Bowling Pin Shoots Anyone?

[Anchorite]

Question for those who have played with the pins ! What have you found works better, a heavier bullet going slower vs a lighter bullet going faster ?? I have some 250's, 230;s and some 185's for my acp .

I always like a 230gr in my 45s.

 

[Ovendoctor]

use to shoot the 429421 KT cast for pins
a mid range load works the best because it does not leave splinters on the table
full house loads usually leaves the bottom of the pin on the table and the rest splintered to pieces
best time was 6.5 seconds from the holster to last pin hitting the floor
with a 6'' 629 S&W

 

[DS-10-SPEED]

We've been shooting pins for about 25 years at our club. It started as a fund raiser for the junior rifle league and was only 2 days a year. We decided it was too much fun for only 2 days so we started a league that is on Fridays for 10 weeks in the winter. Now we have a fall and winter league. It is .22 only with 3 divisions, iron sight, optic and revolver. Each shooter turns in 10 scores over the 10 weeks and the best 6 are kept for total. One score is 4 consecutive sets of 5 pins, 10 shot limit and a miss on set is a default 20 seconds. We started with real bowling pins but later switched to steel pins on a hinge, our backs were getting too sore from bending over and picking up pins, also real pins are getting too hard to find since the bowling allies started leasing their pins and have to return them.

Here is an early video.



Later video.
http://i.imgur.com/9n0lsig.gifv

 

[GarrettJ]

Question for those who have played with the pins ! What have you found works better, a heavier bullet going slower vs a lighter bullet going faster ?? I have some 250's, 230;s and some 185's for my acp .

Like most things, it depends. I generally favor a slow heavy bullet, but the right combo of fast and “medium” weight works well.

You want to find the balance between power and recoil. I find a 158 grain .357 at 1600 fps does a great job taking pins off the table. But the recoil in most revolvers slows the shot-to-shot time. (It does pretty well in a Desert Eagle, though).

I’ve seen people shoot 250 gr. bullets in their .45 revolvers and they work very well. They are only pushing them around 650-700 fps. In a semi auto, standard 230 gr .45 works pretty well.

Here is what I mean about power vs recoil. I’m running a 240 gr .44 at around 950 fps. It takes them off the table very well, but follow up shots are slow. I need to back this off to around 800 fps. Plenty of power with reduced recoil.



OTOH, running .45 ACP at 800 fps also works well, and is faster shot to shot. Yes, it’s a revolver vs. auto, and that makes some difference. But not as much as you might think.

 

[Howland937]

Had another shoot today. I recently (last week) picked up a M&P 15-22 for nothing more than shooting in the carbine class. I stuck a cheap green circle dot reflex sight on it and sighted in exactly an hour before the match. It went about as well as expected, which is to say it didn't go well at all. I got smoked pretty bad in that class.

Lost in the finals of modified rimfire pistol, semi's in stock centerfire pistol and stock rimfire pistol. Not as much turn out today which is odd since it was nearly 60 degrees. I feel like I'm getting worse instead of better...

 

[kmw1954]

I believe that would be experience kicking in... Now you are thinking and anticipating instead of just reacting.

 

[Howland937]

So today was my fifth time competing at shooting bowling pins. I haven't spend much time shooting the 15-22 so I didn't enter that class today. I shot in

Stock Centerfire- SIG Match Elite 38 Super. Lost finals, close match just came up a little short.

Stock Rimfire -TX22. Lost finals after severe malfunction

Modified Rimfire- TX22 SCR. Won class

The guy that beat me in stock centerfire had an overall record of about 12-4 against me in various classes including beating me in the finals about 5 times. I got him twice today in the rimfire pistol classes, so that made me feel good.

The malfunction of the TX22 was pretty surprising but I lost to a kid of about 15. He'd never made it to the finals, so I was really happy for him

 

[Howland937]

Had another match today. Actually had one last month as well. Won stock rimfire and rimfire carbine last month. Didn't win any classes today, but I'm figuring out more creative ways to lose apparently. Mag problem for the 15-22, so in the finals I only had one mag with the allotted 8 rounds. Only needed 6 rounds, but the other guy just needed 5. Lost tiebreaker shootoff in the finals of stock rimfire and a malfunction stoppage cost me first round of modified rimfire. Stock centerfire pistol was my first ever first round loss in that class, to the eventual winner... who happens to be really good.

 

[thunderbyrd]

Man, this looks like a lot of fun! i hope i can find somebody in Kentucky into this.

 

[Smokin Gator]

True story. Our club holds pin shoots on Friday nights at our indoor range. 6 pins at 25' for centerfire guns. there is usually some side betting going on for the shooters. One night this fellow shows up with his 45 colt revolver to compete. His first round was good but quite slow as he had to thumb cock the revolver for each shot. He cleared the table with 5 shots, but was way slower than the guy competing with him with a semi-auto .45. Well his next round was once again competing with a semi-auto shooter that was known to be quite good. At the buzzer, this revolver fellow takes his gun off the table and fans the hammer for 5 shots. clearing the table before the fellow with the auto got 3 pins off the table. Needless to say, the bets on the revolver fellow paid off big time. Turns out, this revolver fellow does a lot of western shoots.

If by western shoots you mean SASS or cowboy action shooting they don't allow actual fanning. The good shooters using two hands cock the hammer with the weak hand thumb for each shot. They can be extremely fast but it's not fanning. Also the pins are much smaller then the large steel used in SASS. It would be easy to miss the pins at their normal fast pace at a cowboy match.