Top Shot -- A Reality Show So Manly Even Larry Marchant Likes It

I caught this on Sunday; thought maybe I should tip people to it, but I also thought, "Anyone who's interested in this probably already knows about it."

On the History Channel, they have a reality show like "Top Chef" except it's with... marksmen, who have to compete in interesting shooting challenges, including, clips promise, challenges with non-firearm weapons such as bow, spear, and tomahawk.

Since it's the History Channel, they have a "historic weapons" hook. But they shoot rifles and pistols (both modern and cowboy-action), too. Shotguns as well, I figure.

In the first episode, they had to navigate an obstacle course and fire four rifles of historical significance ('03 Springfield, Russian Nagant, M-14, and another Russian one whose name escapes me) at targets 50 and 100 yards away. The obstacles were barbed wire for WWI, a thorny maze for the hedgerows of Normandy for WWII, a mud-pool for Vietnam, and... well, a rope-climb for Korea. I don't get that one, myself, but I guess they couldn't just put people in a meat-freezer.

Participants are selected for different specialties -- long-range rifle, combat pistol, historic pistol, etc. I don't know, yet, if anyone specializes in knife-throwing or longbow.

This being TV, needing a dramatic visual, the targets explode in flash-bang when hit.

It's a pretty good show. (You can watch the first episode there, or browse clips.) On Sundays at 10pm Eastern/7 Pacific.

Oh, This Is Cute: For the elimination challenge (two guys are voted "off the island" by their team, but the only guy who actually leaves is the guy who loses the head-to-head shootout), they seem to be doing stuff like duplicating shots famous in folklore or fiction.

So one clip teases the William Tell Apple Shot, and next week, they're shooting a gun through a 2" tube capped with glass on each end... what I am 99% sure they are duplicating is the now-overused Hollywood cliche of shooting a sniper in the eye right through his scope.

Yeah, kinda corny, but you have to admit it's kind of fun -- like Mythbusters, but with guns.

One Cute Thing: One of the competitors, to show off or psych out his opponent, used his target practice period to shoot a Martin Riggs smiley-face into the target.

Next week a guy shows off with a no-look hit to the center of the target.

Ah! I realized, they're not replicating the shoot-a-sniper-through-his-scope-with-a-rifle, as was done in Saving Private Ryan and in real life by legendary sniper Hathcock.

I think they're replicating this extremely famous fictional pistol shot:

I realize that seems to be a gunbarrel, not a scope, but... anyway. I think that's what they're up to.

A Gun-Blogger's On The Show. Caleb's his name.

posted by Ace at 05:52 PM

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