Bob Munden (born February 8, 1942, Kansas City, Missouri, United States[1]) is a world-renowned exhibition shooter with all types of firearms, but is most well known for holding 18 world-records in Fast Draw and holding the title, "Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived."
Bob Munden started his shooting career at age 11. Beginning in high school, Bob competed in Jeff Cooper's Big Bear "Leatherslaps" shooting competitions at Big Bear Lake, California in the 1950s. The Leatherslaps eventually became the South Western Combat Pistol League (SWCPL). When Bob Munden was 17, he placed second in the 1958 Leatherslap using a Colt .45 Single Action borrowed from Cooper. He claims to have won over 3,500 fast draw trophies.[2][3]
Since taking up exhibition shooting, Bob Munden has given many demonstrations to audiences, once with John Satterwhite. Bob Munden has also given shooting demonstrations on television shows the world over, most notably featured in "Super Humans" on the History Channel, American Shooter, Shooting USA, Shooting USA's Impossible Shots and Ripley's Believe it or Not. Munden has also become a custom gunsmith.[4]
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Record controversy
The Guinness Book of World Records listed Bob Munden in the 1980 and previous editions as the "World's fastest gun",[5] but stopped publishing the record in later editions so that the book could be approved as a reference source for school libraries.[3] This led to controversy over the records that Munden claims to hold and have held in the past. Munden's critics have argued that his records are not sufficiently well documented to be valid, and that he currently holds no official fast draw world record. Fast Draw includes multiple events, each with its own world record. The record with the shortest time is single shot open freestyle (using a light-weight gun) held by Ernie Hill, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., with a recorded time of .208 seconds.[6] Munden has received skepticism mostly due to the absence of both written evidence of his records, and for the absence of his supposed 3,500 trophies.[2] After the advent of digital timers, the world records were reset because the older analog timers were less accurate. Munden claims to have held many of these older records, with a fastest Walk and Draw Level time of 0.15 seconds that he claims to be the fastest shot in history. In a video clip online he's heard telling the time to 1 3/4th hundreds of a second, that he shot during the opening of the Guinness World Record Museum in 1975 in the Empire State Building in NYC.[7]) According to the World Fast Draw Association, the official documentation of these older records has been lost, but in the vintage section of the film Bob Munden: Outrageous Shooting on DVD, Munden is seen setting one of his world records.
Stan Lee's Superhumans
At age 68 Bob Munden appeared in Stan Lee's Superhumans. In it, we find out his hand is withstanding 10 Gs of force (for comparison, Jet Pilots are trained to withstand 9 Gs). In a demo, using a Colt .45 single-action revolver, he shot 2 balloons six feet apart with two shots that sounded virtually like one.
Exhibition Shot: Splitting a Playing Card in Flight
"He (Bob Munden) stunned the End of Trail tournament crowd in Coto de Caza, California, on April 26, 1986 with this one. Before his attempt, Boyd David of EMF Distributors expressed his belief that this would be impossible to do. Munden told him that he not only could do it, but that he would do it with Boyd's gun. Boyd Davis is one of the creators of the fun End of Trail tournament and EMF is one of the primary sponsors. Munden borrowed Boyd's gun, a .45 Dakota single-action with a 4 3/4" barrel. On the fourth try, he split a card -- an eight of hearts. This has to be one of the greatest exhibition shots ever done."[8]
References
- ^ Bob Munden website biography. Retrieved on January 4, 2012.
- ^ a b Looney, Douglas S. (1989). "Just Call This A Draw". Sports Illustrated. http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1069253/index.htm. Retrieved 2001-10-21.
- ^ a b ""Records" by Bob Munden". http://bobmunden.com.
- ^ Taffin, John. "The Sixguns of Bob Munden". http://www.sixguns.com/range/munden.htm.
- ^ Guinness Book of World Records 1980. US edition. p. 625.
- ^ "Fast Draw World Records". http://www.fastdraw.org/wfda/wfd_records.html. Retrieved 2011-09-28.
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsU5AMxvlKg
- ^ "The World's Fastest Gun". http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1987-articles/.
External links
- Bob Munden's home page
- 1987 Guns Magazine Feature on Bob Munden
- Fastest Man with the Golden Guns: NRA National Firearms Museum
- Bob Munden Fastest Gunslinger ever Unbelievable
- Bob Munden on "Stan Lee's Superhumans"
- Bob Munden appears with other fine exhibition shooters on "Shooting USA's Impossible Shots" on the Outdoor Channel Wednesdays