as the cartridge turns
This is pretty much why I don’t watch a lot of the new shows on TV about guns. I still watch the informational programs. But the reality based shows have too much drama. And I’m not going to like it just because there’s also guns.
July 29th, 2011 at 9:40 am
I tuned-out Top Shot the very first season. It started off great, but I got tired of five minutes of shooting and 20 minutes of “I voted him out because he….” drama!
Exploding targets – Pretty stinking COOL!
Whining about the way you were treated by the other team – What is this… Jersey Girl’s?
July 29th, 2011 at 9:58 am
All iterations of reality television are loathesome because of the staged drama.
A show which followed gunsmiths, repo men/women, etc. would be interesting.
But, adding their banal day-to-day human dramas makes the whole genre disgusting, irrespective of the ostensible subject matter of the show.
I think it all started with Survivor, and I have never watched it for more than 5 minutes either.
Unfortunately, more Americans can authoritatively state who is still on Dancing with the Stars and who hasn’t been voted off of the island on Survivor than can identify their US Senators, Congress critters and Governors.
July 29th, 2011 at 9:59 am
I’m not a big fan of any reality show usually. I have watched Top Shot. I tried to watch that Sons of Guns but made it about 12 minutes when they started dwelling on some sort of surprise party–who cares.
I am glad these shows exist on channels like History and Discovery though. Anything that brings guns to the more mainstream masses is good PR even if it has to be spoon fed with reality show flair. These shows are more for the unwashed than for gun loons anyway 🙂
July 29th, 2011 at 10:38 am
I came to enjoy firearms later in my life, and I had been conditioned by TV and movies to expect sparkling ricochets, explosive hits on the targets, and recoil that would bruise my soul and send miscreants flying backwards thru windows, all from my .38 Special S&W Model 10 revolver.
Once I experienced the reality of shooting my gun, all that foolishness I had seen really irked me. The truth was less flashy but actually more dramatic than what I had seen on the tube. To hit a target was difficult, requiring concentration and some trained motor skills. Hitting the target made a hole, not a crater. Recoil was quite Newtonian in its physics.
I once bought a box of Vector tracer ammo, and learned where ricochets off rocks in the berm were going (() degrees from the berm, up or to the side). I enjoy “Shoot ‘n See” targets because I can see where my bullets hit (or miss). I like shooting reactive swinging targets, metal gongs and water jugs more than paper. I’d love to go to Boomershoot, and I’d love even more to shoot a rifle well enough to explode a target there.
But what I get out of Top Shot and Sons of Guns, when they happen to be on when I am watching them, is something I enjoy at the range, too. That is seeing guns I don’t own and likely never will own, and learning a bit about them. I can ignore the drama, and enjoy the shooting.
And for unsafe gun handling, try watching the guys in Swamp People, waving their 22LR single shots around while the gator on the hook & line does its death rolls.
July 29th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Typo: 90 degrees from the berm
July 29th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Just who is it that like the (un)reality shows so much? Everyone expressing an opinion rips them. I tried Top Shot the first season, they show very little actual firing, and hype the drama. Big shmeal. Sons of Guns is kind of fun, but it seems like all the builds are hacks, prototypes. Nothing I’d want to rely on, certainly. The joke’s on the TV people with me, though, my mind goes elsewhere whenever the commercials come on.
July 29th, 2011 at 11:49 am
People like my wife – who will go shooting occasionally, but is not a “shooter.” She loved season one of Top Shot and bugged me about when season two was going to start.
Face it, these shows aren’t directed at gun-nuts, they’re directed at Joe and Jane Average. And apparently they work.
July 29th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” –one hell of a shot with a Smith & Wesson .38, Eleanor Roosevelt.
News and political reportage are TV’s way of converting ideas and events into discussing people. Reality programming is TV’s way of converting things into discussing other people. No matter how you slice it, they’re going to end up discussing…other people.
July 29th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
A firearms-related ‘reality’ show to which I would tune in would be someone like P.O. Ackley doing his day-to-day smithing and narrating the process a la Norm Abrams on This Old House. Norm, not Bob Vila. They could do a whole season on making a G&H type sporter out of an old tomato-stake Mauser found in some gas-station gun shop. One whole episode on fitting the Neidner buttplate. That would be nice.
Or maybe following some well-known & skilled shooter around their regular range for the day. Just practicing for a big match, not actually shooting the big match. Misses, cusses, sunburns, malfunctions, warts & all. Close it out by posting the scores they got when they did go to the big match.
Low key, factual, no drama, just tools & technique. That would be worth watching, and I wouldn’t miss a show.
The goobers writing & appearing on Top Shot & Sons are selling nothing but a mix of Bachelorette, Swamp People, and General Hospital…with guns, and poorly done at that. FWIW I don’t watch those other shows, either. For the same reasons I won’t watch Sons or Top.
July 29th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
I DVR Top Shot and then skip through all the drama to watch the actual shooting portions. Makes it a pretty good 20 minute program then.
July 29th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
@ Dewight +1
July 29th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
the only time I watch reality TV is when I’m at friends’ houses and they put it on.
I do occasionally watch Sons of Guns, that’s not all whiny drama.
The only drama is when they’re up against a time limit, they rarely snip at each other.
Mostly it’s just the process of modifying guns and then shooting them.
The only episode that really bothered me was the guy who had a 1919 and wanted them to make it shoulder-firable.
They butchered a piece of history.
July 29th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Then there are the ultra-close-ups and the ultra fast edits, so you can’t actually see anything that’s actually happening. If I want to see a video editor masturbate, I’d rather go to the porn channels.
July 30th, 2011 at 1:29 am
Yeah, sucks when Sons of Guns jumps the shark within one season.
MAGPUL FMG-9 started it. (Didn’t even watch the motorcycle gun BS, but that sealed it for me.)
Just give me R. Lee Ermey.
July 30th, 2011 at 1:32 am
Clarify – their brilliant idea of a sub in a box with flashlight…”This has never been tried before.”
I heard their next innovation is seating the bullet in a casing that is sealed that contains powder and primer.
INFRICKINGENIOUS!!!
July 30th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I agree with the base article.
I wish Chip Foose did guns.
July 30th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Well I guess i’m in the minority when I saw i actually enjoy both shows. I love me some guns and shooting. Top Shot is the only show that my wife will readily sit down with me and watch that we can both enjoy. Sons of Guns is just awesome. They build some good stuff. I guess i;m just not so serious at the shows that the non-gun stuff in them does not bother me. Just my 2 cents.