Top Shot

Do you watch "Top Shot" on History? They are into their third season, although I am not sure it's the third year. They get a bunch of people together who are ace marksmen in all different disciplines. They have armed forces folks and police and entertainers and even a few self taught shooters. In reality show format they have these folks face off in target challenges with all types of weapons. Mostly it's guns, but they've also done knives, bows, axes and some other odds and ends.

I guess maybe it's the hardware geek in me that the weapons appeal to. Last season they had this .22 pistol optimized for speed shooting. That was real cool. It seems like this year they are really taking out the stops because one of the weapons on the intro is a Gatling gun - not something you see every day. I like watching the players train on the new platform. I shot a .22 rifle and a bow at camp and a little bit I sucked. These folks are really good and excel regardless of the weapon.

Probably the coolest thing so far was when a US Marine Sniper hit a target 1000 meters away with a Barrett 50 cal in one shot (and as it turned out, he didn't even win that challenge).

Sometimes I actually think the reality show elements take away from the show as a whole. This season and last they made quick work of the women on the show. Last season four Marines colluded to make sure they were the last four left (although toward the very end this produced a fairly quirky twist). The show format does a team competition followed by the losing team selecting two members to "shoot for their life" so to speak, and then finishes with a head to head competition between those two.

If I could change one thing I would change the selection process. As is each shooter takes one shot at targets with all the shooters names. The two shooters with the most votes go to elimination. I guess having it all in the open makes some of the politics more telegenic. Sometimes though it means some folks shots pointless and sometimes I think people would vote a different way if they could do it privately. I think it would be cooler if they did it firing squad style everyone at once. I'd give everyone two rounds. They all shoot once simultaneously, look at the totals, and then shoot again. This way people could vote their conscience a little more freely. It might make the pre-nomination range scene less tense, but I think having the shooters have to guess who voted for whom would be an interesting dimension too.

But it's a good show as is. Check it out.