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Top Shot Season 2

14K views 110 replies 24 participants last post by  RonDawg 
#1 ·
Debuts February 8. History Channel has been showing promo videos for it last weekend, in-between Ax Men and Top Gear.

http://www.history.com/shows/top-shot with info on this season's participants. Not surprisingly, there are a couple of cops, several ex-military, and even a cowboy shooter a la Denny Chapman.

Even though Season 2 has yet to air, the producers are already taking preliminary applications for Season 3.
 
#28 ·
O. M. G.

I did NOT expect Jay to beat Daryl in the elimination challenge for the "Catch .22" episode. And neither did the rest of the contestants (except of course Jay).

Jay deserved to go to elimination challenge again. I thought his stubbornness and refusal to accept instruction was going to cost him this time, and his S-L-O-W-N-E-S-S during the team competition definitely cost them the win. With only 5 points separating them, by simply picking up the pace, Jay could have easily helped blue team win this time.

But as Daryl said, Jay has this remarkable ability to pull magic tricks out of his azz just as you think he's going to fall flat on his face.

(As an aside, I'm not sure why Daryl didn't start off with the more difficult but greater gain moving targets? The team knows Jay is a slowpoke, and Daryl could have made up for that by concentrating on the moving targets first, since he's the best shot of the 3.)

I'm looking forward to the next episode, just to see everybody's reaction back at the house. :D

Either my TV needs re-calibrating, or when the teams are dissolved next episode and everybody wears the same color, the producers chose a hideous shade of green for their fleece sweaters. Last year's shade of green was a lot nicer.
 
#30 ·
I don't understand why Daryl didn't go first either, he would of been up to the bench twice.

That bullseye shooting stance is weak, and I'll say it again it wouldn't be a big deal for him to move that support hand, even less of an issue than on a hand gun.

Daryl losing the challenge was disappointing. He had the lead and blew it, he was still trying to go fast. Jay gets lucky again.
 
#31 ·
I think sorta covered up in the editing for the gallery sequence is the time taken on reloading those 10/22 rotary mags. The quick shooters were probably going through a 10 round mag in less than 10-15 seconds (except for Jay).

I've got a 10/22. They're a bit fiddly, especially when it comes to putting the mag in. The standard rotary is flush with the stock when loaded, hard to orient, easy to put in backwards, and that combined with how close the magwell is to the trigger guard doesn't make it conducive for a single motion insert-and-tap. You saw a bit of fiddling with the mag during quick edits during the team practices, and of course Daryl's mag drop in the elimination. Though I think Daryl was just flustered in general.

I wonder why they didn't box style mags and stayed with the stock 10/22 mags. The carbines weren't unmodified. They usually don't come with sling swivels like the ones used on the show.

I also installed peep-sight/ghost ring style sights from Tech-Sights. I've found that the notch style sights obscure too much of the target for tiny targets or to shoot beyond your zero and you have to add elevation.

--Carlos V.
 
#32 ·
I don't understand why Daryl didn't go first either, he would of been up to the bench twice.

That bullseye shooting stance is weak, and I'll say it again it wouldn't be a big deal for him to move that support hand, even less of an issue than on a hand gun.

Daryl losing the challenge was disappointing. He had the lead and blew it, he was still trying to go fast. Jay gets lucky again.
Isn't it beyond time for Jay and luck to be spoken together? He is unconventional to be sure, but he has a talent for incorporating new shooting situations into his existing style. Isn't Jay's forte archery? Yet he is still kicking ass in eliminations. Bet you could have a rock throwing contest and he'd still figure out a way to beat you throwing underhand..
 
#33 ·
In this case, I do think this time around luck still had a big factor, and I want to still ding him in the team competition for not sticking with the team. The team competition needed lots of fast mostly-hit shots, and not few, well-aimed shots.

Yes, there is skill in Jay, but the team competition was quick shots, different points of aim.

The offhand match shooting stance is really stable for long shots where you want a stable platform integrated with your breathing. Your weak elbow is resting on your ribcage for structural support, so you have to time your shots with your breathing. You really can't move your aim without moving your entire torso. In fact, with the so-called "Natural Point of Aim" stances, if your aim is off, you don't move the rifle, you move your body. You want your body to aim, and your bones to hold the rifle steady. Not conducive to fast shooting. I don't think NPOA stances are good for the gallery.

For the challenge, the aim point didn't change. It just got smaller. In that case, the match stance was well suited for it.

I do fun CMP-style matches, and shoot off-hand with a variant of Jay's stance. Facing 90ish degrees off, weak elbow on my chest, and hand close to the trigger, although my elbow is twisted so my weak hand (left) fingers go left instead of right.

Daryl didn't help his case by getting all flustered.

--Carlos V.
 
#34 ·
I was very disappointed about the way tonight's episode went. Eliminations, thanks to George, were clearly for personality-conflict reasons. Joe had by far the worst performance and even agreed he should be eliminated. Ashley seemed quick at first but ended up having the second-worst performance of the group. Judging by performance alone, those two should have been sent, not Jay and Jamie.

I know he ticked off a lot of people at the beginning, but I am sad to see Jay go. He fought off over half of the competition, pretty damn good considering his lack of experience. He certainly gave the far-more-experienced ex-military competitors a good fight.

George has emerged as the Season 2 d-bag. I'm not sure what his issue with Jamie is, since unlike George, Jamie doesn't play into the politics. At least Jamie has $6 grand worth of Bass Pro Shop gift cards even if he doesn't end up to be Top Shot, and Jay went home with $4 grand worth. I hope George eventually gets sent home empty-handed.

As far as the competition is concerned, I think the sniper shot should have been tallied a bit differently. Time of course should be a factor, but so should number of rounds. I was never in the military or SWAT so bear with me if I'm wrong here, but I thought the whole purpose of a sniper was to take out the enemy/threat without your presence even being known by them. If you start throwing multiple rounds their way, it seems to defeat the purpose of all that stealth and now you have to deal with a moving target from an incredible distance as well as your enemy now trying to take you out as well.

I think they should have added 5 seconds to the total elapsed time for every missed shot. As much as I cannot stand him, I do believe George should have been declared the winner. He did a one-shot kill only 5 seconds slower than Brian, who needed 3 shots to do so. Even Jay, who had never fired such a weapon before practice, managed to beat the more experienced Ashley by "walking" his aim, and that was despite the fact Jay took forever to fire off his first round.
 
#35 ·
As far as the competition is concerned, I think the sniper shot should have been tallied a bit differently. Time of course should be a factor, but so should number of rounds. I was never in the military or SWAT so bear with me if I'm wrong here, but I thought the whole purpose of a sniper was to take out the enemy/threat without your presence even being known by them.
If it was .308 in a Remington 700, I would agree with you, but even though Barrett/M82 with .50BMG is a sniper rifle, it is not an anti-personnel rifle, but an anti-materiel rifle. You're shooting vehicles/buildings, not people.

On top of that, you're never going to be stealthy once you pull the trigger on 50BMG. You want to put as many holes in the target as you can.

As soon as the elimination course was described, I knew Jay was going to fall. He's just not that quick. I'm also surprised the instructor didn't teach him how to properly quickly load the Garand. Jay's going to get a Garand thumb if he keeps loading the way he was. He was lucky that the M1 they used needed to be lubed and the op-rod needed a tap forward to close the bolt. The clip can be loaded into the magazine quickly and properly with 1 hand, but I saw both competitors using both hands.



Oh, and George was swinging his 3rd leg around with the 1-shot 1-kill routine. He knew the rule was quickest hit, but had to show off.

Impressive shot, though.

Edit: It looks like everybody had help on the initial scope settings. They pretty much all had the right elevation, but only George knew how to read the wind and adjust the windage setting. (I would hope so, since he is a sniper instructor)

--Carlos V.
 
#38 ·
I'm sad to see Jay to go as well, he just has a ton of natural undeveloped talent. If there were ever a competition where the weapon had sights and adjustments removed he'd be top dog. Jamie isn't going to last much longer, even though he's par with the others as shooters, going up to more eliminations is going to get you gone.
 
#39 ·
BTW the Top Shot forum at History.com is absolutely buzzing over tonight's episode. A whole thread was created just so people can say that the reason they finally got a login was to comment on George:

http://community.history.com/topic/36104/t/So-who-just-joined-cause-they-were-so-pissed.html
Love the post from one of George's friends trying to stick up for him while admitting that he's a ******. Good hearted people don't "run over" old people without a thought. I also love the "I'm never watching again" folks. I call BS! Not only are most of them going to watch, they're going to get friends and acquaintances to watch too.
 
#40 ·
First, I'm jealous they got to shoot a M82.

I'm with RonDawg, I can't stand George and he is a total d-bag. Honestly I don't think he's doing the Marines proud by being that way. That was one awesome shot he did though, but I'm sure he's done it dozens of times being an instructor.

It was a little melancholy to see Jay go. I would of actually loved to see him beat George in an elimination.
 
#43 ·
And according to the History channel thread guys, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as an Air Force sniper.
Researching more into it, it is sorta true. There are no no "reach out and touch you" offensive snipers in the Air Force, more like defensive snipers. More like counter-snipers, and it's not their day job.

They're basically security forces, and can pick up a sniper rifle as the situation dictates.

--Carlos V.
 
#45 ·
Gunny mentioned that his service and security job prepared him for competing with the M82 - what the heck kind of security job would he have that prepares him for something like that?
He was a rifle instructor in the Marines so has wide familiarity with weapons. Not sure who he works for in the security job but his website has him hunting pirates...the Somalian kind. Don't agree with his politics..he's Glenn Beck Right, but he seems like a good guy on the show.
 
#47 ·
I'm with RonDawg, I can't stand George and he is a total d-bag. Honestly I don't think he's doing the Marines proud by being that way.
One of the sentiments that is often echoed on the Top Shot forums by current and former military is that George's behavior is making other military service members look bad.

There is one guy on there, a fellow USAF Security Services person, who said that George simply reinforced a notion that many within the USAF had of their police force, that they are buffoons who do that job because they didn't score high enough on the ASVAB to do anything else. I was not previously aware of this perception.

Even worse, George is also making the USMC look bad by association, since many (including yourself) mistakenly assume he's a Marine like most of his bunkmates. An easy mistake to make given how the Marines follow his every lead. I know of a couple former Marines at work who would like to kick George's azz for that reason.
 
#48 ·
And according to the History channel thread guys, there doesn't seem to be such a thing as an Air Force sniper.
There apparently are some doubts about George's "combat creds." Some of the posters, including current and former military, think George is inflating his resume to match his ego.

Unlike Jamie, who posted everything he has done in his career after the episode where George and Ashley assumed he was an assassin, George refuses to say exactly what he has done beyond a few snippets here and there. His reason is that it is none of our business. Funny hearing that from a man whose beef with Jamie seems to stem from his perception of Jamie not being forthcoming enough about his military career.
 
#49 ·
I hated the elimination challenge rules. The whole first part of the competition was pointless, since all it did was make Brian 'safe'. They could've just shot a .22 at a regular target and whoever got closest was safe, the .50 cal was fun to watch, but it didn't make a difference where you ended up if you weren't 'first', you had just as much chance of going top elimination.

I liked it MUCH better when the worst 2 performers went to elimination, rather than everyone voting on who to send. That took it from being about ability to being all about personality. WTF.
 
#50 ·
Nobody should have been present during the 50bmg competition. Watching the rounds hit left gave follow up shooters advantages. Especially with Colby saying way left, left, left, hit etc.

George was the only one to watch where the first rounds hit and correctly adjust and hold his point of aim the same distance to the right of the target. Kudos for that.

Lots of leftys shooting the M82. The few times I shot it felt like a punch on the nose since my nose is a few inches behind the ejection port. I like my lefty AR50 better. lol.

Jay, letting the last target fall without squeezing off a shot. Arrrg.
 
#51 ·
Nobody should have been present during the 50bmg competition. Watching the rounds hit left gave follow up shooters advantages. Especially with Colby saying way left, left, left, hit etc.

George was the only one to watch where the first rounds hit and correctly adjust and hold his point of aim the same distance to the right of the target. Kudos for that.

Lots of leftys shooting the M82. The few times I shot it felt like a punch on the nose since my nose is a few inches behind the ejection port. I like my lefty AR50 better. lol.

Jay, letting the last target fall without squeezing off a shot. Arrrg.
I thought the same thing. Every single one of them except George put their first shot on the same spot. That should have told the later shooters something.
 
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