BULLET CATCH V von Mikhail Shmidt – Trick

I had been anticipating purchasing the Bullet catch v for quite some time.
After almost 12 month I finally decided to make the purchase with thought of including this piece into my upcoming stage show.

On receiving my order my initial reaction was wow this is alot smaller than I initially thought.

The main wooden box measures 24.5cm wide. 12.5cm deep and 9cm high.
Little larger than that of a brick of cards.

On opening the case everything is well presented with a purple silk loose lining covering I presume protective foam.

There is a tutorial/warning card.

Then I noticed the goggles that look great are actually made from cheap plastic, of which I've seen similar in fancy dress shops for only a few pounds.

The Tin in which the Ball bearings are held is a pill box with three separate components with only 9 ball bearings in each. 27 ball bearings total.
Due to the size of the dividers and the very small size of the ball bearings it is tricky to remove a single ball bearing easily.

Within the tutorial provided and also all the promo videos it is said to have a spectator sign/initial one of these balls yes the balls provided are extremely small to do this.

Also on the provided tutorial video it states the Ball bearings measure 8mm this is not true.
As I purchased a bag of 8mm ball bearing as to fill and use as replacements and these are almost twice the size. These will not work with the gimmick or the size of the device at all.

The measurements of the provided balls are only 6mm. AND MUST BE MAGNETIC.

The mini cannon itself although small is nicely machined.

It is said that fuse wire or flash paper can be used to ignight the item.
I have been able to obtain 2mm fuse which with a little force only just fits into the cannon as required. Anything larger than this will be too large.

With using fuse and or flash products the cannon will require cleaning after each use to reduce a build up. This is not covered within the tutorial.

The tutorial is easily understood and well recorded. However there are some details that I feel should have been covered that were not.

Overall due to the item being a lot small than initially thought it will be difficult to perform this on a large theatre stage without additional support of a camera etc. Also due to the required size of such small ball bearings it will be very difficult for a spectator to initial or write anything on these properly.

A further point I would like to make is that within the tutorial is that within the performance and handling, the box itself is used to hold and hide certain things, however the lid of the box opens 180° rather than 90°, meaning that when the box is open everything is fully on show. This could be easily fixed with a small ribbon or chain affixed to one side of the box, however this is not in place when you purchase the item.

Overall a great item, however it's too large for close-up table hopping performances and potentially too small for stage shows (without the use of cameras).

Small platform stages might be fine depending on size of the audience etc.