By Paul Rackley

The fifth season of History’s Top Shot begins May 29, 2013, at 10 p.m. EST, showcasing contestants from previous seasons.

This year, however, is a little different. The 16 competitors will not be on teams, meaning there will be no nomination range, and personal politics and alliances will not be factor. This season, it’s all about shooting skill, and the contestants will be facing off in what producers are calling “The Proving Ground.”

By Paul Rackley

Sons of Guns seem to have fans from all walks of life, including a couple of big boys in the firearms industry—Brownells and Hornady.

By Iain Harrison

Chris Cheng is the self-desribed IT geek and winner of Top Shot Season 4 That self-deprecating description belies the fierce competitive streak that underpins his success on the show, despite his lack of formal training.

By Iain Harrison

This week's finale opened with the competitors returning to the house to be welcomed by a pretty lavish spread. Up till this point, people cook for themselves or their team mates, but the final four get treated to a meal that's put together by the set caterers and a celebratory bottle of booze makes its way into the house.

By Iain Harrison

This season of Top Shot has seen a gradual introduction of Point-of-View cameras to capture the action from the shooter’s perspective. Although not as impressive in their own right as the high speed Phantom cameras, these cameras have added another perspective to the show that illustrates what’s going on as the competitors press the trigger. One of the reasons the show is so expensive to produce is the size of the crew needed to service so many pieces of recording equipment, although it wouldn’t be anywhere near the same viewing experience without them. The footage this week of cases being ejected from the M1919 was a case in point, as was the exploding shaving cream can as it spun ribbons of white foam in a graceful arc during the elimination challenge.

By Iain Harrison

This week’s show saw the return of Jeff Gonzales who, like Craig Sawyer in previous episodes, qualifies as the Real Deal, and if you ever get the chance to attend one of his training classes, I guarantee you’ll want to take the opportunity. The first challenge had the competitors working out of a holster, which was a novelty for Top Shot and indicative that the comfort level of the producers is improving. If nothing else, the fact that the show has introduced a number of TV creative types to guns has to count as a check mark in the positive column.

By Iain Harrison

There is so much that goes on behind the scenes when the filming an episode of Top Shot, such as obtaining experts to train the competitors. When Kelly was first approached by History to return as an expert on long range shooting, he naturally wanted to know what would be expected of him in order to put in the necessary research. Being the good engineering student that he is, his first order of business was to get some time behind an Accuracy International rifle, which meant a trip down from Seattle to see me. I’ve occasionally mentioned the unofficial TS alumni network—this was one of those instances where it came into play.

By Iain Harrison

When I was contacted by the producers for this episode, I have to admit I was a little apprehensive being called in as the expert. Sure, I own a couple of the guns in question and have fond memories of some of their siblings from the British martial arsenal, but expert, I ain’t. So what do you do when you need the inside scoop and historical background on a Webley revolver? Simple, you contact Phil Schreier at the National Firearms Museum, and pick his brains, long before you get anywhere near a plane bound for California.

By Iain Harrison

After the departure of Tim Trefren, falling to several well placed atlatl darts, the red and blue teams team found themselves with an equal number of members. I must confess, I have no idea why my friend Bob Vogel was chosen as the expert for this week, other than he’s an absolute ninja with any handgun, current World IDPA champion and all-round good guy. Come to think of it, those are probably sufficient qualifications for any of the current crop of shooting shows.

By Iain Harrison

I mentioned some of the ways in which the mid season blahs might be countered in previous posts and this time around, the producers of Top Shot rolled out a gorgeous (and huge) example of a Victorian machinists' art. Bear in mind that that the 3.2-inch bag gun was made one at a time, and that each individual part was hand fitted to its neighbor over the course of assembly, making the guns incredibly expensive. Also, because of the charging system, there was no effective means of containing propellant gasses inside the breach. If you watched closely, you could see a puff of smoke escaping toward the teams during the challenge.