'Top Shot' Episode 4 Recap

With four episodes down,  quietly remains in contention to take home the $100K Top Shot grand prize and the title of "Top Shot".

In season three’s first four episodes, Marinaccio’s blue team has racked up three of four wins in team competition—including their latest win on Tuesday night—keeping each member of the team safe from the elimination round. Things haven’t gone as smoothly for the red team, though, as they have now sent three of their team members home, giving the blue team a two-man advantage.

On Tuesday night, viewers got to enjoy an old-fashioned showdown as competitors, equipped with the Remmington 1875 revolver, went head-to-head in an accuracy highlighted competition.

The Challenge: Each team is shown six shooting stations, with each team member shooting at one of six sides of a die. At the end of the competition, the team with the most targets hit wins the competition and stays out of the elimination round.

The Catch: Each shooter is given just enough bullets to hit their targets. Miss a target, and they have to reload the weapon. The first person to hit all of their targets at a station (ranging from one to six, depending on their shooting position) closes the target and ends the individual competition.

The blue team got off to a quick start as Jake Zweig, a former Navy SEAL, hit his target first, closing the target and giving the blue team a 1-0 lead.

Marinaccio is up second, going up against Florida marksmen Mark Schneider. Marinaccio hits one of his two targets, but is unable to close out the station before Schneider hits both. After two rounds, the teams are tied, 2-2.

The blue team would close three of the next four stations, surging them ahead for the 18-16 win, and sending the red team to its second consecutive elimination challenge in a row, and third in four days.

The red team chooses Schneider and Mike Marelli, a court officer from Long Island, NY, to head into the elimination round which features an 1877 Gatling Gun, described by Top Shot host Colby Donaldson as the world's first “weapon of mass destruction.”

“I’m super, super jealous that they get to shoot the Gatling Gun,” Marinaccio says in an interview on the show. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”

The Challenge: Competitors each must “cut down” three telegraph poles, ranging from 15 to 25 yards, using the Gatling Gun.

With both competitors tied heading into the third and final pole, Marelli is able to close out the competition as he gets the last pole to fall before Schneider.

Episode five of Top Shot airs on The History Channel, Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 10 p.m.