Ahab

Leaving this afternoon for the match - got a car full of moonclips and a bunch of extra .45 ACP just in case.

Speaking of which, here's the blurb on History's website for the third episode: Archer Enemies: Contestants compete with the legendary longbow. A breakout performance gives one team immunity, while two competitors from the losing team face off on the William Tell challenge in which they'll have to hit a series of apples with a crossbow.

Please, we all know that Ben is the real star of next week's episode, not us "contestants". He even wore his favorite Justin Beiber shirt for the show!

That actually looks pretty awesome.

Yes. The guns we shot in practice were always the guns we shot in the match unless there was a mechanical failure of one of the guns.

I can honestly say that I had no idea such a thing existed.

Kelly gets called a kid on the show for the same reason I do - he looks young. I'm 28 and I look a lot younger, Kelly has the same blessing/curse!

Q1: That's confidential Q2: Two different locations in Southern California, a ranch/house where we lived and another location for the actual shooting of stuff. Q3: When Colby says "30 days" in the premiere, he's not kidding. Q4: I had no idea who he was, honestly. I had to get BamBam to tell me.

No, he's still on I just forgot. I was sitting there typing and I was thinking "I know I'm missing someone but dammit" and now I remember it's Brad. He's still in the running!

Corey, just wait until next week's episode with the Berettas. Things are only going to keep getting better from here! Edit: Also, Adam is 100% correct. We really had no idea what to expect on that first competition, so a lot of the strategy elements of how to win as a team weren't yet in place. Blue Team's plan was to stick with the pairings that had the best luck in our "practice" session. That's why Jim and JJ did the rope, Tara and Iain did the wire, Adam and Chris did the puddle (GROSS) and Blake and I did the thicket. Not because of the obstacles, but because at the end of those obstacles were the rifles we were the "most" familiar with.

For those that asked, the remaining currently active USPSA/IDPA guys on the show are: Caleb Giddings (me) Blake Miguez JJ Racaza Adam Benson Denny Chapman (He gets in because he's a cowboy, on a steeeeel horse he riiiiides) Also, on my weekly podcast Gun Nuts Radio I'm having a Top Shot Q&A tonight at 9pm Eastern time. If you've got questions about the show, join me tonight live by calling in a 347-539-5436 and listening to the live streaming broadcast at www.blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts. We'll talk about last week's episode, the upcoming episode, and whatever else you have questions about (as long as it's within the scope of my NDA ) so check it out if you've got the time tonight at 9pm Eastern.

And you'll get to do so again at the end of June, I think we're in the same squad for the Indiana Section match!

Kelly was a great guy to shoot against, and is a class act. He kind of got a short shrift in the first episode with the whole smiley-face thing as that didn't seem to play well. My big takeaway from the first episode is posted here, but can be summed up in that Top Shot has the potential to be one of the best marketing tools for NON-SHOOTERS ever. As far as the episode itself, I thought it was great, although kind of weird to see so much of my life condensed down to a single hour. Maybe the Beretta episode I'll get more than 10 seconds of screen time!

One of the big things to bear in mind about the show is that History is making a shooting show for people that watch Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, and Swamp Loggers. While there are shooters that watch History, the majority of their viewing audience are not hardcore IDPA/USPSA guys; and that's actually the beauty of Top Shot. My wife and her best friend, neither of whom are shooters and who will refuse to sit through an episode of Shooting Gallery or ShootingUSA were both watching Top Shot, and they were invested in the action. That's the important thing - non-shooters watching the show and seeing guns and shooting presented in an entirely non-threatening light.

It's cool, my wife laughed at it, and I thought it was pretty funny watching it on TV!

I'm definitely happy with the first show, especially as one of the contestants! I thought that History did a great job of capturing the drama of the competition, as well as Blue Team's win over Red Team. And I had no idea Mike called us the Smurfs!

Don't sell yourself short, Ben.

The 2010 Indiana State Match is in the bag, and congratulations to all the winners. Here's a link to the full match scores and results. It was a great match put on by the guys at Atlanta Conservation Club, with a real solid mix of speed shoots and complex stages full of reactive targets and no-shoots. Speaking of no-shoots, I'm proud to say that for the first time at a major IDPA match, I shot exactly ZERO no-shoots. Too bad I still managed to finish 2nd in ESR, and once again take home the ESR-Expert plaque as my consolation prize. C'est la vie. Here are the winners: CDP: Kirk Crego-Expert 179.36 ESP: Chad Marthy-Master 176.56 SSP: Jason Parks-Master 166.34 ESR: Pete White-Expert 223.10 SSR: Randy Ciesiolka-Expert 246.96 I'm a little sad though about this match - not because it wasn't a good match, it was a great match. Rather it's because that this is the last IDPA match I'll be shooting with a wheelgun for a while, and I've gotten quite fond of my 625. Again though, this was a great match! Everyone that worked it and shot it seemed to have a good time, and we even had a gun world celebrity in the form of Mas Ayoob shoot the match!

Well Ben, obviously they only chose the best, brightest, and most shiningest (I don't think that's a word) stars in the shooting community to lead the Fearless 16 down the path of glory.

Spot on. My guess would be the same, as many of the others bowed out on their own. Jade and Tony, I can tell you guys for certain that you are absolutely incorrect about the nature of this show. It is not fake or gimmicked. Ben's 100% correct - this show is absolutely legit in that it's ultimately decided by your skill with shooting whatever weapon is placed in your hands. The 16 of us chosen for Top Shot were picked because we represented more than just USPSA/IDPA guys, but an incredibly diverse set of skills from precision rifle shooters, LE trainers, mounted cowboy shooters, you name it. Did politics and personalities figure in to the competition? Of course they did, but ultimately this is a shooting contest, and the winner will truly be the Top Shot for defeating the assembled pool of gunslingers. Tune in to the History Channel tonight at 10pm/9pm Central to see the premiere and you'll see exactly what I mean - this isn't "Deadliest Warrior" where everything is done for shock value - this is a legit test of our skills as marksmen and athletes.

I started doing the reload with retention when I had more than 2 yards of movement behind cover. For RWRs, I carry an empty mag pouch on my belt, so it's actually pretty fast to slam the partial mag into the rather forgiving hole on a Blackhawk double stack mag carrier and then do your reload from there.

Shawn, as one of the contestants I'd have to say both "yes" and "no". You're not being too hard in that it's important in the shooting community that we recognize things like the 4 Rules and we call it out when we see it being violated. That being said, I can't count the number of catalogs and promo fliers from firearms companies that I've seen that have people with their fingers inside the trigger guard of guns. The other component is that as the cast of the show, we precisely zero control over which pictures they used for the promo fliers. I mean come on, do you think I'd want my promo picture to be of me holding a friggin' slingshot? I guarantee that there are plenty of pictures of Andre where his finger isn't on the trigger (because I was there) but for whatever reason those pictures don't get used. So yeah, it's a safety violation, but it's also not the end of the world, nor is it a reason to boycott the show. I think that come June 6th when you see how the show plays out, you'll find the final product is going to be something the shooting community can be proud of.

It's absolutely worth the drive, if you ask me. But then again it's only a 30 minute drive for me!

Honestly, after re-reading the whole thing, I think now that the only way this could be successfully done would be if it was analogous to the BUG category - fine at the local level but not at the sanctioned level. The problem with doing that is "why", because if it's not going to matter at the sanctioned level then there's no need to do it period. I have to say, if a local match director wants to allow people to shoot in an Outlaw category with Open Guns, .22s, Pistol caliber carbines or whatever then I think they can - just call it an Outlaw IDPA Style match or whatnot. The more I think about this, the more I realize there's no reason for IDPA to specifically recognize a .22 category.

Side benefit to .45 GAP - the guys that shoot ESR with .45 GAP to get faster reloads will have another source of brass!