Bowling pin shooting

The 1911 seems to favored pretty heavy as is the 45acp round.

A few things I have noticed, the 9mm guys some time run into trouble with not having enough power to blow the pin off the rack if the pin is full of lead, the heavyer the pin the hard it is to clear the rack.
1 thing that works well but annoys the people who hold the events is the "big bore" guns 44 mags / 500SW these tend to destry more pins then the average .45
 
At our local club here in Indianapolis, we do a bowling pin shoot once a month for fun, no prises. There are no classes. Everyone shoots what they want, no red dots or such. We do set the pins back 12" for "minor" caliber (38 SPL and 9mm) but we shot them in random rotation with your opponant drawn by lot. I have done well using a 9mm S&W 639, a GP-100 and a CZ97B. Our finding is that heavy bullets, even at lower velocity, work better than fast light ones. My GP-100 worked wonderfully with a 158 gr. Rainier FP over 10.5 gr. Blue Dot giving around 1200 FPS. The 45 loads were similar to standard ball loads and the 9mm works very well with 124 gr. Rainer FP over a good load of Power Pistol. The guy to beat uses a S&W 629 but loads 240 gr. bullets near 44SPL velocity.
It's all how you hit them, not the gun/load you use.
 
Shot my second here last night and missed the finals by a fraction of a second. For giggles (and because I have a lot more .40 ammo than .45 ammo), I used my Sig 229. Since my win in December, at least 5 people have picked up 1911s for this event, in fact I was one of the minority last night not using a .45 ACP.

The 180gr FMJ .40 did a good job but I could notice the difference from my 1911s. It was a good experiment and I've decided to stay with my trusty .45s from here on out...
 
9mm is taking a beeting! well I found that aiming 2in up from the base and in from the right a 1/4 to a 1/3 when the bullet hit it would vear right in the pin and that with its spin would send the pin spinning off the table.

Joe
 
Haven't done this in awhile but my go to load for 357 was 180 grain FMJ bullets, Speer made them for silhouette loads. 12 grains of 2400.
 
we shoot pins twice a week here in salt lake, as far as guns go, i shoot both auto and revolvers, and also single action, I have a 627 8 shot with moon clips, 38 spl loads with 230grn lead wadcutters going 800fps, I have a 625 that I load with 255grn swc behind either 231 or v540... then i have a clark pinmaster 45 1911 that i shoot the 255 swc at 800fps. i also have other guns but they do the best on pins, Reload on the line and you will get beat. i usually shoot 6 shots, the 6th is to make the last pin move faster as its falling... I have been shooting pins for 19yrs and have ran the pin shoots for the last 5
 
Bowling pin shooting is my favourite shooting sport of them all. I find it the most challenging because Bowling Pins dont allow you to get away with being a sloppy shooter.

All the pins do not face you the same way, this means that you have to search for your target everytime you swing your gun. This is good training for self defence shooting i think.

The perfect Pin Buster imho would be a 1911 with a nice trigger
 
I have used 45 ACP (revolver and pistol), 45 LC (revolver), 357 (revolver) and 10mm (revolver and pistol) for pins with cast and JHPs in search of the perfect pin gun over the years. 10mm with 200 grain Hornady JHPs going 1200fps are just the ticket. They will sweep the pins off the table into the next county.

I found that 357 would often go through the pins and just knock them over. 45s with 200 to 255 grain bullets going fast enough to a good job would beat the gun to death (broke the lugs off several semi auto barrels - moon clipped revolver was great though) and 45 LC was too slow to reload but was a great pin gun.

From observation 38 spl, 9mm, 38 super are all very marginal unless you are a very, very good shot or there is a special table with the pins set at the back for these calibers. 44 spl also appeared to be a good pin load but too slow to reload and 44 mag was good too but most people using them would load them too hot and they were either uncontrollable or the bullets would just go through the pins. The 44 mags were also a slow reload.

Photos of my current 10mm pin guns a slab comped M610 and a comped Colt Delta Elite.
 

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I've found that soft lead works better, but then I use cast 225 grn RN bullets for my Gold Cup. The 45 ACP dosn't need velocity so soft cast bullets dont lead that much.

As a side note: For those who enjoy pin shooting, you should try "post shootes" where a 4X4 post is set up, and you have a two man team. The time stops when you cut the post in two.
 
Update since my last post:
My new favorite "pin gun" is a S&W 610, 6 1/2" loaded with 180 gr. Montana Gold flat-points and max load of Longshot. This load crono's about 1350 FPS out of my gun. This load drives 'em off the table with authority. The heavy gun minimizes muzzle jump and the moon clips speed reloads. I've done better with this than anything else I've shot.
We have found that in cold weather, the pins will shatter quickly. For the winter months, we set up the club's plate racks with bowling pin shaped plates (official size and lazer cut). Not the same but it keeps you in practice and lighter loads work well.
 
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