[ Steve Says: I am very pleased to introduce our new TFB regular contributor. Chris is a very talented shooter and genuinely nice guy. I am excited to have him onboard and look forward to published blog posts by him in the future. If you have any questions for Chris, ask them in the comments or email him directly at chris.cheng [at] thefirearmblog [dot] com ]

Hi folks, if you don’t watch Top Shot on the History Channel, please let me introduce myself. My name is Chris Cheng and I am a professional shooter. I recently won Season 4 of Top Shot. Along with the $100,000 and the title of “Top Shot”, the prize included a professional shooting contract with Bass Pro Shops. I decided to quit my job at Google, where I worked as a program manager on the technical support team, and took up the Bass Pro contract. I loved my time working at Google, but this was obviously a once-in-a-lifetime chance to switch careers and see where life takes me. I am a self-taught amateur shooter who has ironically not shot very much in my lifetime. I relied on my childhood experiences shooting slingshots, potato & rubber band guns, BB/pellet guns, paintball guns, Super Soakers, NERF guns, and other childhood toys which helped me develop my marksmanship skills.

A timeless toy, and one that helped me hone my marksmanship skills when I was younger

I’m very excited to share my experiences navigating through a new industry and hearing what kinds of things you’d like to hear about. I will read every single comment that’s posted, and I will try my best to respond to them as well.

Now, on to the guns! Top Shot is a unique show where it provides an opportunity to shoot weapons not many people get to shoot. I simply have no access to an M1919 or B.A.R. machine gun, let alone an MK32 grenade launcher, all weapons I got to compete with on Top Shot. A common question I get is “What was my favorite weapon?” A very hard question to answer (sort of like trying to answer “Which is your favorite parent/child?”). I would probably say the B.A.R. since it was the first fully automatic weapon I’ve ever fired.

Firing the B.A.R. in the Top Shot finale. The Browning Automatic Rifle is sometimes referred to as a “Big Ass Rifle.” – Photo courtesy of History Channel.

With a slower cyclic rate of 500-650 rounds per minute, it was a great first machine gun to fire since it was easy to control. On top of that, having a full art crew set up the amazingly fun challenges, provide free ammo, let us meander in and blow stuff up, and then cleaning up our mess was pretty awesome too.

I’ll be a recurring contributor here on The Firearm Blog, and in my next posts I’ll talk about the weapons I recently shot at the Crimson Trace 3-gun Midnight Invitational.  Night vision and IR goggles/scopes, full darkness, plus automatic weapons. It was awesome. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Chris Cheng is History Channel’s Top Shot Season 4 champion. A self-taught amateur turned pro through his Top Shot win, Cheng very much still considers himself an amateur who parachuted into this new career. He shares his thoughts and experiences from the perspective of a newbie to the shooting community. www.TopShotChris.com.