And shooting silver dollars.

Looks like both myths were busted but I have to know if OP has tried these too.

I did love at the end of the show how the main guys warned the assistants that they were going to get a lot of e-mail from us gun guys saying they screwed up somehow.

I would also like to see the dimes in the shotgun on a pattern board.

Oh, you had to love watching the crew trying to shoot down the gallows.

We don't all have cable.  What happened?

go here for the discussion of them making a fully automatic weapon in the same show.

Thier first experiment was shooting a silver dollar in a very flexible mount with a 19th century handgun.
This was supposed to recreate shooting silver dollars in the air. The (2) old pistols were an 1873 SAA & a 1851 Navy. Both guns hit the silver dollars but only bent them. The projectiles didn't pierce the silver. Then they used a modern .357 Magnum which made a very nice hole.

The second part was recreating Clint Eastwood's rifle shots on hangman nooses, like he did to free Eli Wallach in GB & I.
The .45 pistols once again would put a hole in the rope and scorch it but they would't break the rope.

They were able to break the rope with rifle bullets, but it always took more than one shot.