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.

As competitors moved through the rappel tower, the USPSA competitor in me couldn’t help but want to hose the targets. The guys behind the cameras had other ideas however, throwing a whole load of firearm manipulation into the mix as the shooters were forced to clear and holster the FN FiveSeven before moving to the next shooting position. This caused both Kyle and Gary to make mistakes; Gary needed to retrace his steps after failing to holster and Kyle wasted precious seconds after failing to perform a “tap, rack, bang” drill when the pistol initially failed to fire. In this shooter’s opinion, the most impressive performance came from Chris, who demonstrated the old maxim of slow is smooth, smooth is fast, which was enough to earn him the top slot, while Gary, Chee and Greg received places at the nomination range. When Kyle shot Chee’s target after previously talking about sending Greg into the next competition, I have to wonder if he decided that keeping the big Midwesterner around was in his own best interests going into the final rounds.

In the elimination challenge, the guys got to play dress-up before breaching doors with a shotgun and mowing down targets with the FS2000. Watching Gary move through the course for the first time, it was apparent that his run was very smooth and fluid and that Chee would have a hard time catching him. When Chee failed to blow the lock on his third door with the first round from the Mossberg, he was pretty much done at that point.

Next week sees the debut of the M1919 machine gun and the return of the PS90. With five shooters remaining, there’s only one more elimination challenge before the four man finale, and possibly the last Top Shot ever.