New York, December 8, 2009 – In Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Annie Oakley used a mirror to shoot a rifle over her shoulder. William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow. Whether it’s the Romans shooting flaming arrows or Barbarians slinging stones, history is filled with legendary tales of amazing marksmanship. Now, HISTORY is tapping into these inspiring feats of sharp-shooting for it’s first-ever competition series – and one contestant will emerge with a $100,000 prize package and the title of “Top Shot.”

The new 10 episode series, TOP SHOT, is slated to premiere in 2010. The announcement was made today by Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager, HISTORY.

In each episode, contenders will face team and elimination challenges inspired by real events in history, from Wild West shootouts to modern-day sniper missions. Every challenge will reveal the weapons, technologies and tactics of a different era, while hi-speed HD cameras capture the skillful execution of each test with breathtaking precision in extreme slow-motion.

“Not only will contestants have a chance to experience history in the making, but they might make history themselves by breaking a world record,” said Dubuc.

A nationwide search for contestants is underway. 16 finalists will be selected from among thousands of applicants, and only one will be declared “Top Shot.”

TOP SHOT is produced for HISTORY by Pilgrim Films & Television. Executive Producers for HISTORY are Dirk Hoogstra and Paul Cabana. Craig Piligian is Executive Producer for Pilgrim Films & Television.

They could be supporting actors right out of the 1993 movie Tombstone, arguably one of the best westerns ever made.

They gathered recently at the Hawkeye Rifle and Pistol Club outdoor rifle and pistol range southwest of Sioux City’s municipal airport.

Dressed in period costumes of the late 1880s, they carried Colt’s .45 pistols on their hips and cradled lever action rifles.

They were participants in what has been called the fastest growing shooting sport in the nation, Cowboy Action Shooting.

It was born in California in the early 1980s. All of the competitors shooting at the Sioux City range are members of the Logan, Iowa, club the Nebraska Territorial Rangers.

Mike Zediker, Elk Point, S.D. organized this shoot at the Hawkeye Range, a first.

He’d like to get a local club going and encourages anyone with questions to call him at (712) 251-5550.

“Its a fast growing sport, but hasn’t really caught on here yet,” he says. “Most of the clubs have a dedicated range which includes old West store fronts, and other “props.”

The competition involves a number of separate shooting “stages.” They are always different and typically involve 10 pistol shots, 10 rifle shots and two to eight shotgun rounds.

Targets are usually steel plates that ring out when hit

“It’s really a lot of fun,” says Terry Krommenhoeck, Sioux City. “Safety is very important. All shooters are required to wear shooting glasses.

“Guns are loaded at a special shooting table on the range under the inspection of another shooter,” he continues. “After the stage is completed, the shooter advances to an unloading table where the guns are checked again.”

Competitors must use firearms typical of the mid- to late 19th century. Single action revolvers, lever action rifles chambered in pistol calibers and side-by-side double barrel shotguns (coach guns) or 1897-style pump action shotguns with external hammers must be used.

Competitors must dress in Old West costumes and they must have an alias with an old west flair.

If you are wondering about the headline over this article, it is from the movie Tombstone, the most quotable movie ever made.

That’s what Wyatt Earp told Johnny Tyler in the Oriental Saloon confrontation. Tyler didn’t “skin that smoke wagon” (pistol) and got slapped around by Earp.

Could that be a “stage” for Cowboy Action Shooting?

Probably not.

But the gunfight at the OK corral? Now you’re talkin’ shootin’, pardner.

A warm sunny day can bring a lot of warmth to people, especially those of us who long to be outdoors after a long cold winter.

I know you’ve heard the old saying “too much of anything is not good for you!”

That holds true when it comes to being in the sun too much.

Sure, who doesn’t want to get a good tan, but there’s a thin line between a tan and skin cancer.

If you don’t take some precaution too much sun can a life-changing event.

It’s really pretty simple!  Too much sun can and will lead to skin cancer!

I know what you’re saying; skin cancer is something others get but not me.

Don’t believe it, because it can happen to anyone at any age.

When a patient hears the word cancer, it will scare you to death, literally.

Death was the first thing that came to mind when I was told that I had skin cancer.  I can remember it like it was yesterday.  I had gone in for an annual physical and thought I was home free when a dermatologist stopped in to talk with my doctor.

He recognized me since he’s seen our television series.  We talked about hunting, fishing and the show.  He asked how things were going and I told him things were going well and during that conversation, he indicated if there was anything he could do for me to let him know.

I mentioned that there was a spot on my lip that had been there for awhile, not a big spot, anything that hurt, just a spot that would break open from time to time.

He looked at it, talked with my doctor and that’s when he told me he thought it was “Cancer”.

Of course my first thoughts were, I must have not hard him right, my hearing isn’t the best, so I asked him to repeat it, the next words out of his mouth were “Cancer” and we’d better get a biopsy on it.

I thought, this can’t be because it’s been there forever, since I was in Viet Nam, it never really hurt and really hadn’t gotten any larger, at least on the outside.

I just knew he had made a mistake, but when he ordered me to be back in a couple of days for a biopsy, that’s when I really started to worry.

I was in my mid 40’s, thought that I’d lead a pretty clean life, never really did anything wrong, treated people the way I wanted to be treated, this just couldn’t be happening to me.

A few days later, they performed the biopsy and I spent the next couple of days worrying about what the results might be.

Several days later, the phone rang and the doctor informed me that it was what they thought to be Melanoma skin cancer.

He didn’t think it had spread much, but they had to put me under the knife to see how far it had gotten.

When the day arrived for the surgery, a plastic surgeon was called in to help with the operation, as they didn’t know how much of my lower lip would need to be removed until they started cutting.

Well to make a long story short, they took a big chunk of my lower lip as well as a sizeable piece along the inside. Fortunately, it didn’t appear that it had spread any farther than in that area.

The results came back indicating that it was cancer, but squeamish cell and not Melanoma and that they’d thought that they had got it all, but I’d have to come back in for regular checkups to run tests to make sure it hadn’t come back.

After several years of checkups, I’m now cancer free and a whole lot wiser.

As many of you know, I’ve always been an outdoorsmen, hunting, fishing trapping, outside all the time and I knew that the sun could give me problems, but I never really took enough time to protect myself.

When I was guiding and fishing tournaments, I didn’t use much, if any sunscreen because I worried about getting a scent on my hands the fish could smell which would affect my ability to catch fish.

Which is really STUPID!  So what if I catch a few less fish this trip because if I get skin cancer, I’m going to catch a lot less when I die at an early age from not protecting myself from the sun.

Now days, I worry about skin cancer as you should, if you spend much time outdoors.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and one that’s fairly easy to prevent. There are three types of skin cancer with two most common types being basal cell and squamous cell cancer.

Basil cell is the one that most people are familiar with.  It’s the type that’s removed by a doctor by freezing or burning it off.  It’s usually found on the head, face, neck, ears, hands and arms. It too can be dangerous and spread if not taken care of in its early stage.

Squamous cell is more serious as it may spread quickly if not taken care of and needs to be surgically removed.

Melanoma is more dangerous as it can spread all over the body quickly, but it is less common.

Believe me, anyone can get skin cancer, but it is most common in people who

* Spend a lot of time in the sun or have been sunburned

* Have light-colored skin, hair and eyes

* Have a family member with skin cancer

* Are over age 50

Over a million cases of non-melanoma skin cancers are diagnosed every year in the U.S. and the incidences are rising.

What’s unbelievable, is that many of these cases could be prevented by simply avoiding prolonged exposure to the sun, protecting your skin with clothing and by using a good sunscreen.

It’s hard to believe that all it takes to protect yourself from skin cancer is to apply a little sunscreen.

One thing you can bet on is that there’s a huge difference between sunscreens!  You want one with a Sun Protection Factor SPF of at least 15.  You’ll want one that offers both UA and UAB protection and one that‘s waterproof and sweat proof.

Apply the sunscreen liberally thirty minutes before going out into the sun.  It’s a good idea to reapply it every 15 to 30 minutes after that.

Reapplication is the big thing when it comes to applying sunscreen.

Your nose, ears and lips really need to be protected because they’re hanging out there and will receive the largest amount of sun.

There are numerous lip ointments that have a SPF of 15 such as Dermatone lip balm that not only keep your lips moisturized when you’re in the sun; they’re also going to protect them from the harmful effects of the sun.

Like other sunscreen products, you’ll want to use lip treatments that offer at least a 15 SPF.

If you’re an angler and worried like about getting the smell on your hands, There are several companies such as Dermatone that make Ultimate Sunscreen for Fishermen that’s fragrance free and one that won’t degrade your fishing line.

I was lucky, but I wouldn’t want to rely on luck when it comes to getting skin cancer.

Don’t let cancer stop you from enjoying life and the great outdoors!

Cover up, apply sunscreen, avoid excess exposure to the sun, and your outdoors experiences will be a long one and be a lot more enjoyable.

My earliest memory of a common snapping turtle goes way back to my childhood when our family visited Green Lake for a fishing vacation.

I remember we were driving a trail through the timber on the way to a smaller lake when suddenly in the middle of the road sat this giant snapper.

In my memory, the turtle was at least three feet high at the top of his shell. We waited and watched as the giant crossed the road.

Of course, no common snapper could be that large. But it sure seemed that way to this five year old.

Today, I know that a large snapping turtle will have a shell not much bigger than 20 inches in diameter and weigh in the vicinity of 70 pounds.

There is, however, a giant snapping turtle that lives in the southern states. That is the alligator snapper and there is an unverified report of one weiging 403 pounds and captured in Kansas in 1937. the largest actually on record is 236 pounds and lives in a zoo in Chicago.

The giant snapper of my childhood could not have been an alligator snapper, but it appeared to weigh at least 400 pounds to me.

Snappers are common in Siouxland and are found in nearly all bodies of water, rivers, lakes, ponds, creeks. Snappers are not particular about where the live.

It is a fact that snapping turtles are belligerent when out of water and will impose a powerful bite with their beak-like jaws.

A large snapper can easitly bite off your finger and if they cannot bite off what ever they snap on to, they will hold on and not let go.

Handling a large snapper is very dangerous. They can actually stretch their necks at least half the length of their shell.

I found that out first hand back in high school. I was seining minnows and chubs for a bait shop in Sioux Falls and our seine came up with a large snapper.

It’s big, sharp claws were snagged in the net and we could not get him out of it. With the net stretched out flat on the ground and the turtle hung up in the middle of it, I decided to flip the big turtle on his back and attempt to pull the net away from him.

Just as I bent to grab him on the shell above his hind legs, my companion poked at him with a stick. That big head shot out and curved around, mouth wide open. That bony beak snapped shut about three inches from my wrist.

Snappers like to bask in the sun in the spring. They often choose logs to lie upon just as the one in the photo accompanying this article.

Snappers will travel great distances to reach new habitat or lay eggs. For that reason it is quite common to find them a long ways away from water.

They lay their eggs in sand or gravel, digging a deep hole and depositing 25 to 80 eggs. After laying he eggs, the female covers them up and when the sun warms the sand adequately, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings dig their way to the surface and instinctively seek water.

It was only last week when driving back from a fishing trip to Storm Lake, that I witnessed a snapping turtle laying eggs in the gravel along the highway. The Little Sioux River was about a half mile away at that point. The turtle was unconcerned as cars and trucks whizzed by only feet away from her.

I chose not to stop and photograph her, not wanting to spook her along the busy highway. Chances are, however, she would have been unconcerned. I have photograped females doing the same thing on less travelled roads, the last being in the wilds of Manitoba.

Snapping turtles in the wild are estimated to live about 30 years.

Snapping turtle meat is used in soups and stews. Their shells were dried and mounted on handles and filled with corn kernels and used as rattles in ceremonies by Native Americans.

Snapping turtle populations are not threatened in any way. They are very adaptable and will feed on anything they can catch, and they will also eat carrion and aquatic vegetation.