I watched the premier, along with most others. I was all prepared for a drinking game, that I’d take a swig every time they mentioned Caleb, but they only mentioned Caleb once that I noticed, and that was 20 minutes into the show! Nonetheless, this probably speaks well, since we didn’t need to get to know Caleb in the first episode, since he wasn’t eliminated. We will get to know the little giant later. But nonetheless, he got on target, and helped the blue team win.
On the other side, I thought Kelly seems particularly strong. Knowing his background in shooting, it seemed like he’d have better fundamentals than many of them, and he came through the first episode well. I expect his fellow teammates will be looking for reasons to get rid of him, however. You noticed a good bit of that even in the first episode.
UPDATE: In the comments, Kevin points out how good the show is for non shooters. I agree. It presents shooting in an interesting and non-threatening way to new shooters. NSSF couldn’t buy shooting sports coverage this good! Pretty clearly the show isn’t about shooting so much as human drama, as people try to work together as a team, but also win the competition. Now I see why they picked caleb. Caleb probably has that right kind of mix of personality traits that make him a good candidate for reality television.
UPDATE: A differing view here. I think most high power shooters would have no difficulty making those shots. But that’s not really the point of the show.
UPDATE: Continuing on the meme that this shooting should be easy. Yes. It should be. If you gave me my own rifle, on a quiet range, I could knock out that 100 yard shot offhand. But the contestants don’t have their own rifles. They have rifles who’s condition is unknown, who’s sight settings are dubious, and with which the contestants are only barely familiar, and spotters who are under time pressure and are presumably also using unfamiliar equipment. I’ve taken new rifles out that couldn’t hit paper at 100 yards because they were that off. I’d be reluctant to say I could do better under these kinds of constraints and on national television, with the adrenaline pumping.
The thing I like about it is that it appeals to the non-shooter or the casual target shooter. Yeah, you and I know that plugging away at a pie plate at 50 yards ain’t exactly Olympic-caliber marksmanship, but the drama and personality emphasis appeals to non-shooters.
All I know is, my wife (a non-shooter) sat and watched the entire show with me, something she NEVER does with any other shooting show on our DVR. If that gets her or any other non-shooter interested in the sport, then kudos to History Channel.
600 yards, on target 3 shots with nice little cross wind? Kid says, “I wasn’t getting any help from my spotter, so I did some calculations in my head and just shot it!” WOW!!!
The camera work was excellent!!
And assuming the high-speed footage was actually that of the 600yd shot, he nailed it pretty much dead-center. Nice!
I was disappointed in the show overall. You can read my review here. Of course with the DVR, I can always just fast forward to the good parts.
Regarding Kelly, he’s going to get into the hot seat more often than he should if he doesn’t dial back his attitude a bit. I didn’t think his comment about getting nothing from his spotter on the 600m shot was necessary. (And given some of what his teammates expressed as their reasons for putting him there, I wonder what happened off camera). Don’t get me wrong, I remember being in my early 20s. He’s not notably more arrogant than I would expect, and less than many would be (particularly in light of his accomplishments). He’s less arrogant than some of the others on the show, too. But being the youngest guy there isn’t going to help him out at all.
I was disappointed in this and shaking my head. 50 and 100 yard shots with these rifles should have been straightforward. I don’t know how big the targets are but firing from a supported position with rifles would be an fun and easy task for a lot of us.
I was watching the guy on the Springfield during the first challenge and wondering if these guns have been properly zeroed. Bloody ex-Marines missing at 50 yards? They should be turning in their Globe and Anchor for that. One shot of the Mosin being fired scared me when the bolt appeared to rotate out-of-battery after the shot was taken.
I’ll probably keep watching and see what happens in the pistol and hopefully modern rifle segments.
Not being zeroed may have had somethign to do with it; esp as both teams appeared to have issues with the Springer
I like to think that I could have done the 100yrd with the Springfield, but I don’t know. I sort of figured the practice session before was intended to figure out who was best with each rifle, and zero them accordingly? I know some people have a different sight picture than others, maybe now that they have seen how the team competitions work they’ll do that for the next ones.
We only shoot at 100-yards when we do the M1 Carbine match and still guys get X’s. Otherwise it’s 200-yards to start with and reduced targets to simulate 300 and 600-yards.
I could see how 50-yards with a Mosin-Nagant and a sight measured in Arshins might be require a spotter.
Bad condition weapons? I really wish the Red Team guys had been able to shoot the rest of the course.
Makes me wonder if the weapons in competition were the same at practice?