The Season Three premiere begins with a shoot off between pairs of contestants using what many consider the most powerful hand gun in history. The winners will form one team and the losers the other. The first team challenge is a race where each team must carry a pole weighing over 200 pounds between eight foot tall firing platforms. The elimination challenge is inspired by the stagecoaches of the Old West. Skilled sharp shooters armed with shotguns and rifles were recruited to ride atop the coaches and protect their cargo. Hence the term "Riding Shotgun." The two contestants competing to stay on the show have to master the extremely difficult skill of shooting while bouncing up and down in a stagecoach with the loser being sent home. Colby Donaldson hosts.

Teams get down and dirty with one of the most influential firearms, the legendary AK-47. They face an extreme obstacle course with mud pits, barbed wire and exploding mortars. The Blue Team employs unusual, divisive training methods and the Red Team remains unimpressed. In the elimination challenge, two shooters face a friend or foe challenge with a military and police pistol.

Shotgun skills are tested with a head-to-head speed shooting challenge. Leaders emerge and tension escalates on both teams. And it's an elimination challenge unlike any before, featuring an elaborate machine, a Glock 34, and a line of non-stop cannonballs.

The legendary Gatling gun is introduced. But first the competition travels back to the Old West for a team challenge with a historic pistol. To stay in the competition two marksmen shoot it out with a firearm considered by many to be the world's first practical machine gun.

Contestants are shocked to see two Top Shot champions return as honorary captains for the team challenge. Marksmen compete with a just-released, ultra modern assault rifle and tensions flare when a fight erupts between two competitors.

A world famous pistol champion teaches teams some extremely difficult trick shots including shooting while blindfolded. The Blue Team is in disarray after a team member vows to go it alone. The elimination challenge features the classic cowboy skill of shooting from the hip.

Contestants must master the Recurve Bow and nail a target by skipping an arrow off a ramp. One team goes to the brink of self-destructing when two teammates almost come to blows during a dispute of a previous elimination decision.

The individual stage of the competition kicks off with the highly accurate McMillan TAC-50 Sniper Rifle. Taking aim at targets 500 yards downrange, one marksman has a meltdown and struggles to complete the individual challenge. In the elimination, it's all on the line for two competitors as they duke it out with a notorious WWII handgun.

Competition speeds up when marksmen fire one of the fastest shooting handguns on the market. The vote at the nomination range provokes a drastic reaction from one of the shooters and a shocking turn of events leaves competitors stunned.

The five remaining marksmen face one of the most difficult challenges in Top Shot history. Shooters will use the powerful and compact SP89 semi automatic pistol while moving through the air upside down. With the last spot in the final four up for grabs, one competitor amazes the group with a stunning performance at the elimination challenge.

The Final Four marksmen set their sights on the $100,000 prize and the title of Top Shot. In a series of intense challenges, one shooter attempts an unprecedented shot with the AK-47, and contestants are eliminated one by one until there are only two left standing. The final challenge pushes two marksmen to their limits and a new champion is crowned.