A question for you Top Shot fans?

I thought it was odd that they didn't use a patch. I guess making them use a patch could slow down the competition by a few seconds, but if that was a problem they wouldn't be using a flintlock in the first place.

If you saw the way Greg handled it though, I'm not surprised he didnt ask any questions.

EDIT: Greg stood there for 5 minutes at half cock trying to squeeze the trigger.

I wondered about that - I'm far from an expert on Black Powder, but have shot other people's gear at times. What I thought I had remembered was that there was some kind of wadding between the ball and the powder when people were showing me how to do it, and it made something close to an interference fit between the combination of ball and wadding and the barrel so it was a little work to ram the ball all the way down to the bottom of the barrel. In fact I vaguely remember an admonition that I had to make sure it was rammed all the way down otherwise the gasses could build up in a pocket and blow the barrel up before getting the ball moving. I never thought about that enough to decide if I believed it, but I remember ramming the ball all the way down none the less.

So, to specifically answer the question it would be one of:

1) "Really? How did they shoot downhill?"

2) "What? I thought we needed wadding between the ball and powder to hold it all in place?"

3) "Are you serious? Do we have the right size ball?"

Thinkingblade

"really, where did you learn that?"

" did you even read the manual?"

if he says he's too smart to read a manual, I'd say "then you must know you're supposed to patch the bullet, right?"

then I'd tell him I'd rather load the pistol on my own -- the "expert" doesn't even know to patch the bullet, how can i be sure he didn't over/undercharge the gun? use the wrong bullet? in fact, when others fires the gun I'd keep my distance.

I would ask

Are you trying to skeer me?!

You a talking to a man that just saw a nuclear warhead fall out of the back of a pick up!

the patch hold the ball in,,were was the patch,, if the ball falls out then would the charge, seemed odd to me ,,um real tv drama,,

I watched the first couple of episodes and decided they were a bunch of idiots that could not shoot worth sh**.

Excuse me Sir, do you know what the **** your talking about?

No

I thought not, **** off.

I'd have to ask that expert "Are you on crack?"