Coming into this episode, I already wanted Dustin to win - and the intro made me want that even more.
There would be no more practices. The guys compete, and the loser goes away. Finally - things as they should be.
First off, there were three head-to-head rounds of shooting at steel "flippers." The shooter with the most targets of his color showing wins. The secret of that is to gain a lead, and make the other shooter play catch-up. Gary did that to Dustin in the first round. Mike did it to Chris in the second round. Then Chris and Dustin shot it out, and Dustin won.
Adios, Chris.
I really enjoy a lot of the slow-mo shooting footage on this show. It just makes me happy.
At this point, I wanted nobody but Dustin to win. Gary and Mike had both done poorly enough in the past that I really wanted Dustin to make it - he had been a great shooter, consistently.
Prior to the second elimination, I find this in my notes: "Mike is weird." He just is.
The second elimination was a custom challenge, which was done on previous Top Shot finales, where a shooter picks a gun, a target, a distance, and a shooting style, and each competitor gives it a try. Each hit gives that shooter a point. Dustin had first choice, and I predicted he would select the Volquartsen 22 rifle and the golf balls. He did - and then he chose to shoot them at 100 yards. Not a hard task for most skilled shooters, but he was the only one who hit it. The other guys really should hang their heads.
All shooters hit the olive jar at 35 feet (weak hand, S&W 686) and the gumball container at 100 feet (H&K SP89). Dustin's next choice was the Winchester 1873 at pint glasses at 100 feet. Dustin and Mike hit them, and Gary missed. That put Gary behind.
Mike's next choice was odd, but not as weird as it was made out to be: shooting the AK-47 one-handed, at whiskey bottles at 100 feet. Mike and Gary hit, but Dustin missed. I was almost nervous, but Dustin had been great up until then and I expected the best from him.
Last round was the Infinity Sight Tracker, and Gary chose the target, range, and position. He chose jam jars at 50 feet, standing, string hand only - and he missed. That miss sent him home. I hove a sigh of relief (sorry, Gary).
Now it was down to Dustin and Mike. The video before the competition really brought home the fact that I could identify a lot more with Dustin. Mike is just odd. And when each man's wife and a male friend were brought on the range to cheer them on, Mike introduced his buddy before he introduced his wife. Very un-cool, Mike.
Before the competition, the show took a poll to see who the viewers wanted to win. 85% went with my gut feeling: Dustin.
Stations were set up and whoever finished them all first was the winner. To begin, they crawled under some barbed wire. Mike threw himself down and just barely beat Dustin through, and then he was first to break his six targets with the 1875 Remington.
At the next station, which was rock-throwing (rock throwing in the finals? Lame), Dustin edged Mike out of the lead. They then commenced to shooting the Benelli M4 slug gun at ten hanging jars each. Dustin wiped them out and Mike had about half of them left.
Dustin grabbed the recurve at station 4 and bounced an arrow into a target. He climbed a log and dropped into the prone position with the LaRue tactical rifle, and hit the 100- and 200-yard targets with one shot each. He then crossed a rope and fired the Vltor TS3, standing, at targets at 75 and 100 yards. He busted 'em both.
Then it was down a ladder to fire at three targets (30, 50, and 70 feet) with the S&W 500 Mag. He hit the 3 targets with 4 shots, and won. For all I know, Mike was still trying to break jars with the slug gun.
So, a good man won (I believe), and I was mighty happy to see it. This may have been the best season yet. Not perfect by any means, but better. It was definitely much better than the second season, which lost the show many viewers when a crew of jerks steam-rollered all others.
Congratulations, Dustin Ellerman. Good job!
Comments
I also enjoyed this season very much. There were some things that I did not like but the main thing I disliked ended up quitting and going home like a 10 year old with his ball. I was amazed at Dustin’s performance all through the competition and thrilled that he won. He was a class act and even though extremely religious I never saw him try and instill his belief system on the others as is typically the case in my experience.
A good man with great skills won this contest and it made me very happy to witness it. All the best to Dustin Ellerman and his family and thanks for letting us get to know you.
Note to Dustin: If you consider training folks on shooting skills I would love to be one of your students!
Bob Armstrong
I really love Top Shot but I had already decided that if this year’s crew was allowed to act the way last years did, I was done with the show. But I wanted to give a fair chance and boy was I surprised. My whole family loves the show and we are rooting for Dustin and when he won it all, I felt like the show could do it right. I was so disappointed with last years show from the beginning it seemed and was ready to quit the show. Then when I saw “Jake” trying to do what they did last year and worse, I almost turned the show off but I was hopeful that justice would come to Jake the jerk. It surprised me to see him quit like he did but then again, people like him rarely ever finish what they start when the going gets tough.