"It may not look like it, but we're professionals." "Do us a favor..." "Don't try this at home!" "Whoa!" "Narrator:" "On this episode of "Mythbusters,"" "Adam and Jamie come out all guns blazing..." "It's still hot." "...as they find out if a freakish 3-way ricochet..." "It just went shotgun." "...could result in the shooter shooting himself." "And I see a hole in me." "Then Tory, Grant, and Jessi turn lumberjack..." "Maybe we should've yelled "timber."" "...testing the myth that a conifer could be used as a living catapult..." "Jessi:" "Good luck, Buster!" "You're our only hope." "To fling an infected corpse up and over a castle wall." "Hyah!" "Whoa!" "Who are the Mythbusters?" " Adam Savage..." " Here comes chaos." "...and Jamie Hyneman." "We're gonna have an adventure." "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "Joining them Kari Byron..." "Right tool for the job." "...Tory Belleci..." "Okay, you want to play rough, little gopher." "...Grant Imahara..." "Good to go." "...and featuring Jessi Combs." "Oh, it's awesome!" "They don't just tell the myths." "They put them to the test." "To kick-start the first myth, Adam decides on a field trip." "They told me you were over here doing research." "Looks to me like you're playing pool." "I'm doing both." "I've got our next story." "It's a shooting myth from our gun-toting fans, and allow me to demonstrate." "Let's say this red ball represents our shooter." "Let's say the cue ball here represents the bullet from his gun." "The myth is that our shooter can fire a bullet and can bounce off one, two, three surfaces and come back and kill the shooter." "Well, that'd ruin your day." "I know." "Let's test it." "Okay." "The myth takes place in a half-built skyscraper." "It's a pin-up parable for poetic justice." "One angry shot at just the wrong angle misses the target, ricochets off three steel beams, and returns to the shooter in less than a heartbeat." "Aah!" "So how do you want to start this one?" "Well, I figure we need to start with some kind of a controlled situation, you know, a bench test." "Well, to my mind, that just means we set up three adjustable steel plates probably in our bunker, fire a gun into them, and see if it ricochets off all three plates and kills its shooter." "Works for me." "All right." "You ready to let all hell break loose in here?" " Yep." " [Chuckles]" "From bare bunker to ballistic death trap, the transformation is fast and efficient." "Three steel plates in three vises and one .45 caliber pistol, and what we've got here is pretty much the bench test setting up the circumstances of this myth in which this pistol will release its bullet, firing it into plate number one," "where it will reflect off, in theory at least, at a 90-degree angle into plate number two, doing the same to plate number three and hopefully coming all the way back around to where it started, potentially killing its shooter." "Now, to make sure that everything's set up nice and jake," "I'm gonna use some mirrors and a laser." "Narrator:" "With the help of predictive technology, they're doing Pythagoras proud." "The final angle won't quite make a perfect diamond, but there's method behind this deliberate misdeflection." "Yeah, it brings the path of the bullet back here so that we hopefully don't hit the gun." " Okay." " I don't want to hurt it." "Adam has no such concerns about punching a hole in his partner in crime." "I brought some motivation for our gun." "I brought a shooter." "I look bad-ass." "[Laughing] Yeah." "I figure we put him right here, if there's any meat on the bones of this, he's gonna end up with a bullet hole in him." "Okay." "Adam:" "What we've got set up inside the bunker right now is a really idealized situation." "In actuality," "I'm not so sure it's gonna make it perfectly all the way through." "I don't know." "I've seen a lot about bullets when they hit metal objects, and I'm expecting some spatter." "Narrator:" "Adam puts paper to steel to help mark the points of impact." "When he's done," "Jamie carefully loads the weapon." "Bunker's hot." "And they're ready to shoot with intent to kill dirty Jamie." "This is ricocheting bullet." "Ideal scenario." "In 3... 2... 1." "I only see one plate with a mark on it." "Second plate doesn't have anything." "Well, that's interesting, isn't it?" "On closer inspection, that turns out to be an understatement." "[Laughs]" "I can already see what's going on here." "Look at the back wall." "Yeah, all right along here, it's spread out almost four feet." "So much for, like, dink, dink, dink." "It just went shotgun." "It looks like the lead bullet shattered, and the high-speed replay confirms their consternation." "Well, that didn't work." "There's your problem." "That bullet came in and it just kind of laid flat right along the plate." "It did." "It was so beautiful." "It followed the line just perfectly." "The fire behind it just gorgeous, and then pbht!" "Yeah, there's got to be a bullet that holds together better than that." "Yeah, I think so." "Time to dip into Jamie's private stash." "Jamie:" "Well, lead didn't do it." "So, this time around, we're gonna use full metal-jacketed bullets." "That means they're covered with copper everywhere except for the bottom." "I think the fact that this thing is encased in metal, that it's not just raw lead, means that we are gonna see a better bounce from this." "It might not be the bounce that we were hoping in the beginning, but it's got to be better than just raw lead." "Narrator:" "With the paper replaced and the gun locked and loaded..." "In 3... 2... 1." "[Clattering]" "Same thing." "The full metal jacket fared marginally better than lead, but they still couldn't get a single ricochet." "All right." "There it goes." "On the dotted line." "Spatters again." "It might as well be a paintball." "It even didn't get anywhere close to that second plate." "Well, dude, that was a full metal jacket." "I don't know where we're gonna go from there." "Narrator:" "But Jamie's brought along the FMJ's bigger and tougher brother." "Will the total metal jacket do better than the full metal jacket?" "Well, this one is completely covered with copper, so it should do better." "Narrator:" "There's only one way to find out." "In 3... 2... 1." "Still no hit on the second plate." "It's time to get innovative." "Adam:" "Not only is it not hitting the second or the third plate, but it's hitting the first plate at 45 degrees and leaving at like 5 degrees." "That's not a ricochet." "That's like a splatter." "Look at this." "This looks like a piece of fruit that you ran over." "Are you paying attention?" "We got to come up with something better than a bullet now." "Come on." "Bullets are out." "We need something to bounce around like a ball, so I figure why not use a ball?" "Specifically, a hardened steel ball bearing." "These puppies aren't gonna be splattering when they hit a steel plate." "And with any luck, we'll see one return to sender." "Narrator:" "The boys will return to bouncing bullets, but for now, they'll try their luck with something rounder and harder." "The ball bearing we're now firing into these steel plates is hardened chrome steel, and it is actually much harder than these steel plates." "Hopefully with these, we're going to see the bouncing, ricocheting action that we're hoping for on all three plates, right back to our shooter." "Narrator:" "To enable the gun to shoot the bearing," "Jamie fits it inside a sleeve called a sabot." "Let's do this thing." "I'm feeling good about it." "We've got to get something better than what we've gotten so far." "All right." "Ball bearings." "In 3... 2... 1." "Boom!" "Ha!" "I see a mark on the second plate." "Oh, and I see a hole in me." "Hey!" "Look at that." "Well, let's get in there and see." "Narrator:" "It looks like the ball bearing has, indeed, returned with a vengeance." "[Laughing]" "Plate number one has a mark, plate number two has a mark, plate number three has a mark, and you're dead, sucker." "To get the full picture, the boys settle down to peruse the high-speed." "Jamie:" "Doink." "Oh, look at it slow down." "That is a lot of energy lost each time it hits." "In high-speed it's almost like it's slowing to a crawl." "Well, I want to actually take some measurements and do the math... how fast it's actually going after that third plate." "We need to know if that's lethal." "Yes." "Narrator:" "Confirming the myth means killing the shooter." "And let's acknowledge that less than 10% of the real Jamie is actually made from cardboard." "Dude, it's not lethal." " Really?" " Yeah." "I come up with 106 feet per second or 72 miles per hour." "It would [bleep] you off, but it wouldn't kill you." "I can throw a baseball faster than that." "I'll bet you can't." "[Laughs]" "But the challenge is out there to find a hard surface that might bounce some bullets." "Are you gonna keep that?" "Are you kidding?" "This is how I'm riding in the high occupancy vehicle lane." "Good luck with that." "Narrator:" "Now to test out an infectious tree tale." "So, the story goes that during the medieval castle sieges, attacking armies would use nearby pine trees." "They would bend them back, load them up with bodies that had died from smallpox or the plague, launch them over the wall into the enemy's castle." "And at that point, people inside the castle would contract some lethal disease and ultimately be defeated." "Wow, so like the first biological warfare." "Exactly." "Narrator:" "It's been a cartoon classic for generations." "But how will it work in real life?" "They'll have to somehow attach a body to the top of a tree, pull back the tree without snapping it off, and then launch the cadaver far and high enough to clear a castle wall." "Man:" "Blimey!" "It's a dead bloke." "The dead have risen!" "Okay, so right off the bat," "I think this is gonna be kind of difficult." "Why?" "Well, think about it." "For us to be able to fling a disease-infected body up and over some castle walls, we have to bend a tree back like this." "And that's a significant distance, it could either break right at the trunk or even possibly completely uproot." "So, it sounds like we need to find the elastic limit of a tree." "Let's go to a tree plantation, find a nice, tall, straight tree, and bend it back until it breaks." "All right, well, once we've done that, let's take another similar-sized tree bend it back just before it breaks." "Then we'll load up Buster, release the tree, and see if it has enough energy to send him over the castle wall." "Narrator:" "Now, we can't just skip out to any old forest and start twanging trees." "Jim Curry from Loggers Unlimited has 22 acres of mixed woodland already destined for chipping." "We're trying to fling some diseased corpses over a castle wall, and we need some trees." "Ah, you've come to the right place." "Hmm, didn't so much as bat an eyelid." "Minutes later, Jessi tracks down a suitable specimen." "Guys, I found the perfect tree!" "According to Jim, it's a California gray pine." "That fits the bill perfectly, because this myth specifically calls for a conifer." "Let's say you were the head of an invading army, and you came up with this crazy idea to use trees to fling diseased bodies over castle walls." "Which type of tree would you use?" "A deciduous one, with all the curvy branches and the curvy trunk?" "Or the long, tall, straight coniferous one?" "That's right." "We're going with the coniferous one, too." "Tory:" "Why am I climbing it?" "Well, I need to get up here and tie a line, so that way we can bend our tree down to the ground." "We're gonna have a force meter attached to the line, so that way we'll be able to read how many pounds of force it takes to get this tree down." "Narrator:" "Remember, this first test is designed to gather one vital statistic... to see how far the tree bends before it breaks." "On the other end of that line is a giant comealong." "Hopefully it's strong enough to actually break the tree." "Finally, we have a force gauge to tell us how many pounds of force that tree will take before it breaks." "It's time to get cranking." "Who's first on comealong duty?" "You are!" "Dang it." "Narrator:" "In keeping with the myth's rustic nature, they're using a hand winch." "Grant's the first to bend his arm and make a prediction." "Grant:" "As far as the amount of force it will take..." "I don't know." "Maybe 1,000 pounds?" "I'm not an arborist." "Narrator:" "Slowly but surely, the pine starts to bend." "Incredibly, this full-grown tree arches 45 degrees, and it's groaning under the pressure." "Tory:" "Wow, look at how far bent over it is." "Creeping up on 1,500." "Well, it's bending." "It's not breaking yet." "The rope still strains, but the gauge stalls at 2,000." "That just might mean that this conifer is ready to crack." "Whoa!" "[Cheering]" "Whoa!" "That was dramatic." "Narrator:" "It snapped like a twig, so they've now got the number they needed... 2,000 pounds of force should crack a medium-sized gray pine." "[Cheering]" "With that data in mind, they're now ready to see if a man can fly... a dead man." "Jessi:" "For our second tree, we found a very similar tree." "So, it's time to bring in the big guns." "And this thing has a 40,000-pound winch on it, which is gonna make our jobs a whole lot easier." "Narrator:" "In fact, with this near identical tree, it's technology to the rescue all around." "Tory's tree-climbing days are over." " I hope he stays." " All right." "Good luck, buddy." "Why are you wishing him luck?" "He's dead." "Narrator:" "Even in death, there's no dignity for your professional crash test dummy." "Still, they all have their parts to play." "Tory:" "Now, Jessi is gonna be operating that winch." "Grant will be watching the force meter." "As soon as we get to the right pounds of force, he'll let me know, and then we'll release the rope, launching Buster." "Now, we could use a quick release." "But we thought, since it's a medieval myth, why not cut the rope with a sword?" "I know." "It's a samurai sword." "But at least we're making an effort." "Narrator:" "They're all hoping that Buster will soar like a pox-ridden pigeon." "But there's always the chance that our man will, in fact, be a tree hugger." "This is tree bending." "It's very unpredictable, so it's really hard to take a guess at what's really gonna happen." "[Engine turns over]" "Narrator:" "The plan is to cut the rope when the gauge hits 2,000." "That was the maximum force inflicted on the last tree before we shivered its timbers." "2,000 pounds." "The massive bent trunk looks like it could fling Buster into the next county." "With cast and crew backed off to what they hope is a safe distance," "Tory cuts loose." "Here we go." "In 3... 2... 1." "[Laughs]" "It's a total failure." "Falling is not flying, and Buster's more dislodged than discharged." "Well, we've proved one thing." "Gravity still works." "Jessi: [laughs]" "Jamie:" "Nice day for a ricochet, huh?" "[Chuckles]" "Now, they've decided for safety's sake to relocate to the wide open spaces." "They've already done bench tests with solid steel plates, but the bullets all burst before bouncing." "It just went shotgun." "So, where does that leave us?" "Well, we wondered if we were thinking about it all wrong." "Maybe it's not the bullet's fault." "Maybe we were asking it to bounce off something way too hard." "Suppose we gave it some softer surfaces." "Maybe it would bounce better." "And that's what we're just about to do." "Narrator:" "The first surface they'll test is much softer than steel and way heavier." "[Chuckles]" "Well, you want to pop one of those out of there and into here, and we'll clamp it in?" "Jamie:" "So, why are we using a lead target?" "Well, the bullets we're using are coated in copper, and copper is harder than lead." "So, I'm hoping that copper will hold the bullet together well enough to not splatter when it hits this, and it can continue on its way." "Narrator:" "And will the speed be lethal?" "For these tests, they'll start by measuring the angle of deflection off just one surface." "The bullet, if it bounces, should pass through the backboard." "Range is hot." "Narrator:" "The bullet they're using is the fully copper-coated total metal jacket." "3... 2... 1." "[Gunshot]" "Ha!" "I can see the hole." " Really?" " It's at a wonderful angle." " Really?" " Yeah." "Providing the bullet stayed more or less in one piece, this looks like a step in the right direction." "Look, I can see what a 45-degree angle of reflection is, and I think we're at like 42." "That's far steeper than I thought we'd get." "The only thing we need to know now is how fast it's going." "Well, let's get to high-speed and do some math." "But the ultraslow motion shows something they hadn't expected." "Adam:" "A real tumbling piece of twisted metal at that point." "Yeah, that surprises me." "Now Adam determines the speed of that twisted lump of metal." "Well, all right." "Here's the math." "Our bullet, after it struck the lead plate, was only going 171 feet per second," "116 miles per hour, when it went through the backboard." "That's not lethal." " Lost almost all its energy." " Yeah." "Time to change up to a surface that might make a difference." "Next up is one of these cinder-block pavers." "Why a paver?" "Well, this material is soft enough that it will allow the bullet to dig into it and then have to climb out of the groove, giving us the angle we want." " Good to go." " All right." "You got a prediction for the angle for the paver?" " No." " No?" "But if you were to have a prediction, you got any idea what it would be?" "I don't know." "[Laughs]" "Just pull the trigger." "3... 2... 1." "Narrator:" "The bullet was squashed but not shattered." "It's now up to Adam to check on the angle." "Huh." "[Laughs]" "It's exactly 1/2 of 45 degrees... 221/2." "That's pretty cool." "Narrator:" "And if the bullet is talking, then Adam is listening." "Adam:" "So, we're wondering maybe we're making the bullets do too much work." "Suppose we shoot them into their surface at a shallower angle of incidence." "Maybe they'll store more of their energy for subsequent hits and eventually get all the way back around to the shooter." "So, we're gonna take that 45-degree angle of incidence, split it in half, and start shooting them into the stuff at 221/2 degrees." "221/2 degrees into a paver." "In 3... 2... 1." "[Laughs]" "I just had this warm feeling about how much I like our job right now." "Narrator:" "With the new shallow angle, they're looking for speed, and it seems like they've found it." "But they'll need to confirm if they're close to a kill shot." "All right, here we go." "High-speed." "High speed is the objective." "The number they're chasing for terminal velocity is 300 feet per second." "That's the best one yet." "Coming off that paver, that bullet is going 488 feet per second, or 332 miles an hour." "Well, that could be lethal, then." "I think so." "I think it's one of our most promising hits yet." "That's an awesome speed." "So, where to from here?" "In different tests, they got speed and direction." "The trick is putting them together, and Adam's almost convinced he's got the answer." "So Jamie's likeness is brought into play... [chuckles]" "Which is which?" "...as are the two extra ricochet pavers." "The first bullet hit the curves on this paving stone at 221/2 degrees." "Now, we know from doing this a couple times before that it's gonna bounce off this paving stone at about 12 degrees into this one." "Now, I have this one positioned so the bullet will hit this stone at actually about 30 degrees." "It's a little bit sharper, but because the bullet's got less energy," "I think it's gonna dig less into the stone and perhaps have a higher angle of reflection." "Now it's into this one, where, really, it's anybody's guess." "I'm positioning it roughly about there, and I'm hoping that's enough to get the bullet back to Jamie's cutout." "Adam:" "One bullet, three paving stones, and a cardboard Hoosier." ""And a cartridge in a pear tree"" "For the gold, 3... 2... 1." "Narrator:" "The odds of success seem astronomically small, but it looks like the planets have almost aligned." "I see one mark." "I see two marks." "I see three marks." "Our stones got hit right." "I see a mark right here in my chest." "Oh!" "[laughs]" "Where's the bullet?" "What's that?" "Ah, that's it." "It's still hot." "Here, feel that." "Ow." "Yeah." "That's it." "[Laughs]" "Narrator:" "Despite all those odd angles, they actually got the triple ricochet." "The need now is for speed." "Dead smack center, that second... it's so pretty." "Starting to slow down." " Three!" " Three!" "Oh, and now we're really slowed down." "[Laughs]" ""Got... to get... to Hyneman."" "I think I can." "I think I can." "I think I can." "Kill!" "Here it comes." "Even with cement slabs, they couldn't match up the speed with the angle." "Adam:" "He hit the third paving stone at an angle of 60 degrees and left it at... [gasps]..." "60 degrees, just like a mirror, eventually hitting Jamie in the chest." "Unfortunately, by the time he hit Jamie in the chest, he was only going 200 feet per second or about 135 miles an hour." "Not lethal." "I'm through with you." "Narrator:" "But we all want to see a 180 kill shot, and I promise that this one's not over till the flat man screams." "Narrator:" "Going straight to full scale proved unproductive for those bent on flexing a tree and flinging a corpse." "Now it's time to regroup." "All right, so that was a complete failure." "Buster didn't launch." "He plummeted straight down to the ground." "Yeah, I mean, we probably could have thrown him farther than he went." "Well, don't give up hope." "That was our first try." "We just went in and did it." "We could be a little bit more scientific about it." "Go on." "Well, we could do some small-scale tests, where we vary the launch angle and see if trimming the tree makes any difference at all." "And we can use different types of trees to see which one does the best job." "Sounds like we need to get some small-scale trees." "I know." "They're called saplings." "Narrator:" "So the team orders in a sapling selection to see which one has more spring in its stem." "The first trial tree is a Douglas fir, which Tory secures by clamping a collar to the base of the trunk." "The collar, in turn, is fixed tight to the factory floor." "Jessi prepares an action dude doll called Mini McBuster, and a custom-made launch plate to facilitate flight by reducing the friction." "We still need to give him a proper perch, that when the tree actually hits its apex, the force will just continue to propel McBuster as far as he can possibly fly." "Narrator:" "And assuming that all goes to plan," "Grant lays a scale that'll measure the distance." "Grant:" "None of this guessing." "We're gonna get scientific about this." "Narrator:" "And they plan to pull each of the test trees, starting with the Douglas fir, back to exactly the same angle each and every time." "Grant:" "Okay, so we're at a 45-degree deflection." "All right." "We are at 160 pounds of force." "That's a lot of oomph for that little tree." "Grant, you in position?" "Ready." "All right." "Launching." "In 3... 2... 1." "Nice!" "That's pretty far." "Narrator:" "Now, that's a result." "Mini McBuster has well and truly left the launch pad." "Douglas fir number one was 160 pounds force and a distance of 16' 9"." "Next up, redwood." "Narrator:" "So, the team slides in the next contestant... a baby version of the majestic redwood." "All right." "Redwood tree set for action." "Narrator:" "Time to see if there's any benefit to be gained from a tree change." "Tory:" "Launching in 3... 2... 1." "[Laughter]" "He went less than half the distance." "Not even close." "Narrator:" "Our diseased doll made it only a third of the way to the castle wall." "60 pound load." "Went a distance of 6 feet." "Next up, Alaskan cedar." "Narrator:" "So, now they've tried two of their three best-bet conifers." "Here's hoping the cedar can fling even farther." "With the angle once more set to 45, the only key difference is the degree of resistance." "The Douglas fir pulled 160 pounds, and the redwood just 60." "The cedar is showing 100 pounds." "Still, let's see if we have a new winner." "Here we go." "Launching mini Buster in 3... 2... 1." "[Laughter]" "Jessi:" "Whoo-hoo!" "Narrator:" "The catapult cadaver flew just 15 times its own body length... 10 feet on the dot." "Well, before we pick a tree, we why don't we look at the high-speed and see if we can figure out why this is happening." "All right." "Narrator:" "The first fling they check is the last one they flung, the Alaskan cedar." "Tory:" "The tree is released." "He stays with the tree." "As soon as he gets vertical, he's released." "In that one, he was going..." "Jessi:" "14.2 miles per hour, which is 20.83 feet per second." "Narrator:" "Now for the recalcitrant redwood." "Tory:" "There's a lot less energy in this tree." "Grant:" "It seems less flexible, actually." "And he left the tree sooner." "Narrator:" "The last replay checked is the day's big winner, the Douglas fir." "But watching the high-speed gives Grant pause for thought." "Now, I'm wondering if we chop some of these limbs off, do you think we could get more speed?" "Tory:" "Yeah." "Also, if we cut off the limbs, it would cut down on the wind resistance, as well." "So, we might get him to go farther." "Well, let's try it." " All right." " All right." "Narrator:" "The jury agrees that the tree needs a haircut." "And here's why it might work." "One of the main jobs of branches is to balance the tree." "When the wind blows, they wave and sway in every direction." "So the opposite forces work in concert to keep the trunk stable." "So to make a tree bend, it stands to reason we'd cut off the branches." "That might be enough to turn this tree torpedo." "[Boing!" "]" "Nice." "That's trimming a tree." "Narrator:" "So let's see if it's worth all the effort." "Launching in 3... 2... 1." "Whoa!" "The scaling is way too rough to draw real-world conclusions, but they can fine-tune the method to improve their chances back in the forest." "His trajectory, though, is definitely on a downward path." "Yeah, it sort of holds onto him past vertical." "So, maybe if we had a way to stop him before he reaches that point." "You know, like a catapult." "Like a tether." "A stopping tether." "All right." "Well, let's try that." "Narrator:" "They got the distance but not quite the height." "A tether should stop the momentum just short of vertical." "So, if all goes to plan, this will be their best shot yet." " Ready." "Tory:" "All right." "3... 2... 1." "Whoa!" "[Laughter]" "Tory:" "Oh, my God." "He hit the back wall!" "Whoa!" "[Laughs]" "Narrator:" "The tether works wonders, and our little guy's flight went right off the scale." "Grant:" "Now, all right." "I know what you're saying." "I can hear it through the TV." "You're saying, "But, Grant, these trees are young trees." "They're more flexible." "They're not like the trees you find in the forest that we're gonna use."" "I know." "And that is why we're gonna take all these ideas out to the forest and put them to the test." "Narrator:" "We all know that ricochets happen, and they can be nasty." "Have you gone mad?" "But can a bullet bounce three times to kill the shooter?" "Apparently not." "But we've still got one left in the chamber." "We are now going to try it using this piece of schedule 40 plumbing pipe." "Oh, no, not in this state." "This is merely a raw material." "We're gonna bend it." "[Laughing] Yeah." "Narrator:" "The triple ricochet myth is busted." "But Jamie and Adam have hatched a plan to replicate the result." "They aim to shoot through a curvy steel pipe, and the bending machine's a mechanical marvel." "Jamie:" "So, the way I figure it, what if we shot the bullet into something that didn't actually involve an impact, like, say, a bent pipe." "It does one thing." "And it does it really well." "I like that." "There we go." "Adam: [laughs]" "Does this remind you of when you used to hunt mastodon?" "It's like a big macaroni." "[Chuckles]" "He really did hunt mastodon." "Narrator:" "All that remains is for Adam to mount and secure the pipe while Jamie positions a fat slab of ballistics gel to hopefully catch the bullet." "Adam:" "At this point, you may be wondering what is the curve of the bent pipe you're shooting into?" "Well, it's a good question." "Right now, this pipe has a radius of about 88 inches." "That means if it was a complete circle, it would be about 15 feet across." "Why haven't we bent it to come all the way back around to the gun?" "That's simply because we're not sure this is going to work at all." "So, we're going to incrementally sneak up on it." "Why put all our eggs in one basket?" "Jamie:" "Range is hot." "Firing into an 88-inch radius tube." "3... 2... 1." "Looks like it came out." "And I can see where it hit." "Uh-huh." "Wow, I had no idea it would be so pristine." "Look at that." "It's a nice little flat on it where it slid around the pipe." "Narrator:" "So a bullet can at least slide around steel and return with a vengeance." "It penetrated 141/2 inches, which would cripple the shooter." "Jamie:" "Our first and shallowest bend on the pipe gave us 622 feet per second as an exit speed, which means it was fully lethal." "Not only that, but if you look at how far it went in this ballistics gel, if it hit me this way, it would have gone clean through me." "[Motor turns over]" "Narrator:" "So now to ramp up to a fitting finale, the machine's redeployed to give maximum curve for their bending buck." "The plan is to wrestle the pipe almost back in a circle." "23-inch radius." "That's pretty tight." "That's pretty tight." "More friction decreases the chance of success, but they're both optimistic." "Let's go see how it fits." "I think it's gonna work." "I'm feeling so good about this." "Narrator:" "In fact, Adam's so fired up, he offers himself as the target." "Well, kind of." "The range is hot." "46-inch diameter pipe coming all the way back around in 3... 2... 1." "Did it go through?" "You've got a hole in your chest there, buddy." "[Chuckles]" "Narrator:" "If bad guy Adam actually had a heart, he now has a hole in it." "Still got 101/2 inches." "All right." "Well, the final speed will be determined by the high-speed camera." "We got a final exit speed of 338 feet per second." " Yes." " A kill shot!" "That would be a kill shot." "Well, potentially lethal." "Nice work." "I'm all happy now." "Narrator:" "There's no doubt it's a stunning result." "But we know that the myth has meandered somewhat from its ricochet roots." "But what's the takeaway from this myth?" "Well, we know that people get killed by ricochets." "That's not the point." "The point is that a bullet bouncing off three surfaces... bing, bing, bing!" ".." "And killing someone is totally busted." "Narrator:" "Back at the scene of their last public failure, our corpse catapulters are buoyed by the fact that they're now more tree savvy." "Now, the last time we were out in the forest, we used a California gray pine." "Unfortunately, that test was completely unsuccessful." "So, we went back to the shop and we found, using small-scale tests, that a Douglas fir is gonna be the perfect tree for this job." "Well, guys, that right there is the perfect Douglas fir." "Tory:" "And this layout is perfect." "It gives us plenty of room to bend the tree back and plenty of room to throw Buster." "Let's just get him up there and start flinging him." "Hang on a minute." "We need a castle." "Oh, we got a castle, and I think you're gonna love it." "[Laughter]" "Narrator:" "The castle is inflated exactly 100 feet away from the tree." "That's the minimum historical distance we could verify between a fortification and a forest." "To mark off the height of the parapet, balloons are deployed on the end of a 40-foot string." "Then the team pulls together to strip back the branches." "Tory:" "Maybe we should've yelled "timber."" "Timber!" "It might be a little late now." "We just got off the ground, and you can tell already how much more spring this tree has." "This thing might go far." "Narrator:" "To help ensure Buster's smooth release," "Jessi's built him a man-sized metal back plate." "Jessi, what do you think?" "Do you think he's gonna release out of that tree?" "According to all of our small-scale tests, absolutely." "With the body secured, the ropes are attached in the hope that our man can go the distance." "Beauty!" "Now, as you can tell, there are two lines attached to this tree." "We have the pull line and the tether line." "Now, we learned from our small-scale tests that the best launch we're gonna get is if the tree stops just before vertical." "Good luck, Buster!" "You're our only hope." "Narrator:" "Buster hangs 70 feet above the forest floor." "The castle's a clear and distant 100 feet out in front." "It's the biggest tree on the lot, so if this won't do it, nothing will." "Okay, Jessi, the force meter's all set." "You can go ahead and tension up." "We're gonna go at a really low speed so we don't jolt Buster out of the tree before he's ready to be flung." "Narrator:" "Tory decides that the cord is best cut from up high." "Okay." "We're at 1,000 pounds." "The tension mounts as the..." "well, as the tension mounts." "We're at 2,400 pounds." "That's it." "Tory:" "So, we have the tree bent back." "We're at 2,400 pounds, and that's it." "It's maxing out." "We keep pulling the tree back, and there's no more pounds of pressure." "I think we're ready to launch this tree." "Narrator:" "So it's all down to this." "And remember that so far" "Buster's done no more than fall off his perch." "Here we go." "Launching in 3... 2... 1." "Hyah!" "Whoa!" "[Laughs]" "Against all predictions," "Buster's arrived at the castle gate..." "Yeah!" "Whoo-hoo-hoo!" "...but he's fallen just short of infecting the enemy." "Tory:" "We applied everything we learned from the small scale." "We cut off the limbs." "We cut off the crown." "We even tethered the tree." "We cut the rope, and Buster flew!" "We turned a tree into a catapult." "Narrator:" "Tory's excited." "He didn't get over to the castle, but he made it to the front door." "Narrator:" "But just how does one measure success?" "Sadly for him and us, we have set some benchmarks." "Tory:" "Whoa!" "Grant:" "Whoa!" "Let's look at this realistically, though, guys." "I mean, we gave this myth the best chance possible." "We put a castle as close to a tree as we could find any historical reference for, and we cut off all the branches." "Yeah, by the time we do that, they would've picked us off from the castle." "And not only that... we pulled that tree back to 2,400 pounds, as much as it could handle." "How many ancient horses and troops would that have taken?" "But we did manage to turn a tree into a catapult." "But as far as the myth goes, we weren't able to launch him 100 feet over a 40-foot castle wall, so this one's busted." "It's busted." "Busted." "We did get over the moat." "Oh, yeah." "And we have a bouncy castle." "Yeah!" "Whoo-hoo-hoo!" "[Laughter]"