Thursday, September 04, 2008

Extreme Marksmen

So the History Channel is re-running a show I caught earlier this week, Extreme Marksmen.

Gun-nuts will like it, and even those not so interested in things that go bang! should enjoy some of the ultra-high speed camera work. Seeing a bullet move in slow-mo and watching it hit something like a balloon is, to my mind, fascinating at 20,000 frames a second.

Among the shooters featured are some real dead-eyes. There's a guy, Tom Knapp, who can throw ten clay pigeons up the in air, and using a Benelli semi-automatic shotgun, break them all on the way down.



Jerry Miculek, the Ragin' Cajun, can draw his revolver, shoot it dry at a metal target ten yards away, reload it, and hit it six more times, in under five seconds.

Blindfolded -- did I mention?



Couple military snipers demo a mile shot.

Byron Ferguson puts an arrow through a wedding ring from fifteen feet, and then does the classic Robin Hood feat of hitting an arrow already in the target.



There are bits of history, some footage of Annie Oakley, and some other shots. Definitely worth a look.

6 comments:

Brad said...

My brother has a target arrow that he shot with a target arrow. My cousin and uncle have been ranked in the top 10 (if I recall correctly) for the last few decades in and around Virginia. They have done the arrow in an arrow shot several times. On purpose. I'm lucky if I don't rip the flesh off my forearm.

Ed said...

Thanks for the vids - I have limited basic cable -- no History channel and Discovery seems to have a huge fan base that has to watch crabbing all the time or cleaning sewers. Anyhoot --- Revolver Man - Freakin Amazing!!!! I wonder what caliber he was shooting? He has to have that trigger and hammer tuned to a very short stroke - I guess???? and super fast muscle twitch fibers in his trigger finger....Amazing!!!! Thanks again! - I'll have to look for a dvd or two.

Steve Perry said...

Yeah, Jerry has been around a while, and he's the revolver guy. Shoots several calibers (also shoots semi-auto pistol) for one of the big sponsors. He's got some eight-shooters in .357 mag/.38, I've seen him using 9mm or .45 ACP, and he uses moon clips for those super-fast reloads.

Steve Perry said...

Once upon a time, I could shoot half-assedly shoot a long bow. I was better with a crossbow. Haven't played with either for years.

Dan Gambiera said...

Some folks is artists.
Some folks is chemists.
Some folks is shootists.

Anonymous said...

It looks like History Channel is working on a sequel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNvEaeTIJB4