternative weapons so the pure shooters get their clocks cleaned occasionally :).

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

[Domineaux]

Sarah actually seemed to have earned her trip to eliminations as she performed poorly in the log-run and didn't do particularly well in the ak course. She really wouldn't have contributed much based on how she was so impacted by nerves in the log-run and during the elimination. The camp kid Dustin however had performed well and smoked the elimination so I hope he won't be an automatic choice for future nominations.

Jake seemed to go off on the red head for the snide comment he made about "nice shooting" to Jake who never got a shot off due to being so far behind at the start of his turn and then after catching up amazingly, his ak appeared to jam. It was a rather rude/unsportsmanlike comment but Jake clearly cannot handle someone who doesn't fawn on him.

Agreed that top level competitors aren't likely to appear except as experts, Taran Butler was on the show second season coaching on upside down shooting.

[Draskuul]

Also, I'm fairly terrified that a swat officer could shoot that terribly with her duty weapon. She blamed it on pressure...but come on! Serving warrants on dangerous felons isn't pressure? Sheesh. Remind me to stay out of IL if that's the shooting capability of their officers.

Actually, did anyone else notice that when they put up her name and history on the screen in that episode they listed her as, if I remember correctly, a SWAT Team Supervisor? It makes her sound more like a desk jockey than someone who is actively busting down doors. That could very well be the same case with the rest of her police and military background. I wouldn't expect someone--on average--in a support role drilling targets as well as someone in an active combat role.

Of course that could be totally wrong about her background, but it does make her performance a little less frightening in hindsight.

As for the "token female" comments from people, I'd vote on the Homeland Security guys being more the 'token participants' than the women.

(I can't believe I finally registered here just to post in a Top Shot thread!)

[gigag04]

FAMs have the most stringent quals of any agency...They're DHS

[Dave2]

FAMs have the most stringent quals of any agency...They're DHS

They'd better have stringent quals... it's their job to shoot into a crowd of frantically moving people and only hit the BGs. I don't think I'd want that responsibility even if it did let me carry my gun on a plane.

[chlag01]

I was disappointed that most of the team members automatically voted the female shooter (Sara I think) to the elimination round.

I hated to see both women eliminated right off the bat, but both their performances in the first S&W .500 match were terrible. Granted, it was a difficult gun to shoot, but they both looked completely out of their league in that particular match. I think her team had her marked from then on.

[Domineaux]

I was disappointed that most of the team members automatically voted the female shooter (Sara I think) to the elimination round.

I hated to see both women eliminated right off the bat, but both their performances in the first S&W .500 match were terrible. Granted, it was a difficult gun to shoot, but they both looked completely out of their league in that particular match. I think her team had her marked from then on.

I didn't really think they deserved nomination for the 500 mag as they didn't do that bad with it considering their disadvantage, but neither performed well after that either. Sadly Top Shot hasn't done an impressive job at finding impressive female marksmen from the pool that are out there. Maybe better ones aren't applying, or the selection is based more on personality than ability. That would be my assumption based on the range of personalities so far over 3 seasons. But it is a show made for ratings and personality conflicts lead to drama which is what they hope will draw in more than just shooters.

[Bullwhip]

He's had several statements that make me kind of go . Claimed to have been accepted to the Naval Academy as a freshman in high school. Then later stated he spent 5 years there. (prep school I guess?).

Carries himself more like a mall cop than a SEAL. He don't act like anybody I ever saw who went through a service academy. Acts like a lot of HS football coaches I've seen with all the bluff and swagger but not a Navy officer.

[Lodge2004]

If interested, Caleb Giddings, one of the first season contestants, does a 1 hour interview with each competitor that gets eliminated. The interviews are released immediately after the show, so you can watch on Tuesday night and then listen to the debrief on Wednesday on your commute to work. The interviews add a LOT of background to what is happening behind the scenes. What we see on TV is a miniscule fraction of the actual event and is heavily edited by the producers for maximum ratings (with a big emphasis on "drama").

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Domineaux]

Thanks, I didn't know about Gun Nuts interviews so downloading some now.

[DoubleJ]

Things that would make Top Shot more watchable:
- have voiceovers instead of the host standing behind the shooters yelling

I agree with that.

- get the host to stop using the ridiculous fake accent.

Colby was on the second season of Survivor, which is why this show, being, as Caleb calls it, "Survivor: with guns" is appropriate!

He *is* in fact from Texas, and to boot, a small town out there by San Angelo.

Anyway, for anyone who hasn't been following the radio show, The SEAL Jake is a tool, a crappy person, and a cancer to the Blue team. He picked on Sara because she was a woman, and they're lucky the Texan out shot her, cause she woulda come back with a vengeance!

That aside, keep in mind folks, that a show like this (and some of the other shows that maybe I loathe, such as Sons of Guns ) WILL GET more people in firearms, shooting, competitions, whateva. The "drama" is what draws in your BigBrother/HellsKitchen/TopModel/Survivor/GreatRace/BiggestLoser. None of those shows are about what they're really about! Anyone watch HellsKitchen for recipe ideas? naw, folks watch it for the drama, and prolly someone out there gets in to cooking, or tries a new dish/food they maybe hadn't thought of before.

Watching George Reinas flying down that cable popping targets last season looked really fun! I'd love to have the opportunity to do that, too!
That aside, yes, they've had some of the "pros" on the show. Mike Seeklander, JJ Racaza, Blake ~, last year's Gunny was a big time NRA pistol guy, this season has a few USPSA shooters. Amanda was a USPSA shooter, as well, but oh, well.