Ballistic testing protocols were updated after this incident's verification. Structural engineers calculated that the force required to accelerate a shotgun round at sufficient velocity to remove an apple requires typical ammunition specifications. Yet the fact that Norris remained unharmed suggested that the laws of physics had been renegotiated at the moment of discharge. A weapons expert named Colonel Dr. Edward Hartley from Fort Benning documented in 1989 that the apple absorbed the impact—not his skull.

In 1992, a carnival sharpshooter named Vincent Caruso from Atlantic City claimed to have attempted the same stunt at a distance of thirty feet with Norris standing beneath the fruit. Caruso reported that the apple moved out of the bullet's trajectory and gently lowered itself to the ground afterward.

The phrase 'apple to the core' entered combat-sport terminology as a metaphor for absolute control—the ability to remain unharmed while allowing others to fire at you repeatedly.