So, did anyone notice the connection between the firearms on last night's show? I had the opportunity to choose just about any firearm in the inventory of the the biggest prop house on the west coast, but went with a few familiar friends in the AR15, the FN-FAL, Browning Hi-Power and SIG, figuring that most firearms aficionados had shot at least one of them. They'd also been mostly absent from the show so far. In case you were wondering, they're all variants of guns that have shown up in British service over the years. If only I could have snuck in a WG revolver and an Enfield...

Going back to the Top Shot set was a little strange at first. As a competitor, your every move is controlled according to the shooting schedule (cameras, not guns), and you're allowed very little insight as to what's going on outside of the house or range. As part of the crew, you get a birds-eye view of the process and how all the little cogs and springs interact to create the final product. It was an eye-opener, not in the least because of the amount of planning and scheduling involved in creating the challenges, most of which are planned months in advance and involve special effects guys, carpenters, painters, a firecrew and, of course, the armorers and expert.

I also got to see some of the technology involved in capturing images of a bullet in flight, which for a fan of technology is worth the price of admission alone. If you'd like to see more of what a camera capable of 40,000 frames per second is capable of, go to Google.com and search "Phantom Camera." As an aside, firearms manufacturers are finding high speed cameras to be very useful in product development - according to my sources, Ruger has been using one for some time now and utilized it extensively in research and development on the new LC9 pistol.

Last night's first challenge proved difficult for some of the shooters that have been dominating the field so far. The difference between Jamie and Brian's time was over a minute, which must have seemed like an eternity when he was returning to the bench. Most of the shooters smoked the pistol stage, which was to be expected as long guns are actually more difficult to shoot under those conditions - the handgun allows the shooter much more opportunity to isolate motion from the platform as there are three more joints between it and the gun. Those 100-yard targets are awfully small when the front sight is dancing all over the California landscape.

I'm still not convinced that the producers made the right choice when it came to the process of selecting who would go to elimination. Although it made for good TV and no doubt caused a good deal of controversy, at this stage in the game during Season 1, all the eliminations were performance based and I believe a lot of viewers prefer that format. We'll see what changes are made in Season 3 - hopefully the politics get factored out of the equation. Next week sees the contestants hoisted to the top of a crane, then dropped with a Glock in their hands. I got to try this out while on set  and I guarantee it's as much fun as it sounds.