by Jack Bowman
I decided not to divulge the secrets of the bullet catch that I performed at the Pearl on March 12th, 2006. Fourteen people (magicians) have died trying to do the Bullet catch. I had worked on the traditional bullet catch for the last five years. I had modified it many times and finally went with this one because of the venue circumstances. If you want to see how most of the "Bullet Catches" are done type in Bullet Catch on one of the major search engines.
After the performance was over, Leigh Waltz, found the bullet that I had dropped on the floor and gave it to me. He asked if I needed the other one. I said there was only one. He said no there were two. Dave Rosenfield asked me after the performance what came out of the gun. I didn't understand what he meant. He meant what did I shoot out of the gun that I caught. I didn't tell him.
During the practice of January 26th, 2006 I had Sara Wion shoot the gun. Here are my notes from this practice. "She fired the gun at me and I could feel the hot powder hit my face. That was when I realized there is no safe bullet catch........I thought I had created a super safe one. I was wrong."
THINGS THAT CAN GO DEADLY WRONG ON THE BULLET CATCH, 7 January 2006
This is for a bullet catch where the bullet (lead ball) is never put into the barrel of the muzzleloader gun.
1. The ball could be small enough to drop in.
2. The ramrod could be left in the barrel.
3. Something could be in the barrel from a previous incident.
4. The (shooting) performer could put something in the barrel.
5. The distance to the performer could be too close and the performer could catch on fire.
6. The distance to the performer could be too close and the performer could be blinded and fall off the stage.
7. The performer could choke on the lead ball.
8. Someone in the audience could pull out a gun and say "Here, catch this" and shoot me.
Precautions for the Bullet Catch
In July of 2001 I made these precautions because when I mentioned it to Carrie Osborne (my fellow performer at that time). I said to her that I would have to trust her with my life. She commented, "You know that you can never trust anyone." She added that she "Would be known as the one that killed Jack Bowman". I assumed that she was saying this in fun but the fact that she even thought of it surprised me and I decided I should take precautions.
1. Video tape each performance and practice with emphasis (meaning zooming in on) on the bullet marking to loading. Also continue to zoom in on the gun once it is loaded until the bullet is fired.
2. Hit the colored lead bullets in a vice (indicate that this is the distortion caused by the shot) with a hammer. This will expand the bullets in diameter and not allow them to be inserted into the barrel. They perhaps could be stuck into the front of the barrel but no farther down.
3. Never tell the shooter the proper caliber of the gun. For example if the gun is .32 caliber tell them it is .38 and if it is 44/40 then tell them it is .45 caliber. In this way if the shooter buys a bullet it will not fit the gun.
4. Never give the shooter a bullet with a complete load like real lead, real powder and real firing cap. In fact the shooter should never have access to a real bullet.
5. Always wear blindfold with safety glasses built in during the shoot.