Bob Munden

Bob Munden

Bob Munden at the NRA Whittington Center in 2006
Born Robert Munden
(1942-02-08)February 8, 1942
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Died December 10, 2012(2012-12-10) (aged 70)
Butte, Montana, United States
Occupation Competitive shooter
Spouse(s) Becky Munden

Bob Munden (February 8, 1942 – December 10, 2012), was a world-renowned exhibition shooter with handguns, rifles and shotguns, 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," bestowed by "Guinness World Records."

Bob Munden was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States,[1] and started his shooting career at age 11 out West in California.[2] 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 claimed to have won over 3,500 fast draw trophies.[3][4]

After taking up exhibition shooting, Bob Munden gave many demonstrations to audiences, once with John Satterwhite. Munden also gave shooting demonstrations on television shows the world over, including "Super Humans" on the History Channel, American Shooter, Shooting USA, Shooting USA's Impossible Shots and Ripley's Believe It or Not. Munden was also a custom gunsmith.[5]

Record Controversy

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Bob Munden in the 1980 and previous editions as the "World's fastest gun",[6] but stopped publishing the record in later editions so that the book could be approved as a reference source for school libraries.[4] This led to controversy over the records that Munden claimed 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.[7] 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.[3] After the advent of digital timers, the world records were reset because the older analog timers were less accurate. Munden claimed to have held many of these older records, with a fastest Walk and Draw Level time of 0.15 seconds that he claimed was 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.[8]) 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, it was found out that his hand is withstanding 10 Gs of force when his weapon is drawn. In a demo, using a Colt .45 single-action revolver, he shot two balloons eight feet apart in less than a tenth of second.

Death

According to his wife Becky, Bob started suffering chest pains while driving home to Butte from a Missoula hospital after receiving treatment for a mild heart attack. Miles from a hospital, he told his wife to keep driving before dying shortly afterward.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Bob Munden website biography. Retrieved on January 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ The Telegraph
  3. 1 2 Looney, Douglas S. (1989). "Just Call This A Draw". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2001-10-21.
  4. 1 2 ""Records" by Bob Munden".
  5. ↑ Taffin, John. "The Sixguns of Bob Munden".
  6. ↑ Guinness Book of World Records 1980. US edition. p. 625.
  7. ↑ "Fast Draw World Records". Retrieved 2011-09-28.
  8. ↑ Bob Munden Fastest Gunslinger ever Unbelievable on YouTube
  9. ↑ "Bob Munden Has Died".

External links

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