The one shooting at Murphy in this picture appears to be Lt. Col. J.C. Stehlin of the Lettish army, who exchanged shots with Murphy as part of the demonstration. Murphy also shot at Park Policeman Richard M. Harper, "the only spectator who volunteered."

Transfer of momentum means the person taking the bullet can't feel any more momentum than the person firing. If they're of the same weight, as these two gentlemen seem to be, the guy getting shot's basically going to feel the recoil of the gun.

I'd be more worried about penetration, of course -- but I suspect the guy wearing the vest was, too, and wanted to see plenty of tests before trying it on himself.

Update: The target is W.H. Murphy of the Protective Garment Corp. of New York. Another photo and more info here.

I am sure that if the picture was taken 15 seconds later he would look different than he does in this shot. I suspect he has not had time to react to the impact.

[There are four photos in this series and the guy looks pretty much the same in each. - Dave]

I would think they would have used a practice dummy. Then again, maybe they did.

Reminds me of the cartoons picturing the guy checking for dud bombs with a hammer.

Yeah, I would think they're blanks. The risk of accidentally sneezing while pulling the trigger and hitting him in the face or legs... or of any other number of things combined with his calmness.

Don't know what kind of bullets they are using, but the target subject looks amazingly calm to have sustained the force of impact from that short range. Doubtless it did have quite an impact and probably left a bruise on his chest. Since the shooter is also wearing a vest, maybe they took turns shooting at each other. It's a thankless job, but somebody's got to do it.

[Or, seeing as how this is a photo-op, maybe they're blanks. - Dave]

I only *thought* my job was tough!

(The vacation package & medical benefits would have to be spectacular to get me to stay on with THIS employer...)