Lonestar's blog: "The fast draw"

Follow this link to watch Alanna Blinn. Bob Munden look out! Shes damn fast with a gun. http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?p=alanna+blinn&ei=UTF-8&oid=c53f8226046d9de8&rurl=www.fastdraw.org&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fuk.video.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dalanna%2Bblinn%26ei%3DUTF-8&fr=&.fdbk=rev:0

THE SIXGUNS OF BOB MUNDEN He stands with his gun hand poised slightly above the smooth one piece ivory grips of his holstered .45 Colt Single Action. His gloved left hand is ready to slap the hammer back as the .45 is drawn, that is to say fan the hammer of the heavily modified Colt. You, having accepted the challenge to see the draw as it is made, are almost as tense as he is. Then it happens. You don't see it. All you see is the muzzle flash as the gun is fired. Why didn't you see the draw? Certainly your eye can move faster than the human hand! Not so. It takes fifteen one hundredth's of a second to blink and Bob Munden, the Fastest Man Who Ever Lived, has just drawn and fired a Colt Single Action .45 four and three-quarter inch barreled gunfighter's favorite sixgun in less than two one hundredths of a second, .0175 seconds to be exact. You no longer doubt that this truly is the fastest man who ever lived! Now he readies to shoot not one but two shots and hit two balloons placed six feet apart. This time all you have to do is count two distinct shots. You see that there are indeed two rounds, and only two rounds, in the Colt Single Action and you are ready. You will not be fooled. The hand blurs, the gun fires once and two balloons break. "But he only fired once!" you protest. The loading gate is opened the cylinder is rotated and there you see, not one, but two fired primers and two shots have been fired. It happened so fast it was impossible for the human mind to detect two separate shots. Only by looking at a slowed down videotape is it possible to see the hammer fanned first by the thumb and then the little finger of the left hand of Bob Munden, the Fastest Man Who Ever Lived! It doesn't make any difference how many shots are selected. It is impossible to count them. For the skeptics, the sixgun is loaded with six rounds. The Colt is thumb cocked in the leather for the first shot, fired by the trigger which is then held back as the thumb and little finger slap the hammer for shots two and three, the Colt is then thumb cocked again for shot number four and the thumb and little finger then fan the last two shots and it all happens so fast no one is willing to swear there were indeed six shots fired until the loading gate is opened and six empties are removed. Bob Munden is a hired gun. He earns his living putting on fast draw demonstrations and has been doing it a long time as our paths first crossed in 1969 as he and his beautiful wife Becky did a non-politically correct shooting demonstration at our local junior high school. Munden is the winner of 3,500 plus trophies and 800 major championships. He is proud of the fact that he is the only one to ever win the Northern California, Southern California and Colorado State Championships all in the same year and he has done it seven times. Lest you think Munden is simply a blank popper, meet him on yonder range and watch him perform many of the same demonstrations with live ammunition and others such as splitting a playing card lengthwise with a bullet first as the card is placed in a holder and then as the card is thrown and hit in the air and split. Thrown silver dollars, fifty cent pieces, even dimes are not safe from Munden's bullets. Shooting upside down, sideways, with mirrors are all part of Munden's repertoire. Let me interject here as Munden would also that fast draw with a single action should never ever be attempted with live ammunition. A slip of the hand or fingers and the gun fires in the holster and a .45 caliber bullet down the leg is a very serious matter. DON'T TRY IT! A more serious condition could be the one in which the front of the cocked sixgun catches on the front of the holster in a maximum speed draw and the gun is torn from the hand. Place the picture in your mind of a cocked single action spinning through the air landing who knows where and firing as it hits. DON'T TRY IT!

Fast draw champ Blinn goes out with a bang By Sarah Junkin The Eagle Though she captured her sport’s top two titles this year, fast draw fans won’t get to see Bearspaw’s Alanna Blinn compete again for at least a couple of years. Blinn, 20, who won the Canadian World Championships in Cochrane Sept. 3-5, and the National World Fast Draw Championships in Cripple Creek, Colorado Oct. 1-2, said she’s decided to take a break to concentrate on her studies. “I’m taking two years off because I’m in the cinema, stage, radio and television program at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology),” she said. “We’ll see where life heads, but I couldn’t be focussed enough if I was trying to do it all.” Blinn beat out 90 top shooters at the National Worlds to win the title she’s held at least three other times before. “I’ve won it before but it’s really hard to keep it because it’s the main one that everyone wants so there’s a lot trying to take it away from me,” she said. Blinn’s fast draw abilities have led to appearances on a number of television shows, and it was during the taping of a local news presentation that she learned of the SAIT program. “I was talking to a camera guy and he told me about the SAIT program,” she said adding though she’s also done some acting, she’s more interested in the directing and producing aspects of television work. “There’s so much more you can do with it,” she said. But Blinn admits she’s going to miss the crack and smoke of the fast draw circuit. “I do love it, but I’ve got to get my head on straight.”

Alanna Blinn The fastest women alive! ST. ALBERT - It was a wet and wild time in St. Albert on Saturday, as the 42nd annual Rainmaker Rodeo lived up to its name. Just minutes before the main rodeo event was set to begin, the sky opened up and the mud soon started to develop. The ensuing slop led to slippery footing for the animals and some quick exits for the cowboys. "Thankfully, the only thing injured (because of the rain) was a little cowboy pride," said Jim Oscroft, the event chair. Alanna Blinn made sure to keep her powder dry during the brief rainstorm so she could perform during intermission. The 21-year-old is world champion in women's fast-draw shooting. How long would it take you to whip your gun from its holster, cock the hammer back and fire? Two seconds? One second? Even at half a second, you'd still be left with a smoking hole in your chest if you pulled pistols against Blinn. Her world-record time is 0.26 of a second. Only a handful of male fast-draw competitors have matched her time. With few duels being fought these day, Blinn perfects her craft against less dangerous targets -- the Alberta native showed off her skills for the crowd by shooting at balloons. Blinn is the feature performer of the Bearpaw Gunslingers Wild West Show, back at the Rainmaker for a second year. The group performs staged gunfights around the fairgrounds and midway. This year it has also set up a booth where budding gunfighters can compete using wax bullets and single-action revolvers to see who has the fastest gun. Live music and a dirt-bike jumping exhibition are also part of this year's event, but the chuckwagon races were canceled because of the rain.

The world record for drawing and firing a single-action revolver using a 'traditional' style of draw in an Index contest in the 8' Standing Blank event was set during the 2000 Canadian Championships in Cochrane, Alberta by Howard Darby. It should be remembered that the time of 0.252 included a reaction time of approximately 0.145 before the actual draw was initiated. This shooter was using one of the many fanning styles of draw to accomplish this record. 0.000 - 0.145 seconds Waiting for the light - In self testing, this shooter has determined that it takes him an average of 145/1000ths of a second to react to the light. The gun hand and 'fanning' hand are close to the gun prior to the light signal (a hand-judge sits behind the shooter to make sure that no contact is made prior to the signal). Notice that the index finger on the gun hand is outside the trigger guard, but positioned to enter once the light comes on. This shooter utilizes the "slap-cocking" method. In this draw the gun is cocked by the fanning hand as the gun is being drawn from the holster. The index finger then pulls the trigger as the gun comes in line with the target. 0.145 - 0.190 seconds Starting the draw - The fanning hand has been raked across the hammer and is in the final stages of bringing it to full-cock. The gun hand has closed around the gun and is starting the draw. 0.191 - 0.240 seconds Bringing the gun in-line - The gun is now fully-cocked and ready to fire. The wrist of the gun hand starts to pivot to bring the gun in-line with the target. The index finger is entering the trigger guard in preparation for pulling the trigger. 0.241 - 0.252 seconds Firing - The trigger has been pulled, the hammer has fallen, detonating the shell and firing grains of black powder at the balloon target. As the balloon breaks it releases a micro-switch causing the clock to stop. Note: The shot fired during the filming of this sequence hit low on the target. Unfortunately, no other sequence was available, but these pictures give you a good idea as to what's involved in a rapid fanning draw. 0.252 seconds A New World Record! Remember, this time includes a reaction time of approximately 0.145 of a second. This means that the actual draw time was 0.107 seconds!! Note: A shot that sets a new world record time must be backed-up by another shot in the same round of shooting that is within three hundredth of a second of that new record. Otherwise the shot is ruled an anticipation of the light. Other Fanning Styles - The style demonstrated above is one of the fastest fanning styles used in Fast Draw, but is by no means the only one. The "up fan" is a style where the shooter brings the gun straight up from the holster. Optimally the shooter locks the gun in place about ten to twelve inches above the holster boot, then fans off the shot just as the gun come in line with the target. Normally in this draw the shooter's index finger pulls the trigger as soon as the gun hand contacts the gun, then the hammer is fanned when the the gun comes in line with the target. This draw is slightly slower than the "slap cock" style due to the extra distance the gun must travel. The "ram fan" is a style where the gun is rammed towards the target and the fanning hand contacts the hammer during the forward motion of the gun. The hand is often position out front of the shooter, about where the gun and hand would meet. Again, this draw is slower than either of the other two styles due to the extra travel time of the gun. When a "ram fan" has an excessive forward motion (often firing the gun with arm extended fully forward) it is called a "poke fan". Lastly, there is a fanning style called the "twist fan". Unlike the draws mentioned above, this can only be used in an Open style contest (please see the classification page for more details). During the twist fan the gun is normally placed in the holster laying on its side, or at least on an angle. During the drawing of the gun the wrist twists to turn the gun even further on its side, while the hip is twisted to move the holster boot out from under the gun. During this draw the gun literally pops out of the holster. Of course, the fanning hand is cocking the hammer while the gun is being drawn. Normally this draw is so fast that the trigger can be pulled as soon as the hand comes in contact with the gun, and the hammer can be cocked as fast as the other hand can fan it (no delay of the trigger finger or fanning hand is required). The twist fan is the fastest method of drawing and firing a single-action revolver, but is not utilized very much since most contest are Traditional style.