Robert William Munden, Jr (February 8, 1942 – December 10, 2012) was an American exhibition shooter who performed with handguns, rifles and shotguns. He is best known for holding 18 world records in the sport of

Fast Draw Fast draw, also known as quick draw, is the ability to quickly draw a handgun and accurately fire it upon a target in the process. This skill was made popular by romanticized depictions of gunslingers in the Western genre, which in turn were insp ...

and having the title "Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived" bestowed upon him by Guinness World Records. 2005 LiveAmmoShow SASS EOT NewMexico

Munden was born in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, and started his shooting career at age 11 in Southern California. Beginning in high school, Bob competed in Jeff Cooper's Big Bear "Leatherslaps" shooting competitions with live ammunition at

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in the 1950s. The Leatherslaps eventually became the South Western Combat Pistol League (SWCPL). When Munden was 16, 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. After taking up exhibition shooting, Munden gave many demonstrations to audiences across the country, once with John Satterwhite. Munden also gave shooting demonstrations on television shows the world over, including ''

Stan Lee's Superhumans ''Stan Lee's Superhumans'' is a documentary television series that debuted from August 5, 2010 to September 17, 2014 on History. It is hosted by Marvel comic book superhero creator Stan Lee and follows contortionist Daniel Browning Smith, "th ...

'' on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

, on American Shooter, Shooting USA, Shooting USA's Impossible Shots and ''

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'' among others. Munden was also a custom gunsmith.

Record controversy

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Bob Munden in the 1980 and previous editions as the “Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived", but they discontinued publishing Munden records in later editions so that the book could be approved as a reference source for school libraries. This led to controversy among younger shooters over the records Munden claimed to hold. 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. 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.

''Stan Lee's Superhumans''

At age 68 Bob Munden appeared in ''

''. 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 six feet apart in less than a tenth of a second.

Death

According to his wife Becky, Bob started suffering chest pains while driving home to

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from a

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hospital after receiving treatment for a mild heart attack. Miles from a hospital, he told his wife to keep driving before dying shortly afterward.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munden, Bob 1942 births 2012 deaths American male sport shooters World record holders in shooting Sportspeople from Kansas City, Missouri Gunsmiths Ripley's Believe It or Not!