I understand that the soap opera drama part of it is over the edge and most likely staged, but is the contest itself real? Are the contestants actually making those shots and the victor is decided by their skill? Or is the entire show a bunch of malarkey to sell Bass Pro and let you see the weapons in use…
Of course I’m a little nervous about the answer, I’d like to think it’s not all staged, but at this point I’m willing to risk it all and see what the denizens of SDMB think :).
It seems pretty real to me.
They do add drama to the shots for tv. You probably noticed they have a lot of the targets rigged to explode after they are shot. That’s just tv stuff. Watching someone poke holes in paper at 100 yards isn’t exciting tv.
I’ve seen trick shots on youtube even harder than Top Shot. In fairness, the guys on Top Shot are competion or military shooters. I don’t think any of them are trick shot pros.
? Why would you think it was staged? This is one of the few reality shows that appears to require actual skill to advance in. This season is the first one with all kinds of drama, mainly due to angry-reality-tv-show-black-man issues. Otherwise it’s a good show.
I agree, I would rather watch a target explode, that’s for sure, I’m not concerned with that so much, it adds spice to the whole thing and makes it seem rather final. It’s always seemed real to me, but just a few weeks ago I began to wonder…the seeds of doubt began to sprout :D.
I think a big thing that made me question it was that moron dufus scaredy-cat wimp bitch moaning about being ganged up on,…that punk seriously needs to grow some balls. I also despise the way he wants to go against the weakest opponents, that’s some pussy shit, I’d have to challenge the best just to know I don’t have to go home castrated, who cares about the title, doesn’t mean squat if you really aren’t the best.
I guess it’s this stuff that made me question, I thank you for reassuring me, now I can go watch it without feeling like a douche for believing it…
You mean angry-black-man right? The Navy Seal? He comes across as a horrible person pretty much every time they show him on the screen. You can tell it’s not an editing thing to make him look bad. I worked with a guy who behaved EXACTLY like that dick, and looked just like him to boot. Very bizarre.
I watched a couple episodes and found it meh - the black guy is annoying.
I prefer to hit Youtube and catch FPSRussia’s new videos when they come out. He is way more entertaining.
I’d like it better if they had shooters from all over the world. You want some drama? Mix those good old boys in with some Russian sniper who’s been in Chechnya for the last 10 years and a Mongolian hunter who doesn’t eat if he misses the shot.
Hell, for that matter, a suicide bomber that blows the house to smithereens as soon as he’s in danger of elimination…damn, just give that guy the title already, or he will keel you…SILENCE! 
I think the problem with the Navy Seal dude has nothing to do with the fact that he’s black, this seems to be typical shortman’s complex, I see this all the time, and in this case, it’s a short little runt on camera, so he’s got to make his dong twice as long.
The first season place the emphasis on the “survivor” style playground politics, of who’s getting eliminated, and the backstabbing and BS. I wanted to see shooting, and stopped halfway through the season.
The last two seasons have mostly focused on the shooting, and I actually enjoy seeing the different weapons in use.
Jake, the angry little man, has some major issues, and likes to blame his behavior on being a SEAL. No, I’ve met SEALs, and they weren’t colossal assholes. Sometimes a jerk is just a jerk!
The show says he is also a football coach, and if I saw that sort of behavior from anyone coaching kids of mine I would pull them out of the program.
Yes Jake is an asshat, but if the goal is to win, why wouldn’t you want to shoot against the worst players? They are playing for money and a title and within the rules of the game I thought it was silly to not recognize that if you get rid of the best players you have a better chance to win.
The best thing about the show is that regardless, if you make your shots you can’t lose.
Uh, watch your back…as far behind you as you can.
Yes, I’m unbelievable happy, Jake quite, though elimination would have been preferable (I would have liked to show up and do it myself :D), but quiting is just as effective. Shit, did I just get drawn into the drama or what? Anyway, I’m very happy, if anyone knows Jake personally, give him a kick in the groin for me (though he won’t feel it do the lack of testicles :D).
I would definitely want to face off against the best, the money and title mean nothing, I can blow a hundred grand in a matter of hours, but the satisfactory of being the Top Shot for real is irreplaceable
Glad to see Jake gone. Maybe now we can salvage the rest of the season.
That rifle challenge with the targets revealing themselves randomly was very tough. I nearly got dizzy just trying to follow them on tv. That challenge messes with your eyes.
I’m still amazed by Dustin. This is a guy with zero military or competition shooting experience. He comes out week after week out shooting everybody. He may even win this season. That’s just raw, natural talent.
The Finale was pretty good. As usual those guys did some bad ass shots. I love the pick your weapon and target challenge. Some of the shots those two picked were just insane.
This is the second time in a row that the winner was not a pro competition shooter. Last season it was a married guy from deep in the rural woods that did a lot of hunting. This season it was that kid that managed a youth camp.
I think that says something (bad) about Top Shot’s format. Something is way off when champion competition shooters aren’t winning this thing. A lot of the competitors are ex military and were crossed trained on rifles and pistols. Neither of the last two winners was ex-military. that’s just weird.
aceplace - I actually think it says something good about the Top Shot format. There is more to shooting than perfectly calibrated sights in perfectly controlled situations. The people who win are more adaptive, more versatile.
StG
I kind of watched this season. One thing I really liked was that most of the competitors really seemed to embrace a sportsman like attitude. Other than Jake, the rest really went out of their way to be adult about the competition.
I’m not a shooter so a few questions: How hard are the shots these guys are doing? Are the competitors really insanely good marksmen? and are the competitions fair tests of overall marksmanship?
One thing I wish they’d do, maybe as a closing credits thing, is take the weapon expert that provided the practice drills and show them doing the challenge that the competitors just did.
Kind of get a baseline since the head to head competition shows who was the better of the two but doesn’t necessarily give a sense of whether either of them was particularly good.
Their training probably works to the ex-military people’s detriment, actually. There have been quite a few people who are very very good at one specific thing, but when they’re removed from that comfort zone, they don’t perform. Also, don’t forget that last season’s winner made it to the finals because the ex-military guy who had him beat (George) threw the final elimination challenge, because he knew the prize money would mean more to Chris and his family than it would to him.
Spoiler, dammit! My Saturday morning guilty pleasure is to watch it on Hulu and now I have to try to forget who is going to win, wah!
(And yeah, I know it was my fault for reading but I forgot that some people have cable and see things when they are actually on. In my world the finale hasn’t happened yet. Wah.)
There was another contestant who pretty much said that he agreed with Jake on this point, but that competitor still didn’t act like an asshat about it. I agree that what makes the show interesting is that it is a true test of skill.