My life in General

This is the only email address I could find related to 'Top Shot'. I hope this reaches the right person though.

My name is Christopher Stiefel from Texas. Let me start with: "I love the show!". I've not missed an episode yet in three seasons...

But; I'm in a wheelchair. I can stand and walk a very little bit but I have Multiple Sclerosis which keeps me down most of the time. However, I still shoot and at the range, often see similar people. Heck I got my backside whipped 22-25 in a game of skeet with another chair-bound shooter.

While I'm always working to better my skills, obviously today's market and $ situations make it very difficult. However, I'll bet if you advertized it, you could find enough people to fill at least say a short-run show for the otherwise handicapped. We might not be able to run and climb like the athletes you have on the show but... It might be interesting, even if say it's a very short-run six to ten person competition instead of the normal big house full.

Events could be tailored for these individuals depending on what the field ends up consisting of... No running, perhaps some crawling (most of us can do that a bit, might even be better then some others cause our arm strength tends to be better on average), might need to see if people can be inverted without an issue (some conditions won't allow it or they have other issues.) But to sit or stand depending and shoot against someone else competitively, that's very do-able. Obviously some weapons wouldn't be necessarily do-able like the cannon would be too much.. Probably the gatling gun too (although I drooled all over my sleeve this season on that one), but like the sitting on the wagon and shooting, we can do that, pretty much all of the non-moving competitions (of which you have a huge dossier already) we could do, the round-about circle of death, depends on the people involved, but all of that could be considered at the time.

Obviously, it wouldn't be as physical, so maybe that's why it would only be a smaller show, perhaps with a much smaller purse (maybe $10k or even less, or maybe competing just for charity and a new chair or legs or something). I'd be curious if you put a feeler out there what types of bites you'd get... And honestly, unless my job position changes, I might even be willing to donate towards that purse a good chunk with no needed compensation for my $ other than to know that people are getting the chance... And it wouldn't have to be chair-bound people, just otherwise disabled people. There's plenty of one-legged shooters or one-armed shooters out there too. And these people can be so scarry-good at time.

I'd love to take part myself but I doubt very much I'd make it through the first few days. I'm a long-rifle and shotgun shooter only. Not very well-rounded. But I have shot bow, cross-bow, thrown knives and axes (of which I'm horrible), was a pitcher back in the day so I used to have one heck of an arm (but no more)... But in the end, I don't think I would be good for your show myself; Just not skilled enough to do well and you do want skilled individuals at least to make it a good competition. I also have a heck of a time with a pistol (though I could practice my tail off if the opportunity presented itself).

And it might not even be called 'Top Shot' per-say, maybe 'Another Shot - Sponsored by Top Shot' or something like that... Just to break up the class of shooters since very few, if any of us, could give a very skilled, fully-functional marksman a real competition. All things being equal, the disability itself will beat us in most cases, just the fact of life. Still, I know there has to be more then just me dreaming of being on something like this. And I know there are a ton of disabled shooters... Heck, even just here in central Texas, I probably know a dozen I see at the ranges. And I only go a few times a year (can't afford ammo) to shoot my National Match legal competition AR-15, old-school pump Remington 870 magnum 12 and junior 16, and my first-run Springfield XD9...

I love to shoot. I'm a life-time NRA member and support all gun rights. I'm ehh to so-so to not bad. Maybe a very good on my best long rifle... But... Something like this might go a long way for various medical foundations and/or you might even be able to get equipment manufacturers to get in on this for some advertising (I.E. there's only a handful of real good wheelchair manufacturer's for example...).

I'd be happy to talk with anyone interested and share my thoughts and ideas if they even think something like this is a do-able project. I'd be flattered if you actually chose me to be on the show, but I think you can find much better competition. Just having this being thought about by those in-charge would be satisfying for me.

My name: Christopher Stiefel
My email: chris@sirgcal.com or sirgcal@gmail.com
My website: http://www.sirgcal.com/
(rest of the information removed for privacy)

And again; I love the show! Safety first, always and without question! Thanks for a wonderful & enjoyable series!