Adam Benson

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Adam Benson
Personal information
Born	May 4, 1965
Hometown	Baltimore, MD
Occupation	Construction Project Manager
Competition information
Season	Season One
Team	Blue Team Green Team
Place	6th
Episode eliminated	"The Shortest Fuse"
[Source]

Adam Benson was a contestant of Top Shot Season One and member of the Blue Team. After surviving to the final seven, he became a member of the Green Team.

Personal life

Adam, who calls himself "The Last Great American Hero", has had experience with rifles, shotguns, pistols, the compound bow, and muzzleloaders. He worked formerly as a Marine rifle expert, where he was given the nickname "Bam-Bam". Adam currently competes in the International Practical Shooting Confederation Master Class in pistol and three-gun events. As well as having used many firearms as well as bows, Adam also designs and builds catapults for pumpkin-throwing contests. He is a Construction Project Manager from Baltimore, Maryland.

Audition video

"When I heard about this Top Shot competition, I knew it was for me."

―Adam Benson

In Adam's audition video, he is seen shooting at targets with weapons, as well as stating his background with the Marine Corps and the ISPC.

Top Shot

Week One

Adam arriving for Season One.

Adam arrived for Top Shot Season One, instantly being assigned to the Blue Team. After all sixteen of the contestants arrived, Colby Donaldson, the host of the show, announced the rules of the competition. After this, he let the competitors go into the house they would be staying in during the competition. After this, both the teams headed to the Shooting Range to participate in the first Practice Session. Here, the contestants used four historical firearms: the M1903 Springfield, SVT-40, Mosin-Nagant, and M14. Here, while he shot, Chris Cerino spotted for him, and Adam did the same for Chris. Both teams headed back to the house, where they decided on who would be shooting what weapon.

Adam aiming for his target.

The following day, both the teams headed to the Shooting Range again, but to compete in the first Team Challenge. Here, four stations were set up with each of the four weapons, with an obstacle in the way. Adam was assigned to the M14 with Chris Cerino, which meant that he would have to slog through a mud pit to get to his station. On the first station, Mike Seeklander and Andre Robinson of Red Team had made it to their station before Iain Harrison and Tara Poremba of Blue Team. It took a short time for both teams to hit their first target, but then Iain and Mike were up to shoot at their targets. It took both a while to hit their targets, but eventually, being at the last station, Adam and Chris got through the mud pit after every Blue Team member had already performed, with little concerns about Red Team, which was still stuck on the first station. After Chris hit his target in one shot, Adam was up to shoot, managing to hit it in one shot, resulting in Blue Team's victory.

After the challenge, both the teams headed to the house, where the Red Team held a meeting before heading to the Nomination Range to send two people to the Elimination Challenge. When Red Team returned, it was revealed to Blue Team that Mike Seeklander and Kelly Bachand would be sent to the challenge. The following day, the Red Team left to witness the first Elimination Challenge, in which Kelly came out victorious. When the Red Team returned back to the house, where they decided to hang Mike's shirt and anyone that would be eliminated after him, in a tribute to them.

Week Two

After the elimination of Mike, both the teams were given a night to rest before going back to the Shooting Range to engage in the second Practice Session, this time using the Beretta 92F under guidance by expert Ben Stoeger. Here, Adam did well with the weapon, and was excited for the following Team Challenge, though he had no idea what it was going to be.

Adam about to shoot his target.

Both teams headed to the Shooting Range the following day to participate in the second Team Challenge. Here, seven tubes of decreasing diameter were set up. Whichever team was able to hit all the tubes in the fastest time was victorious. Blue Team had heard in advance that someone on their team would have to sit out, and they decided on James "Jim" Sinclair, due to his poor performance at the Practice Session. When Colby stated that the Red Team would decide, the Blue Team was disappointed when they chose Blake Miguez, one of the more experienced with the weapon. Both teams then assigned a person to each tube, choosing Adam for the fifth largest. After Simon "J.J." Racaza hit the fourth tube, Adam was up, and managed to quickly hit his target. After Tara Poremba and Chris Cerino hit the smallest tube, the weapon was back to Jim, who was the only one to miss his tube. After a long pause, Jim shot at his target and hit it. Blue Team beat the Red Team's score by 27 seconds, resulting in their second win.

Both the teams returned to the house, where the Red Team held a short meeting on deciding who to send to Elimination. After this, they headed to the Nomination Range. When the Red Team returned back to the house, it was revealed to Blue Team that Frank Campana and Brad Engmann were sent to the challenge. The following day, the Red Team departed to witness the second Elimination Challenge. They returned back to the house later in the day with Brad, who hung Frank's shirt.

Week Three

Adam with the longbow during the Practice Session.

"It's astounding to hear that the old English longbows men were shooting 150-180 pounds. I mean, uh, for hunting, I use a 60-pound bow, 70-pound bow."

―Adam Benson after listening to Chris Palmer.

After Frank's shirt was hung, both the teams were given another night of rest before going to the third Practice Session. Here, a large hay target was set up, and it was announced that the contestants would be using the longbow under guidance by bowman, Chris Palmer. Adam, having used bows before, likely did well during the practice and was ready for the next Team Challenge.

At the challenge the following day, a larger hay target was set up. Using the longbow, whichever team could hit closer to the bullseye of the target would be victorious. Before commencing in the challenge, Red Team had to decide on two contestants of Blue Team to sit out, deciding on Adam and Chris. Adam witnessed as Iain Harrison started for Blue Team, and when Kelly hit closer to the bullseye than him. For a while after that, nobody was able to hit any closer to the bullseye than Kelly until J.J. Racaza was up. For Red Team to win, Bill Carns had to hit closer to the bullseye of the target than J.J. However, he was unable to do this, resulting in the Blue Team's third victory.

When both the teams arrived back at the house, Red Team eventually held a meeting, with an exception of Brad, who was in the kitchen with the Blue Team. The Red Team then headed to the Nomination Range, and shortly after returned, announcing that Bill and Brad were sent to the Elimination Challenge. The following day, the Red Team left to witness yet another of these challenges. They arrived back at the house again with Brad, who hung the shirt of another competitor.

Week Four

After Blue Team's third consecutive victory and the elimination of Bill Carns, the teams were given a night to rest before going to another Practice Session. For the fourth Practice Session, using the AR-15, contestants were assigned to shoot at foe targets and try to hit as less friend targets as possible. The expert for this was the returning expert, Craig Sawyer. After everybody had went on Blue Team, Jim Sinclair was up, and caused concern for his team based on his time during the session.

Adam using the AR-15 in the fourth Team Challenge.

The following day, both the teams went to the Shooting Range to participate in the fourth Team Challenge. Here, a 6×6 grid was set up. On this, seven friend and foe targets were placed. If a team member was able to hit a foe target, their team would gain a point, but if they hit a friend target, their team would lose a point. To add the difficulty, the contestants were only given a small amount of time to look at the grid before it was obscured. After the Red Team decided to sit out Blake, J.J., and Iain, both teams strategized on how to memorize the location. They then started shooting. When Adam was up to shoot, Red Team already had 13 points, while Blue Team had only 5. Adam pulled his first shot low, hitting a friend target, but was able to hit six foe targets, bringing Blue Team's point total up to 10. Nearing the end, Red Team had a total of 20 points, while Blue Team had only 13. It was up to Jim Sinclair to get a perfect run to tie with the Red Team. However, Jim did not hit all his targets, only raising the point total of Blue Team to 16 points. If Peter Palma of Red Team was able to hit just four foe targets, he would make it impossible for Blue Team to catch up. Peter was able to do that, resulting in the Blue Team's first loss.

"Just so you know, Adam. That is the first time anyone has missed the entire target."
I was dotting the 'I', Colby!"

―Colby Donaldson and Adam Benson after Adam had voted.

Both teams returned back at the house, where the Blue Team held their first team meeting. Jim and Tara volunteered to go to the Elimination Challenge due to their performance in the challenge, and then Iain volunteered as well, stating he thought he owed the Blue Team for the first challenge and his horrible performance at the Practice Session a day earlier. At the Nomination Range, Adam was the first to vote. He voted for Iain, jokingly dotting the second "I" in Iain's name just below the targe. He was then told to fire again and hit the target, hitting above the center. In the end, Iain and Jim were sent to the Elimination Challenge, with five votes to Iain and two votes to Jim.

The following day, the Blue Team went to the Shooting Range to witness the fourth Elimination Challenge. They arrived back at the house later with Iain in a joking manner and hung Jim's shirt in tribute to him.

Week Five

Adam using the Kentucky long rifle in the Practice Session.

"I've never had any experience with a flintlock, so I'm at a bit of a disadvantage from the start."

―Adam Benson on shooting the Kentucky long rifle

After the Blue Team's first loss, they were hoping that they would be able to win the next challenge. After Jim's elimination, the contestants headed to a morning Practice Session the following day. Here, the 12 remaining competitors were to practice using the Kentucky long rifle under guidance by historical weapons expert, Garry James. Adam was not very confident with this weapon. After the Practice Session was over, both the teams headed to the house, where Adam held a meeting with two members of his alliance, Chris and Iain. Adam had already devised a plan to put J.J. and Blake against each other if the Blue Team lost to make the future of the competition easier. To do this, he called in Caleb Giddings and tried to encourage him into doing this. However, after listening to Adam, Caleb stated he didn't like politics and left. Adam did not think that Caleb would tell either J.J. or Blake, but to his anger, figured out the following morning that Caleb had in fact told both of them. This developed a new-found anger of Caleb before they headed to the Shooting Range.

Adam states his opinion to Colby.

"Adam. You're always good for a couple of words."
It's maddening living in this house. We have a chatterbox who won't shut up! It's killing me!"

―Colby and Adam.

Before talking about the Team Challenge, Colby first asked Denny Chapman of Red Team how he thought his team's cohesion was doing. After Denny answered, Colby asked Tara the same question. She stated she thought it was doing well, but then he asked Adam, who stated that he was maddened that Caleb told both Blake and J.J. about his plan. This inspired the Red Team to sit out both Adam and Chris. For the challenge, five targets were set up at 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125-yards. Whichever team could hit closer to the bullseye on the individual targets would gain a point, with an exception of the last target, which was equal to 4 points. After both teams decided on the shooting order, they started the challenge. Nearing the end, Blue Team had no points while Red Team had four. It was up to Caleb to hit the 4-point 125-yard target to tie with Red Team. However, this did not occur, resulting in Blue Team's second defeat.

Adam Benson during the fifth Elimination Challenge.

When the Blue Team returned to the house, they held a meeting, which ended up being more of a debate than a discussion. By the time the meeting had ended, the Blue Team headed to the Nomination Range. Here, Adam did not get an opportunity to vote. Everybody else had already voted, sending Caleb and Adam to the Elimination Challenge, with three votes each. The following day, both Adam and Caleb got up to attend a Practice Session for the Elimination Challenge. Here, they used the Winchester Model 1873 under guidance again by Garry James, shooting at the rungs on a ladder. Adam was comfortable using the weapon and did well shooting it. Eventually, after returning to the house, Adam spelled "RAT FINK" on the pool table with playing cards. This was later changed by Kelly Bachand of Red Team to "ACT UR AGE", but when Adam noticed this, he changed it to "ACT UR SIZE". Later, Blue Team left to witness the fifth Elimination Challenge, where two guillotines were set up. Whichever competitor was able to break the rope holding the guillotine up with the Winchester would win the challenge. Adam was the first to load and fire his weapon, but did not hit his rope. On his reload, he managed to hit the rope before Caleb. In the end, Adam won the challenge. He was congratulated by Caleb, despite previous circumstances. Blue Team then headed to the house, where Adam hung Caleb's shirt, regarding him as a "fallen hero".

Week Six

References

External links