Tennessee’s Chris Reed Wins the History Channel’s Top Shot Competition
Day 2: What Else the History Channel’s Top Shot Winner Chris Reed Has Won
Editor’s Note: Thirty-seven-year-old Chris Reed of Franklin, Tennessee, recently won the History Channel’s Top Shot competition, beating out some of the best competition shooters and taking home the $100,000 prize. A realtor by day, Reed’s a tough competitive shooter, winning countless state and national championships in both archery and long rifle.
 Question: Chris, what have you won besides the Top Shot competition on the History Channel?
Reed: I’ve won 10-or-more state championships in Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina. I won the U.S. Marine Corps’ Company High Shooter award. I was runner-up in Bass Pro Shops’ 2009 “Field and Stream” Total Outdoorsman Challenge, which was similar to Top Shot but covered seven-different events, including bass fishing, trout fishing, rifle, shotgun, archery, ATV and endurance. I qualified for the 2010 Buckmasters World Championship, and that was a big learning experience.
 Question: How did you get into shooting so-many-different types of weapons besides bows?
Reed: My childhood environment is one of the reasons I’m proficient with a wide variety of weapons. I grew-up in rural Mississippi in the edge of the foothills in Carroll County. We hunted, fished, shot bows and arrows and rambled-around in the woods every day. I was shooting my bow every day. I’d practice with my bow before and after school. I carried my bow with me to high school, so I could shoot at lunch. At night, we’d use our cars’ headlights to shoot our bows after dark. We used homemade cotton bags with Coca-Cola tops as targets. We’d gather-up all the Coca-Cola tops we could, and at the end of the week, we’d have shooting competitions.
 Question: Where were you born?
Reed: I was born in Greenwood, Mississippi. I’ve only lived in Tennessee for 5 years, and I’m moving back to Mississippi.
Question: What PSE bow do you use for hunting?
Reed: Right now I’m hunting with the PSE X-Force Vendetta XL. This bow is a little long from axle to axle. It’s a very-forgiving bow. The Vendetta XL shoots about 330 feet per second, and I get plenty of kinetic energy out of it. I shoot my hunting bow and my target bow every day of the week.  So, having a bow I feel comfortable shooting is very important to me – the Vendetta XL. I shoot a Spot Hogg five-pin sight. When I shoot the Buckmasters, I want to know what the target looks like at different distances as I look through my sight pin. So, if the target looks like it’s 40 to 45 yards, I can bring-up my bow and check it against the five pins on my sight, which gives me an extra reference point – a different way to determine distance.
Question: What’s the furthest shot you’ve ever made with your bow on a hunt?
Reed: I took a white-tailed buck at about 86 yards.
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