Bowling Pins with 45ACP- Best Bullets Please

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

I've been practicing/testing with some hard lead cast 225gn hp sized to .451" through my Kimber Stainless II. They're accurate enough. Recoil is much more than my 200gn swc with 4gns of Bullseye -which I expect. They hit hard to knock them over and to the rear of the table. But not off the table. I haven't chronigraphed my loads, but 6.8gns of Unique, I figured would be good enough for a power factor of 195 or so. (hoping for more than 875fps.) The lead is penetrating the pins quite well, so I'm not worried about ricochet's, There's good weight retention too. But not going through like one of my .357mag or .44mag loads will.

So, do I really have to use a jacketed hollow point to get the pins to take flight from the table? I've got a good supply of lead, so I'd really like to pour bullets instead of buy. Size to .452"? A little more powder?

What works for you?

-Steve

[ACP230]

Where are the pins set on the table? Where are you hitting them?

I used RNL 230 grain bullets with a bit less Unique that you are loading and the pins left the table, as long as I hit them well. If I hit them poorly they fell over, rolled around, or ended up stuck in the pin table corners. (Ugh!)

Pins were set a foot from the front of a four-foot wide table so had to be knocked back three feet to clear.

I got around 910 fps out of my loads. I don't think I'd go higher than the charge you list. My manuals show it either over, or close to the top for Unique with that bullet weight.

[Delta Dave]

Don't know, silly as it sounds, I use the same load for pins that I use for everything but defense. 200 gr SWC set over 5.7 gr of 231. Seems to get 780 fps average and in my pistol shoot fairly accurately. If I hit the pin squarely, it leaves the table. If I don't, then the hillarity starts and before it's over everyone including me is laughing at the pin spinning on the table. Makes for really tough taget. Man I love bowling with a 1911...

[ChristopherG]

Have you tried using a .45 colt bullet? Momentum is the name of the game for pin shooting, and a 250 or 255 gr. bullet would thump your pins into next week, if they'll feed for you. If the semi-wadcutter feeds, that'd be the cat's meow. I load 'em in my S&W 625 .45acp, but obviously feeding's not an issue for me.

[Kamicosmos]

With .45 especially, don't get to slow with them! They will bounce back and hit you! Trust me, I've been hit with a wide array of calibers while ROing pin matches.

I jsut use my normal loads, which is 230 FMJ grain doing around 900fps.

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

OK then, y'all are confirming what I really need to do. The bullet is heavy enough, and according to the books, I know this should be a warm load. So I need to get the Chrony out and make sure I'm getting the velocity that I think I should be. The pins are 8" from the front of a four foot deep table. I'm well aware of what should be the sweet spot to hit them, (just below the brand/paint, below the balancing foam inserts. I'm hitting them there, but the pins are stopping just short of the rear of the table.

Sizing at .451" instead of .452" might be where I'm losing some power in the load, but I wouldn't have thought that.

More testing is required.

-Steve

[pauli]

for bowling pins, i recommend about 100,000 grains moving at, oh, 30fps. gets'em every time, if you do your part.

[ChristopherG]

I guess that is the traditional method, isn't it? Let's see, figure the power factor, do the conversion...

That's a 225 bullet at 13,333 fps. How much Unique would that be?

[Sunray]

"...do I really have to use a jacketed hollow point to get the pins to take flight from the table?..." Nope. 230 grain cast RN's or FP's and 3.5 grains of Bullseye works just fine for me. Sounds like you're shooting too fast and not hitting the pin right. Power factors and penetration mean squat when shooting pins. Shot placement does. Slow down and concentrate on shot placement. Then work up to changing targets quickly.
A cast HP is some marketing plug's idea.

[Norm Lee]

We've had good luck with SWC bullets. Seems there are good flatspots and lots of edges to help get the attention of the bowling pin. A particular favorite has been a 235 gr. SWC from R&R bullets, they call the pinbuster.

They also make a 230 gr WC in .38/.357 which is the medicine in a revolver,

Cheers,

norm

[Magnumite]

You don't need to shoot jacketed bullets to be effective on pins. I shoot both lead and jacketed bullets. What does make a difference, as you have expressed, is the power factor. I use a 230 jacketed at a chrono'd 897 fps and a 250 grain lead at a chrono'd 800 fps. Both send the pins off effectively. Any pin load, though, must hit the pin fairly well centered or the "hillarity will start". Been there too many times.

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

Thanx all of you for the input. -Even those of you that jest. When I was practicing, I was hitting just below the brand/emblem which is where the balance foam inserts are. I know not to hit at the foam which in most cases is just above the widest part of the ogive. So the widest center should be money.

I didn't get a chance to take the Chrony to the range this weekend. In my log book I've got an old load using some 231 that my Colt really liked that pushed a 230gn RN to just over 900fps. I might have to work that load up for my Kimber.

Hopefully one day this week I'll be able to leave the office a bit early to test fire and log results.

Does anyone have suggestions for a 250gn lead mold for a 45 ACP?

-Steve

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

OK now.. With my lead 225gnHP bullets sized at .452" instead of .451", I'm recording velecities averaging 925fps with 7.2gns of Unique. I haven't tested these on pins yet, but with a power factor near 208, I'm hopeful these are going to be the ticket to clean the table. All strikes. No spares!

Here's a photo of one after having been retrieved from the sand pile that I shot into. It retained 94% of it's original weight and expanded to .90" frontal.

-Steve

[Magnumite]

At 925 fps those bullets will send the pins way off the table. You'll learn to manage that recoil, too! Lots of luck and good shootin' to ya

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

I've been shooting my 44mags with 300gn and 250gn hunting loads for years. Recoil is not something I shy away from. Managing it in a quick shooting situation will be something to get use to though. I tried pins one time last year with a .357mag and didn't do to bad. I guess you'd say I was competitive in a revolver class, but really could have used some extensive practice with speadloader. And I had some cylinder/trigger timing issues with the DanWesson, (that still need to be resolved). But clearly the autoloaders had the advantage.

Now I've got this Kimber, and possibly another .45 coming later, that I think I could really have fun with at the pin bay. Next I'll have to crono these loads through my Officer's ACP to see if it's even a possibility that I could use it as a backup. Although I never need to use it, I always take a second rimfire pistol to my rimfire Bullseye matches. It's not quite an identical pistol, but is close enough that I can post a respectable score if'n there were to be a mechanical failure in my primary pistola.

-Steve

[DrestinBlack]

I became a MasterBlaster at Second Chance and am tied for the fastest 5 pin space gun time using a Speer 200 grain JHP, the famous "Flying Ashtray," with 6 grains of 231. This was with a comp'ed pistol so if you don't use a comp take that down to approx 5.8 grains for less flip. This is on regulation tables so your milage may vary as the table setups do.

Just my $0.02, of course.

p.s., I'm selling the pin gun I used to win the last Second Chance - piece of history...