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Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:42 am
by goose
The youngest and I were watching TV last night. The show was about a magician trying to duplicate the famous "bullet catch" trick. First of all, the entire premise is a bit laughable. !BUT! my main point is that my son caught the hack/slight-of-hand in the trick. I was pretty proud of him. For not only understanding how the magazine fed semi-auto works, but for understanding how it relates to safety.

Short story (with a Glock 19):
cameras rolling "continuous" filming
1) take a shot at a vase to show how powerful the bullets are.
2) eject the magazine and mark the first bullet in the magazine.
3) insert magazine and shoot magician in the mouth.
4) magician falls to ground, pandamonium ensues, in the rush of "helpers" and blurred camera shots someone finds the marked bullet on the ground.

It is sad that something so simple makes this trick seem like a good one. IMO it was a pretty lame one. Penn and Teller's is much better.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:52 am
by howdy
I wonder how many Darwin candidates will not understand the theory of this trick and try to duplicate it? :???:

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:16 am
by Dave2
goose wrote:!BUT! my main point is that my son caught the hack/slight-of-hand in the trick. I was pretty proud of him. For not only understanding how the magazine fed semi-auto works, [...]

Short story (with a Glock 19):
cameras rolling "continuous" filming
1) take a shot at a vase to show how powerful the bullets are.
2) eject the magazine and mark the first bullet in the magazine.
3) insert magazine and shoot magician in the mouth.
4) magician falls to ground, pandamonium ensues, in the rush of "helpers" and blurred camera shots someone finds the marked bullet on the ground.
They didn't rack the slide after reinserting the magazine?

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:19 am
by goose
Dave2 wrote:
goose wrote:!BUT! my main point is that my son caught the hack/slight-of-hand in the trick. I was pretty proud of him. For not only understanding how the magazine fed semi-auto works, [...]

Short story (with a Glock 19):
cameras rolling "continuous" filming
1) take a shot at a vase to show how powerful the bullets are.
2) eject the magazine and mark the first bullet in the magazine.
3) insert magazine and shoot magician in the mouth.
4) magician falls to ground, pandamonium ensues, in the rush of "helpers" and blurred camera shots someone finds the marked bullet on the ground.
They didn't rack the slide after reinserting the magazine?
No need (for their purposes). There was already a "bull-ette" loaded after the first shot at the vase.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:08 am
by VoiceofReason
I saw one that was supposed to be real.

The magician’s assistant fired a scoped .22 from a bench rest into a metal cup the magician held in his mouth.

I think it's possible.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 11:12 am
by Jaguar
Yep, I saw the Glock shot a while back. I caught the trick but had to rewind to show my wife and son. They never put the marked round in the chamber.

I'm sure he just dropped the magazine, pulled the bullet out of the case (not crimped I'm sure) and tossed it into the commotion.

The shattering glass in front of the magician can be caused by the frame and triggered by the sound of the gun, and it comes in handy stopping any flying powder. It would have been better if it just popped a hole in the glass like a shot windshield, but probably harder to make that look real.

Whatever you do, don’t try this at home. :nono:


ETA: I like the 50 minutes lead up to the trick talking about everyone who died performing the trick. :roll:

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:24 pm
by goose
Jaguar wrote:ETA: I like the 50 minutes lead up to the trick talking about everyone who died performing the trick. :roll:
I thought the same thing. How much longer can we hype this thing? I was pretty disappointed at the end. I didn't think they tried very hard.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
by 92f-fan
VoiceofReason wrote:I saw one that was supposed to be real.

The magician’s assistant fired a scoped .22 from a bench rest into a metal cup the magician held in his mouth.

I think it's possible.
Funny

THE "Voice of reason " thinks its possible to catch a bullet in your teeth...
Just sounds funny when I read it ...

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:03 pm
by RoyGBiv
howdy wrote:I wonder how many Darwin candidates will not understand the theory of this trick and try to duplicate it? :???:
All of them, I hope. :mrgreen:

(Kidding, of course)

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:22 pm
by Abraham
So-called magic tricks bore me.

Of course, I'm indifferent to spectator sports in general - with one exception - boxing.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:00 pm
by jimlongley
A whole bunch of years ago that one was on one of the tv shows (Ed Sullivan, Gary Moore, something like that, so I am dating myself) and they "fired the bullet" from a revolver through a plastic sheet between the gun and the magician, and then ran a ribbon through the hole in the plastic to prove it had been shot through. Being by nature a suspicious child, I was watching carefully as the cameras panned and dollied (not on tape, live) and at one point you could catch a very faint flash from the hole in the plastic BEFORE the shot was fired.

To me the mystery was how they were able to substitute the plastic with the hole in it for the sheet that the host examined just seconds before, everything else could be accounted for without much effort.

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:18 pm
by VoiceofReason
92f-fan wrote:
VoiceofReason wrote:I saw one that was supposed to be real.

The magician’s assistant fired a scoped .22 from a bench rest into a metal cup the magician held in his mouth.

I think it's possible.
Funny

THE "Voice of reason " thinks its possible to catch a bullet in your teeth...
Just sounds funny when I read it ...
Not in the teeth. It was supposedly in a metal cup the guy held in his mouth with a 22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngu5e_wS26k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:30 pm
by VoiceofReason
92f-fan wrote:
VoiceofReason wrote:I saw one that was supposed to be real.

The magician’s assistant fired a scoped .22 from a bench rest into a metal cup the magician held in his mouth.

I think it's possible.
Funny

THE "Voice of reason " thinks its possible to catch a bullet in your teeth...
Just sounds funny when I read it ...
OK, lets hear it. ;-)

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:56 pm
by Robert*PPS
Yeah I saw this one the other day I think. Did it happen in some city handgun range, and they rushed everybody out afterward, then showed Captain Goober (or whatever his name is) in the hospital with a giant bruise on his shoulder? I rewinded it, and explained it to my wife, who then said, "what a lame trick..."

Re: Magician's "Bullet Catch" on TV

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:16 pm
by VoiceofReason
Robert*PPS wrote:Yeah I saw this one the other day I think. Did it happen in some city handgun range, and they rushed everybody out afterward, then showed Captain Goober (or whatever his name is) in the hospital with a giant bruise on his shoulder? I rewinded it, and explained it to my wife, who then said, "what a lame trick..."
I don't think we are talking about the same video. Have a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngu5e_wS26k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; The high speed sure makes it look real.