April 01, 2011
In the long tradition of chatting with Top Shot contestants post-elimination, Rifleman's Reality Shots caught up with Daryl Parker.
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March 30, 2011
Last night's team challenge showed that, despite the 10/22's old school wood stock, simple iron sights and complete lack of a tacticool railed forend, it is nonetheless a great equalizer. Chris Reed demonstrated his knowledge and insight of this when he said, “with the .22, in ten minutes I'll tell you who's the better shooter.” And he should know, having regularly placed in the Total Outdoorsman Challenge.
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March 30, 2011
Stephanie Hayden is standing by the printer. “Dad look at this,” she shouts holding up a list of rare guns, including an Uzi, from a prospective client. In a flurry of phone calls, e-mails, messages and wish lists, Owner Will Hayden pulls on a cigarette in his office. Through the vale of smoke to his left is a window that let's the boss see into his shop. Right now Vince Buckles, lead gunsmith, is welding a stock in the corner as gunsmith Glenn Fleming puts together a folding stock for a conversation kit. At the same time in the bustling lobby Kris Ford breaks out a box to show off a Desert Eagle for an upcoming “special top secret” project. The group's attention is soon gathered by a bright purple pickup in front of the building. The distinctive truck is sporting a bunch of Louisiana State University stickers and one other interesting item—a Civil War era mini cannon.
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March 29, 2011
This week, the marksmen of Top Shot have the opportunity to bust out in a real-life shooting gallery, made famous years ago at carnivals around the country, using one of the most fun rifles ever made—the Ruger 10/22.
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March 24, 2011
Reality Shots once again got to pick the brain of the most recently ousted Top Shot star: competitive shotgun shooter Kyle Frasure. Despite some rough performances in the first few challenges, Kyle made it past the halfway point and had only positive things to say about his experience.
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March 23, 2011
The opportunities to practice shooting two revolvers at once are few and far between. Competitions that require participants to engage their targets upside down after going through the equivalent of permanent press cycle can be counted on the fingers of a boxing glove, which kind of gets to the crux of the whole Top Shot philosophy. This isn't about excelling at one particular facet of the shooting sports. It's all about survival. It's about getting through the competitions where you're weakest in order to make it to the point where you can send the other guy home, be it in the first episode or the last. When the original 16 competitors were assembled in an L.A. hotel the night before we headed off to the house, we were all ushered into a room and seated opposite roughly the same number of executives, producers and other powerbrokers. The head of the production company explained in a torrent of expletives that this wasn't going to be like any competition any of us had been in before. It took most of us a while to adjust to the idea, but he was right.
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March 22, 2011
If the previews are to be believed, the Top Shot contestants are going trick shooting during this week’s team competition. It looks like it might be a shooting version of H.O.R.S.E., which should provide some fun shots if the shooters have some imagination.
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March 16, 2011
Readers of this blog (yes, both of you—you know who you are) will be familiar by now with my usual Tuesday evening routine of finishing work and then heading over to my local Irish bar to watch Top Shot. The reason I watch there with friends, rather than secluded in my man cave is twofold. First, the service is a lot better. Second, it's really entertaining to look around the bar during the show and see how many non-shooters become sucked into the drama that unfolds onscreen. Last night's episode was definitely a winner in that respect. I know that some of the shooters watching will have been turned off by the fact that the contest revolved around primitive weapons, but given what the show has done to bring the shooting sports into living rooms across the country, I'm OK with that.
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March 10, 2011
Currently on the second leg of my March odyssey, I'm watching Top Shot tonight with some friends in a restaurant in Fairfax Va., just down the road from NRA HQ. It feels like revisiting the scene of a crime, as last time I was here, Pete Palma joined me for the occasion, and the celebrations were a little, shall we say, spirited? Pete has since moved to Blake Miguez's stomping grounds, so he won't be able to make it for episode five of Season 2, but I'll be reporting back when he accompanies me to a 3-gun match next month. The inimitable Adam Benson is among tonight's audience however, and I know that Jermaine, George and JJ Racaza have their own viewing party tonight in Atlantic City.
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March 09, 2011
Iain Harrison, Top Shot Season 1 Champion and AmericanRifleman.org blog contributor, was in-house earlier this week, so we convinced him to sit down in front of the camera and talk about the whole of Top Shot season 2 so far: what he liked, what he thought was different, recent eliminations and much more.
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