Top Shot All Stars, Episode 10: Crazy Spinning Wheel of Bang-Bang, and Zip Line
August 14, 2013
This week's episode was titled "Zip or Ship."
We had seven shooters left - and at challenge practice we learned of a twist: The guy in last place in the challenge would be eliminated immediately! The first-place finisher would be safe, but the other five would be bound for the proving ground, and one more shooter would be sent home after the elimination challenge.
Each shooter was strapped into a small spinning rig for practice.
Pete was odd as always; there were two targets downrange, and he pretended there were more... he said BAM BAM BAM, pretending to shoot at the imaginary ones as he spun around, and only shot at the real targets when he was at the top or bottom of the circle. As usual for Peter, he was comical and a little weird.
The Challenge
Each shooter would be strapped to a sixteen-foot-long arm, which rotated in a circle and at the top of its swing put the shooter 33 feet above the ground. It would spin the shooter in a 30-foot circle and an array of 20 twelve-inch-diameter targets were 35 feet away.
Supplied with a H&K SP89 (non-military version of MP5K) loaded with a 30-round magazine, each shooter was rotated one time to get acclimated, and would then have one revolution to shoot as many targets as possible. Although I immediately noticed that the target frames were multicolored, they didn't have to differentiate between them - just hit as many as possible.
Here's how it went down:
Proving Ground
The gun this time was the M1A rifle, and the target was at 200 yards. Here's the order in which the guys shot, and how far their hits were from the center:
Elimination
At practice, Colby told them it would be a zip line challenge, using a Browning Hi Power 9mm pistol. There was no coach.
Watching both shooters, I was impressed at their mechanics and repeatability... but I expected Pete to do best.
At the challenge, it was revealed that each shooter would tackle 10 targets; five on the right and five on the left. Naturally, the shooter would be moving down the zip line towards the targets while shooting at them. The magazine would be loaded with 14 rounds.
Pete went first, and hit 9 of the targets. That looked pretty dang good - but then Brian swept the course with a perfect 10.
So, it was buh-bye to Pete. He's a likable son of a gun... but I have to say that I think his dream of all shooters wearing clip-on ties and dolphin shirts is highly unlikely.
Next time: Shooting from a moving half-track, and a three-man "choose your weapon" elimination.
- Russ Chastain
Top Shot All Stars
This week's episode was titled "Zip or Ship."
We had seven shooters left - and at challenge practice we learned of a twist: The guy in last place in the challenge would be eliminated immediately! The first-place finisher would be safe, but the other five would be bound for the proving ground, and one more shooter would be sent home after the elimination challenge.
Each shooter was strapped into a small spinning rig for practice.
Pete was odd as always; there were two targets downrange, and he pretended there were more... he said BAM BAM BAM, pretending to shoot at the imaginary ones as he spun around, and only shot at the real targets when he was at the top or bottom of the circle. As usual for Peter, he was comical and a little weird.
The Challenge
Each shooter would be strapped to a sixteen-foot-long arm, which rotated in a circle and at the top of its swing put the shooter 33 feet above the ground. It would spin the shooter in a 30-foot circle and an array of 20 twelve-inch-diameter targets were 35 feet away.
Supplied with a H&K SP89 (non-military version of MP5K) loaded with a 30-round magazine, each shooter was rotated one time to get acclimated, and would then have one revolution to shoot as many targets as possible. Although I immediately noticed that the target frames were multicolored, they didn't have to differentiate between them - just hit as many as possible.
Here's how it went down:
- Adam hit 3; he got hosed by the sun, which was really glaring because whoever set things up had him shooting right into the sun.
- Phil hit 9; he too got hosed because smoke from the exploding targets obscured many of the targets.
- William hit 13; very impressive.
- Gary, the only guy who'd ever done this before, hit 6 using 17 rounds.
- Brian hit 6 using 19 rounds.
- Chris hit 6 using 16 rounds.
- Pete hit 10.
Proving Ground
The gun this time was the M1A rifle, and the target was at 200 yards. Here's the order in which the guys shot, and how far their hits were from the center:
- Phil 6.3"
- Gary 3.1"
- Chris 3.9"
- Pete 6.7"
- Brian 6.8"
Elimination
At practice, Colby told them it would be a zip line challenge, using a Browning Hi Power 9mm pistol. There was no coach.
Watching both shooters, I was impressed at their mechanics and repeatability... but I expected Pete to do best.
At the challenge, it was revealed that each shooter would tackle 10 targets; five on the right and five on the left. Naturally, the shooter would be moving down the zip line towards the targets while shooting at them. The magazine would be loaded with 14 rounds.
Pete went first, and hit 9 of the targets. That looked pretty dang good - but then Brian swept the course with a perfect 10.
So, it was buh-bye to Pete. He's a likable son of a gun... but I have to say that I think his dream of all shooters wearing clip-on ties and dolphin shirts is highly unlikely.
Next time: Shooting from a moving half-track, and a three-man "choose your weapon" elimination.
- Russ Chastain
Top Shot All Stars
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode One
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Two
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Three
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Four
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Five
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Six
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Seven
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Eight
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Nine
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Ten
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Eleven
- Top Shot All Stars - Season Five - Episode Twelve
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