Best Shooter
Although I almost put Alex as a contestant on the very real show Top Shot, in the end I decided to make up a fictional version. This came down to two reasons:
– Top Shot, Season 1, had no contestant named Alex Boxer.
– Every time I did a strip about it, I’d have to parody it directly, and I just don’t wanna do that.
Top Shot is one of the things Mel and i found only because of Netflix. It was a huge conundrum for me, as we watched season 1. On the one hand, I fucking hate reality television. I think it’s the death knell for art. Eventually, as another cartoonist once pointed out, we’re just going to have a camera in every home, and we’ll all each have our own channel, and movies and film and television shows will all just curl up in a corner and die. Humanity will just sit around watching itself.
On the other hand, uh… guns.
The show definitely manufactures its own sturm und drang overmuch. Then again, it’s all padding. Otherwise, the competition would last 3 days. And I like the footage they show, the weird tests they come up with, the variety of weapons involved. So yeah, I’m slightly in favor of Top Shot.
[edit] OK, now I KNOW something is stripping the video data out of the post when it updates.
[ADD] I’m gonna keep repeating this goddamn mantra: it’s NOT the Fed Gov you have to worry about – it’s your state and local gov that will strip away your gun rights.
In my opinion, shows like Top Shot are like Diet Reality TV. They aren’t “art” and they never will be, but at least they have something behind them besides human train wrecks being themselves.
Top Shot is better than American
JugsGuns or that slack-jawed mouthbreather fake down in Baton Rouge…But only marginally…
TBG
On the one hand there’s genuine skill being measured and had this been a thing earlier in my life I would have seen it as more of a game-show like Jeopardy than a “reality show” because of the competitive nature…. on the other hand Survivor ruined my ability to watch and enjoy anything like this regardless of how interesting the subject matter is.
I tried watching Top Shot. The initial premise seemed good, and the folks they got looked decent. but they dramatized it so much that I couldn’t stomach it.
After about three episodes, I was done.
Too much “reality” for me.
Yeh. I was able to finish season 1, because I wanted to know who won. Some of the bitchiness on the show was just retarded. Don’t worry, there’s a comic coming up about it.
I hate pointless reality TV. If you think about it though, reality TV has its roots in things like cooking shows, “This Old House” and various other demonstrations by someone of skill. So I admit that if a reality show is demonstrating someone’s ability to do something well, it’s not a terrible idea. Unless that show is American Idol or one of its clones. A real interesting show would have people trying out to get a contract as a session musician. You don’t have a week to prepare one or two songs. You’re tossed into the middle of a bunch of musicians with a song you may or may not know and if you can’t perform in ten minutes, they kick you out and bring someone else in.
i think the thing that bother me the most about top shot, is that the competitors have nearly no skill.
i recall a challenge from season 1 where they had to hit something like a 1 foot ring at 100 yards, and everyone was struggling with it. even with the worst surplus rifles, that is not a hard shot.
i guess they didn’t want some actual shooter to make it in and clean up.
I dunno. Some of the challenges in season 1 were pretty rough. IIRC, the 100 yard ring had to be hit with a Springfield 1903. Many of the shooters were completely unfamiliar, and the USMC Sharpshooting instructor was the poor schmuck who couldn’t hit it at all, after he talked a huge game.
Although it’s easy to mock folks in said situations, it’s one of the reasons that I don’t want to go on Top Shot. ANYONE, even the best shooter, can have a bad day at the range. I’m more skilled than many, but I’m not a competition shooter. Several of the people in season 1 who got their asses beat? I personally think it was just a case of Bad Day At The Range. You can’t convince me that overall, a USMC shooting instructor can’t hit a target at 100 yards with a damn Springfield. But… there it was, on film. He had a bad day. It happened a couple more times in that season.
This is not to say that the only reason people failed on the show was “a bad day”. Sometimes they were outmatched – the one player I really rooted for and felt for when he lost was Kelly Bachand, because he outmatched many of the others in long distance shooting, but lost when he just couldn’t compete in a physical test.
I’ve seen days where pro shotgunners miss half their clays, police instructors have a hard time keeping their grouping under 10″ at 7 yards, gun store clerks can’t hit a can of beets at 30 yards, etc. Everyone can have a bad day. It’s not the norm, it just happens. And with my luck, it would happen the moment I was on that show.
Worst would probably be… Barney Fifing yourself in the foot.
I’d like to see any of ’em hit anything with a matchlock [eeeevil grin]. I thought about trying out for the US National Muzzleloading team at one point. 900 bucks to go to France, plus having to probably get a new gun, and common sense prevailed.
Re: State vs Fed gov, While Obama’s getting sworn into his second term, I shall be with several hundred of my closest friends. In Richmond. Teaming up to visit the offices of every Senator and every Delegate in the General Assembly Building. What freaks the antis out, is seeing us all over the building, open-carrying.
Open Carry for the win. 😀 I love living in an open-carry state… (There are rallies planned on Jan. 19th here, and yes, you can OC on the steps of the capitol.)
I know people who win candle-shoots with smoothbores. I get so worked up about people who whine because they have to use *gasp* IRON SIGHTS that watching the damn TV shows is bad for my blood pressure.
(I’ve never shot with anything BUT iron sights. While sometimes the lack of precision at longrange is annoying–like when the post covers your entire target–I firmly believe that everyone should have a grounding in the skill before moving on to optics.)
I used to shoot, for about 20 years, with the North-South Skirmish Association. Dress up in AmCivWar uniforms, and do rapid-fire team competitions with ACW firearms. Stuff like hanging clay pigeons, 4″ bathroom tiles, and 3″ flowerpots at 50 yards, and 6″ tiles or water-filled 2-liters at 100.
Went to a turkey shoot one time, and scored a beef roast with an 8mm Mauser. Pretty much most of the people who won meat that day were black-powder shooters, even firing centerfire. The habitual centerfire shooters weren’t used to standing off-hand.
I do love living in Texas, but we do not have open carry. WTF.
*dies laughing at the name “Manly McMutton” *