A rundown of the recent episodes:
Episode 6:
I was in the elimination round and I wasnt happy about it. Send me to elimination? Fine. I'll shoot it like a boss and move on. I was up against Zak. We were shooting little cowboy related objects off the window sill of a saloon. The range was 35 feet. We were using a Walther replica of a Winchester lever action. It has a big CO2 canister in the buttstock and an 8 round magazine that looks like a moon clip. The rifle is a realistic replica, same weight etc as the real thing. These things are wildly popular in europe and asia where folks are cowboy crazy but cant shoot the real thing. I had practiced with the gun, and found it to be very accurate. The trigger is excellent, the lever cycles very crisply, and I was quite confident.
At the audible start, the host mentions that we have 2 rounds already loaded (?? we didnt). We shoot a 8 objects: A soup can, a whiskey flask, a wagon wheel (my 1st shot at it went thru the spokes, that was the hardest shot) a cowboy boot, a sheriffs badge, a poker chip, a miniature deck of cards, and 12ga shell. I was shooting a bit high (the gun was zeroed for a 6 oclock hold) and it took a couple of extra shots to hit the shotgun shell. Then to end the stage you had to hit the door handle to close the saloon door. It had to be hit out on the end of the handle to work, so the 'target' area was approx 3/4" square. I transitioned to it and tagged it first shot. Zak still had 3 or 4 window objects plus the door left. Whew. I was a disappointed to take 3 extra shots on those targets...they were easy...well except the wagon wheel, it was 3" or 4" inches in diameter, but my first shot went thru the spokes.
I was a little disappointed in the film production/portrayal of that event. Some of the shows promos had shown the objects getting shot in slow-motion. I thought they'd really 'showcase' the shooting...But, no. In my interview, the director said "Wow, you hit the door handle first try" and I said "That wasnt a hard shot" ...that drew some 'ooohs' from the cast and crew and I think it pissed off the host. They did not put that line on the air.
So onto episode 7.
1st they held a comeback challenge for the 3 eliminated competitors. So I just eliminated Zak, but now he gets a chance to redeem himself. They had to shoot 6 foam golf balls from a target stand with nice little Browning Buckmark replica. I shot this gun in practice, its nice. The only thing bad about it is the deplorable green dot sight. In bright sunlight (and thats the only kind of sunlight we had) the dot is nearly invisible...and there was a false dot (or ghost dot) too, plus a big shiney reflection on the lens.
I figured out the dot (because nobody was hitting anything in practice!) and got pretty comfortable with the gun. If they had shot from a shaded position, it would have been much easier for Carrie, Steve, and Zak. Zak won and gets to return.
Afterword, I shot that challenge setup for fun and went 6 for 6 in about a minute and a half. It's a single shot break barrel gun and the safety resets automatically, so shooting it is a slow exercise in patience.
Then we shot a 'walking target' across a 4' pad of packed dirt. The gun was a Beretta Storm replica with a fake suppressor and green dot sight. The mags are double ended with 8 pellets on each end. You flip them over to get 16 rounds. The CO2 would last for 2 magazines, or 32 shots. This all occurred in early May and the temperature was really starting to soar (mid-90's) which affects the CO2 power. The gun isnt impressive. The trigger doesnt have a distinct wall and it seemed to break at different points on each shot. Every shot felt different as the CO2 power changed. The pellets would barely move the target. You had to hit the paddles on the target dead on to get any motion. The target would sort of 'dig in' to the dirt. To hit it dead on, I squatted down and moved from side to side in the shooting box. I used shots on the the lower paddles to straighten it up. I tried to 'hammer' the target, but wasnt ever able to get the 2nd hit. After seeing the gun cycle in slow-mo, I think its because the sight wiggled sooo much while the slide was cycling. Like I said, not an impressive gun.
I managed to scrape thru in 2nd place and onto the next round. Poor Nathan had terrible luck on this stage. His target really dug into the ground and wouldnt budge. Sweat was dripping into his eyes and he just bailed. It was an ill-conceived challenge, the dirt was a little too soft and the range was a few feet too far. The heat really diminished the velocity of the gun. On a hard surface at slightly closer range this would have been a neat speed shooting challenge instead of a slog.
BTW, I have my target here beside the desk. All of the hits are on the paddles except 1 hit on an arm.
