“We are going to sit out Dustin –he’s light, he’s nimble, he should be able to get over these obstacles fast and so far he’s the most accurate shooter.”  ~ Chris Collins (Red Team)

So goes the latest episode.  I was both honored and disappointed that I was unable to compete in this challenge.  The VLTOR’s TS3 AR was a high quality AR which I was very comfortable with, and the rope platforms looked like “a jungle gym”.  Blue team had 6 members to Red’s 5, so they chose to sit me; at least it came with a compliment.

My team’s performance wasn’t near as clean as the Reds.  My team cleared their obstacles with great speed, but our shooting was subpar.  It took us 46 rounds to destroy 10 targets, that’s 22% accuracy.  In our team planning sessions we always try to anticipate what the next challenge will be, our hints for this challenge was SWAT scenario with an AR platform – our mindset was to be shooting fast and laying down fire.  That might have been the reason for the poor accuracy.  Too bad we lost Jarrett last week, he was always the one to remind us the wise words of Wyatt Earp, “Fast is fine, but accuracy is final.”  A quick breathe and a clean shot obviously gave the Red team the winning advantage in this challenge – they beat us by 45 seconds.

Jake and Paul were voted into the elimination.  Half of us were adamant to send Jake to bring peace to the house.  Billy had the worst performance in the challenge, but Jake didn’t want to go up against him so Paul ended up with the other votes.  The elimination firearm was a Glock equipped Cornershot  - which allows you to shoot around corners at a 63 degree angle utilizing a small LCD screen, camera, and remote trigger system.  Whereas it has an large hollywood “cool factor” the 8.5lb accessory with only the power factor of a 9mm begs the question of practicality.  For SWAT and soldiers I would recommend optical accessories such as the Aimpoint CEU or Accutact Anglesight.  Nevertheless, Jake ended up dominating the challenge much to the disappointment of 85% of America who voted during the show.  Paul was an awesome and honorable guy and it hurt to lose him.

Next week will feature the legendary Jerry Miculek as the guest expert for the trickshot challenge.  Weapons featured will be the S&W 686 and Volquarten Custom 10/22.