Bob Munden's 0.015 Seconds

Bob Munden's 0.015 Seconds: The Fastest Gun Who Ever Lived

Dust swirled lazily over the shooting range in Butte, Montana, on a hot August day in 1987. Guinness World Records representatives were checking their chronographs and high-speed cameras for the fifth time. They had heard rumors about Bob Munden, "the fastest gunslinger in the world," but scientists are naturally skeptical.

Munden stood relaxed at the shooting range, wearing his characteristic white cowboy hat and with his custom-built Colt Single Action Army revolver in its holster. At 45 years old, he had already dominated the competitive fast-draw scene for over two decades, but this was different – a scientific attempt to document what many considered humanly impossible.

"Are you ready, Mr. Munden?" asked the Guinness representative, with a hint of doubt in his voice.

Munden nodded. "Ready when you are."

The task was simple but groundbreaking: Draw the weapon, fire one shot at the target, and return the weapon to its holster. Everything would be measured with high-speed cameras that could capture movements down to thousandths of a second.

The signal came. To the naked eye, it looked as if Munden barely moved before a bang confirmed that the shot had been fired. The Guinness officials stared at their instruments in disbelief.

"Can we... can we do it one more time?" asked the lead representative.

Munden smiled. "As many times as you want."

After five attempts, the result was undeniable: Bob Munden could draw his weapon, fire, and hit the target in 0.015 seconds. To put this in perspective: It takes a human eye between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds to blink. Munden could draw, aim, shoot, and hit the target several times faster than a blink.

To further demonstrate precision, Munden then performed his most impressive feat: He placed two balloons one meter apart and drew and shot both with two separate shots in less than half a second – so quickly that the audience heard it as a single shot.

A skeptical journalist asked how this was physically possible at all.

"It's about muscle memory and eliminating all unnecessary movements," explained Munden. "When I draw, I don't think. My body knows the movement so well that it performs it faster than my brain can perceive it."

Munden's achievements broke with traditional understanding of human reflexes and motor skills. Neurobiologists have since suggested that he had a rare combination of extraordinarily fast muscle fibers, exceptional eye-hand coordination, and decades of intensive training that had programmed his motor skills to a level few humans have ever achieved.

In 2012, when Bob Munden died of heart failure, Guinness World Records published their final assessment of him: "Probably the fastest human ever to draw and fire a weapon."