is no single way the bullet catch is performed. The method used varies from performer to performer. The gun or the bullet is rigged in some way; in the simplest form of the bullet catch, the gun is made to fire blanks, and the target through which the 'bullet' passes is set to destruct using a squib. All the performer must do is keep the bullet in his or her mouth until ready to produce it. If the gun is to be loaded in front of the audience, a wax bullet is loaded into the firearm. The spray of liquid wax from the barrel of the gun is enough to break the pane of glass. The magician uses misdirection to exchange the marked bullet with one made of wax and place the marked bullet into his or her mouth. Another method when doing the trick with a muzzle-loading gun that is loaded in front of the audience or by an audience member is to have a magnetic, rather than lead, bullet. A small magnet attached to the ramrod pulls the bullet back out immediately after loading. When the magician takes the rod, he or she removes the bullet and transfers it to his or her mouth. In this version of the trick the gun is always modified, and only simulates firing a shot. This technique is virtually obsolete, however, because modern firearms do not use a ramrod. Another method was to use an entirely real and lethal gun and bullet, and simply have the shooter intentionally miss the magician, who has previously collected the bullet to 'catch', as before. This procedure led to most early deaths from this trick and has since been abandoned. In cases where the bullet is marked by an audience member, the marked bullet is then transferred to the magician through sleight-of-hand, or similar markings are made on another bullet by an off-stage assistant, who then transfers it to the magician. Chung Ling Soo (the stage name of the American magician William Ellsworth Robinson) was killed while performing this trick due to an equipment malfunction. The gun used for the trick was set up to discharge a blank in the ramrod tube below the barrel. However, the gun malfunctioned and the bullet that had been loaded into the main barrel was accidentally fired into Soo's lung. History One of the earliest documentations of the bullet catch