Fast Draw - Process

Process

In Open Class, or "traditional" fast draw competition, shooters must start with the gun holstered, and their hands not touching the gun, as opposed to the newer sport of Cowboy Fast Draw, where the competitors start with their hand on the gun. A signal, usually both audible and visible, signals the shooter to fire. A timer is started when the signal is given. The shooter fires at either a metal plate (for wax bullets) or a balloon (for blanks). The timer is rigged to stop on the sound of the wax bullet hitting the plate, or the balloon popping. Different types of matches use one or more targets, and the shooter can fire from a standing position, or while walking towards or backing away from the target(s).

Fast draw is one of the fastest sports. Every time is measured under one second, from the signal to draw to when the timer is stopped. The current World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) record for Open Class Fast Draw in an event called Standing Balloons is .208 seconds - and that includes the time it takes to react, draw, fire and pop a balloon target at eight feet away. A world class competitor can draw and fire a shot in under half a second. Given that the average human reaction time is around 0.2 to 0.25 seconds, the round is over before most people can react. The reaction times of the best fast draw shooters is 0.145 seconds, which means that the gun is cocked, drawn, aimed (from the hip), and fired in just over 0.06 seconds. To establish a World Fast Draw Association record, a second shot must be fired in the same competition that is no more than 0.03 seconds slower than the first; this is intended to prevent a shot that anticipates the start signal from setting a record. In competitions where two rounds must be fired, at separate targets, less than 0.10 seconds separate the shots.

Bob Munden, regarded as the fastest man with a gun ever, is a well-known exhibition shooter who can draw, fire, break a balloon target with a blank using a standard weight single-action revolver and return his gun to his holster in the blink of an eye. On the DVD "Outrageous Shooting," Munden was filmed shooting .16 of a second in an event called Walk and Draw Level.