Bob Munden: “The Fastest Gun Who Ever Lived”

And we continue with our American Stories. We’ve all heard of gunslingers: While Bill Hiccock, Doc Holliday, and Billy the Kid, these three quick-draw legends have nothing on the guy you are about to meet. Here’s Greg Hengler with the story.

We all know the classic cowboy film story where the bad guy shows up in town and picks a fight with the good guy. Well, you wouldn’t want to pick a gunfight with the good guy you’re about to meet. After all, if gunslinger Bob Mundon would have existed in the Wild West, he would have simply been called Death. Bob Mundon is one of the great characters in all the shooting sports. If you don’t believe me, just ask him.

“I’m not perfect. Like I tell people all the time in jest, ‘I’m not perfect. I’m just the closest thing you’re going to get to it now.’ That’s what I tell them, you know. And they all jest, of course, and I have fun with it.”

All jokes aside, Bob is the most decorated fast-draw competitor of all time, a feat that earned him the title “the fastest gun who ever lived.” It takes a human three-tenths of a second to blink. Bob can draw, cock, fire from his hip—it’s called instinctive shooting—and reholster faster than an eye can blink.

I first realized I was—I had this ability—when I first started shooting competition on electronic timers. The speed of my draw to the mechanics (so, drawing and firing the gun) is a one in three-quarters one hundreds of one second, or less than one-half of one-half of one-tenth of one second, or just fast—whatever’s easy for you to say.

Here’s Bob being interviewed at one of his fast-draw competitions in 1986.

You were known as one of the fastest gunslingers in the world.

You know, well, I’m listed in, again, this book of World Record: just “the fastest man with the gun who ever lived.” Oh, there are eighteen world records you can hold in this sport. I hold all eighteen and have since 1960. Now, I’ve won three thousand five hundred trollies, eight hundred major championships as well.

Okay, now, how do you compare to some of the, you know, the old Wild West heroes that we hear about and see on movies and stuff?

Like that.

And, you know, how they used to have like duels and draw against each other?

And how did Bill Hiccock die?

I think they were shut in the back.

That’s the way they all die. I’ve taken what they’ve built—the movies I’ve created—and I’ve built the show around it, and I have pushed it. We’ve made a science of it. Fast Draw is the fastest thing a human being does. Nobody does anything faster than what I do with guns.

Can you give it a comparison to something that would come close?

But it’s not as fast—speed of light, which is far beyond it. Right. There is nothing next to it. Now, you’re saying a way you’re talking about… So, well, I mean, and then I have to show you.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the fastest gun in the world right here.

Wow, Bob is the fastest gunslinger who ever lived. But what makes him even more superhuman is his incredible accuracy at these phenomenal speeds. His ability can only truly be appreciated using the fastest technology in the world. In 2010, the sixty-eight-year-old London was tested by sports physiologist David Sandler, who is an expert in human movement. Here’s David.

We have a couple different kinds of accelerometers that we’re going to place on Bob’s hand, and so, as Bob goes through the range of motion, we’re going to pick up the actual acceleration of his hand and be able to determine velocity from that. We have the ability to measure in thousands of a second, so hopefully we can, we can catch what’s happening. You know, the human eye can’t keep up with anything like that. No way! Ready and three, two, one, go! Wow! Wow! That was incredible. So, what’s happening is, your hand—when you do that “pp”—the max acceleration peak registers up here. You reach nearly ten G of acceleration with your hand. Okay, what that means in normal language is: it’s incredibly fast.

G stands for the force of gravity. On Earth, fighter pilots are tested to withstand a maximum of nine G’s, but Bob’s muscles for a fraction of a second are generating ten G’s of force. But more incredibly, the results show that Bob can draw, cock, fire, and rehold his gun faster than the reaction time in the average human brain. But Bob wants to prove he’s not only superhuman with his speed, but also with his accuracy. He sets up two targets six feet apart and attempts to hit both faster than the blink of an eye. Listen closely. He does it so quickly that he will not be able to hear two distinctive shots.

“Yeah, I’m gonna bring the gun up, fire two shots, one for each target, as fast as they can. And the gun must be cocked and fired for each shot. Yeah, so you’ve got to cock it, bang! Cock it, and again, cock it, and bang! Yeah.”

That was absolutely incredible.

He just shot.

Cretible! Two bullets, and I heard one shot, and that was it.

Did you hear another one?

I only heard one shot. That is amazing. That is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like this. Two shots, and under a tenth of a second! Remarkable feat of dexterity and, and eye control. Just incredible. I mean, the bottom line is: he exceeds what every other human on this planet can do.

But Bob doesn’t work as a solo act. Wherever he is, so is his wife, Becky—also a world champion shooter. The two are married in 1964 after a three-month courtship.

My life has revolved around my wife—my wife, Becky. I don’t do anything without her, and I can’t, can’t. I don’t even want to do anything without her.

After winning every Fast Draw competition multiple times, Bob sought out new challenges. So, Bob and Becky began performing together beginning in 1968, emphasizing the importance of gun safety. Here’s Becky remembering the early days when they first started to tour with their Fast Draw Trick Shot Show.

Started traveling, performing in 1969, so it’s been quite a few years. And we started out in a station wagon, and we had our two daughters with us—four years old and two years old—and we put them in the back with their toys, and we had all of our equipment in the middle seat, you know. And then we were in the front, and we did school assembly programs.

The Londons have performed in convention centers, malls, and car dealerships.

We’ve done shows at amusement parks in New Jersey and New York. And they had no idea that you could shoot a gun and not kill somebody. I mean, really, it’s astounding; but they’re out there. We’re proud that we can represent the shooting sports in our own way and maybe introduce them to people that don’t even know they’re out there.

After years of traveling, the Londons spend less time on the road and more time in their Butte, Montana, home. This open land is the perfect place for the California natives to do what they do well.

First of all, we have the free him to do what we do. There’s nobody saying, “Well, you can’t do this, can’t do that,” California. It’s not illegal. It cost you. As an example, whether…

It’s trick shooting or gunslinging, Bob learned early on he would need the right equipment to keep up with his talents. Bob would get this equipment by building it himself: custom-made cold forty-five single-action revolvers. This skill would become Bob’s second career.

So, through the process of trial and error and changing the gun around—the lock system, and so on—then I learned how to build guns for my own purpose first, and then other people started asking to do their guns because my guns were so efficient.

Those other people include fellow shooters and celebrities like Kurt Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Randy Travis. Until his death from a heart attack on December 10, 2012, seventy-year-old Bob Mundon was in his shop on a regular basis doing action and trigger work on single-actions, Smith and Wesson, double-actions, and bon derringers. A public celebration at Butte Gun Club for Bob Munden took place on Saturday, June 12, 2013. A six-gun salute began at high noon, in keeping with the tradition in Western movies, under a beautiful sky. Bob’s wife of almost fifty years started things off by stepping up to the firing line and fanning off five rounds. Family members and special guests used single-action revolvers to complete the seventy-shot salute, one for every year of Bob’s life.

And a terrific job on the production by Greg Hengler and a special thanks to Becky Mundon for providing the footage for her husband’s story. To find out more about Bob and his legacy, go to BobMundon.com. That’s BobMunden.com. My goodness, nine G’s topped by ten! And that’s what Air Force pilots have to deal with, his nine G’s. And here’s one human being with the acceleration of that draw in his hand, pulling ten G’s, and accurate at that, too. And of course, in 1969, he does what so many Americans do: he lives the American Dream. He pursues his interest, and that is to go around the country doing gun shows and doing what he does with his wife and family packed in a station wagon, presenting the shooting life to American across this country. Up until his death, he did what he loved, and what a way to go—working on his guns in his shop. The story of Bob Mundon, and so much more, here on our American Stories.