Interview with Gary Quesenberry – Top Shot 3

What a privilege as last week I got to interview Top Shot Shooter Dustin Ellerman and this week I get to work with Triple Nickel holder Gary Quesenberry. Gary is a class act on the show and proved it even more in our half hour together on Monday night. He’s just as easy to talk to, a straight shooter, and encouraging as he appears on the show. Stay tuned later tonight for the ongoing Top Shot 3 Mind Dump series as I post live commentary to the first episode with green polos.

HoG: From reading your bio and doing a little pre interview stalking I see we owe you thanks for your service to our country in Desert Storm. I also learned you’re a triple nickel holder. For any readers who may not be familiar with what that is can you sum it up in an easy to understand phrase?

Gary: Triple nickel is a course of fire that was developed within the Dept of Homeland Security among some instructors to engage others to be sure that they could practice what they preached proficiently.The course of fire has 5 FBI QIT 18” wide targets side by side and directly in front of you.  You’re five yards away and have five seconds to complete the course of fire. The shooter must be using a production quality duty weapon where he will draw from concealment, and put two rounds into each target all the while conducting a reload somewhere after the first target. This means 10 shots total, into five targets WITH a reload in under 5 seconds. As of today there are approximately 89 shooters from different backgrounds who hold the coin. Oh, all of the above and the course of fire must be completed 3x in front of 2 other coin holders. So luck is eliminated and repetitive practice is a must.

HoG: Taking the triple nickel into considerations and the guns that you used for it, what firearms are you most familiar with and enjoy shooting the most? Which was your FAVORITE weapon used on Season 3?

Gary: There are a couple but the one weapon that I say I loved the most was the one we shot every episode at the nomination range. The Colt .45 Peacemaker is so much fun to shoot and unfortunately every time I shot it I only got one round with it. It’s a classic cowboy gun and like I said in the Remington 1875 episode, “who doesn’t want to be a cowboy”?

I also really enjoyed shooting that LaRue OBR in the .308 on an AR platform we handled in the very first episode. I’d love to own one of those especially with the optics they had mounted on it. It was a top notch weapon all around, operated really tight and with that setup you could really reach out and touch something with it.

The trick with the weapons we’re required to “master” every episode is that we don’t get to zero it individually to ourselves, which means you’ve gotta find a way to adjust the dope based on where impact is for you and your own tendencies.

HoG: In Episode 8 you talked a little bit about honor after the blowup between Mike H. and Jake Z. Can you tell us a little bit about where you’re coming from with that and why honor is so important in the shooting world?

Gary: Here’s the thing with Jake. I get along with him and we were actually even keeping in touch texting back and forth during the last episode partly because he’s catching a lot of flak from people and I wanted to see how he’s doing. Jake’s opinion throughout the show was that any press is good press. He came in with the mindset that he was going to try and get in everyone’s head and throw them off their game. Just being loud and vulgar were some ways he did that and it did work in distracting some of the players from their game but not everyone.

Once he realized that you wouldn’t have fell prey to his words he would kind of leave you alone and stay out of your head. Talking to him about his background and his football and being a Navy SEAL one on one gave me a better insight into who he really was outside of the show.

Just one example of that is after the archery competition ended I was a little disappointed with my performance but really felt like I wanted to get back into archery (particularly traditional) real soon and left it at that. After I got home Jake actually contacted me because he wanted to send me a recurve bow so I could take up archery again like I really wanted to. I feel like that right there speaks to the man off screen and who he really is.

HoG: Along with the previous question, how do you defend the shooting sports when a non-shooter or someone who is less familiar with the ins and outs sees someone behave the way Jake did, even if he was out in the open about doing it just to win the 100k?

Gary: There’s really no way to defend his actions on the show. Me and Dustin and several of the guys in the house were talking about this and what they would see so it was really important for us to work hard to show the other side of that by being on our best behavior and showing the world what real sportsman look like.

HoG: It was very evident early on that you and Jarrett had quite the rivalry going on already. I think it was wise for History to put you guys up against one another right off the bat because had you been on the same team your alliance really could have bulldozed everyone else. Describe your feelings having that familiarity leave the house when Jarrett was eliminated?

Gary: It’s funny because certain things were said and done in the house that don’t go on TV. I told him the night before the elimination challenge not to lose and leave me because Jarrett was my sounding board for everything. Even though we were on different teams we still sat down and talked every night just unpacking the day, talking about life and stuff like that.

Even back home we’re close family friends we even have thanksgiving sometimes over at his house. My kids are friends with his kids and it’s an all around great family friendship.

After Jarrett was gone I did make quick friends with some guys on the red team like Chris Collins, Cliff Walsh and Phil who are all outstanding guys and a pleasure to be around. Dustin and I got along really well and even Alex from the blue team too.

About beating Jarrett with the tomahawk…

He’s still calling me and telling me that he beat me with the S&W 500 “I still beat you with the trigger”. Jarrett and I compete so much where even our families competed with the game “Rock Band” with our families as the bands. EVERYTHING is always a competition between us. He can brag all he wants about beating me with the trigger in that first round that didn’t mean anything, I’m still alive on the show!

HoG: We learned from talking with Dustin last week that there was almost ALWAYS someone around whether it be camera or the multitude of people actually watching the competition. What was THE single hardest thing to manage during the competition? Was it psychological? Was it the pressure of shooting? Was it dealing with nonsense in the house?

Gary: I think that changes as you go along. The further you go the more the cameras and natural distractions start to fade into the background. The first couple competitions help you get used to that pressure but you still begin to realize those cameras are on you and a couple million people are watching. After a while you get used to that. One of the things that’s hard to get used to is Colby’s narration during the competition. There’s nothing worse than having a guy standing next to you screaming as the whole thing’s going on like, “And Gary struggling with the Benelli shotgun.” It’s like a verbal reminder of your frustration.

By the time we get to green jerseys some other stuff comes in like missing your family and your mind starts to wander back away from your focus during the competition. The longer you get from your family with ZERO communication you start to worry and wonder if everything is okay. For instance, my son got his drivers license just 2 days before I left for the show so I definitely had that on my mind too.

HoG: One thing I’ve had a lot of shooters and my readers ask me to relay to you guys in the interviews is with the potential of being gone from your job for over a month, how do you get away from it without losing it? Even with your position in Homeland Security and a government job, there still has to be some squirming to work things out to be gone.

Gary: Because of my agency (Homeland Security) and everything I can’t say too much about that, but me being gone as long as I was it was my own saved up annual leave. Some people had departments where friends or coworkers could donate their time or cover your shifts for you while you were gone.

Being that it was vacation it was something I could put in for in advance just in case. As long as you were pro active about it you could be pretty well prepared to be gone as the selection process wound down for the show. When we went out to LA for the finals there were 50 people out there and at the end of it there are a couple weeks you have to wait to find out if you get into the show. As long as you took heed to the advice they were giving about preparing it wasn’t too hard to be prepared.

HoG: Tuesday night (episode 9) we see you guys break out the green jerseys. What did it feel like when you saw Colby pull those out and you knew you made it past the team stage?

Gary: It’s a really good feeling because everybody goes into that competition for a set of goals which starts with simply not getting voted out. Then you set personal goals for yourself throughout the competition which gradually get more difficult to attain as the show goes on.

Ultimately it’s refreshing for me to know that as the red team where in the beginning we were pegged as the losers that we really weren’t losers after all. And once we made it to the green polos the individual effort is more amplified. On the team challenges it can be easy to just be the guy who kind of slips past in the team effort because once you get to the green team its all eyes on you. And the red team weren’t slouchers to begin with. Cliff for example was probably one of the only guys in the world to ever beat Jerry Miculek in an actual competition. So we weren’t “losers,” we just happened to be a little unlucky in that first challenge that divided the teams. And on the 500 S&W, who isn’t going to let some fundamentals slip out the window the first time you pull the trigger and experience the recoil on that bad boy?

HoG: Last question, given the sacrifice that it requires to participate in a Top Shot, would you come back if given the invitation to be a part of a Top Shot: All Stars were it to happen?

Gary: I know that if I could get the time off from work, I would absolutely want to go back because it was a fantastic experience and I felt like I learned a lot. And one thing I learned which you’ll see in the episode coming up I found out a little more about what my weak points were. I’ve got a fantastic wife and really good kids so the at-home stuff doesn’t bother me as much.

It would be really cool getting a chance to face up to the top guys from the previous couple seasons, and really try to be the best by beating the best.

Thanks again for taking the time to check out our interview with Gary Q. Stay tuned next week for one more interview that may surprise you!