Bowling Pin Shooting?

The bowling pin shooting sport has been around for a while. It is a competitive sport that involves shooting bowling pins off a table as fast as possible. It is generally for pistols/revolvers, though there are some that shotgun, and even carbine and registered SMG matches. But it is mainly a handgun thing.

Anyone participate in bowling pin shoots? How have you done? Any tips and tricks you'd like to share?

Thanks!

 

No I don't participate in Bowling pin shooting.

I have, however, obtained an interesting and very accurate revolver which many use for Bowling pin shooting.

It is a .45ACP Taurus Tracker in a 6 inch barrel with ported compensator. It is a five shot with the shells held in place by a kind of moon clip arrangement.

Adjustable sights and this pistol is a very very accurate shooter. Until shooting this pistol I had no Idea a revolver could shoot with such accuracy. I reload for it and thusly keep my costs down.

This particular caliber and model of pistol is no longer being made by Taurus.

Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

Did it and liked it. Use a 1911 45ACP. I liked a longslide and back then Bomar made a front heavy slide that helped you hold the barrel down and on target as you basically swept the pins off the table. I also knew a few that used a 1911 in 38 super. It takes a pretty good blow to get the pin OFF the table and knocking it over just doesn't get it.

After a few thousand runs you learn to just sweep your barrel across the table and the trigger is pulled in cadence that lands the bullet in the middle of the pin. To get the top times you don't really have time to specifically aim at each pin. Back then it was 5 pins on a 5' table that were specifically placed a certain distance apart. There were two divisions, major and minor calibers based on the power of the rounds. I understand that they have a two level set up now and divisions all the way down to 22lr and both auto and revolver divisions.

 

Poor man's bowling pins = 2-liter drink bottles. Think about it, bowling pins and drink bottles are miniature human silhouettes. Get good at busting pins and bottles at shorter distances and you'll get better at returning fire at the enemy at longer distances. Isn't that the purpose of these exercises / "games", after-all?!

Remember




http://onetexan.org/images/S308/Ballistics-Chart-20100828.jpeg

 

Hmmmmmm...I just finished reloading 50 rounds of .308 Winchester with Varget powder and 150 grain Hornday A Max bullets. Need to get some more .308 cases.

I use these rounds in a Mossberg Patrol rifle and also a Ishapore Enfield. I like the Enfield but it is a heavy rifle when compared to many of todays arms.

 

Pin shooting is actually mostly a game and not especially useful as a training tool. The pins are set and spaced the same every time and the trick is to teach your muscles and reflexes to sweep the handgun smoothly across while pulling the trigger in perfect cadence. you are not aiming and only if you could get the bad guys to stand side by side perfectly still and spaced would this skill be a lot of use in a gunfight.

It really is like bowling and a lot of fun. But also like bowling it is a skill with very little practical application. If you want to do something applicable do three gun combat competition. I always like Hogan's alley work and silhouette shooting. If I ever need to shoot a goat at 300 yards with a special handgun I'm UP for it and experienced. That's practical isn't it???

 

Wow Tex,

You have a XP 100 or a Contender???

Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I actually used to shoot silhouette with a Ruger Blackhawk convertable. I always wanted a Thompson Contender but back then I just couldn't afford it. My problem wasn't hitting the darn ram at 300 yards it was that the 357 mag didn't have enough knock down power unless you hit the very top of the ram it would just rock it. I wanted to have my spare 9mm cylinder rechambered to a 357/44 mag B&D round but once again it was to pricey. I did get to shoot a TC a lot though because one of my shooting buddies had one. Let me tell you when we put the 35 remington barrel on it you had something that would lay that ram on the ground. We usually shot it with a 44 mag barrel on it though. He cheated, a scope made it a lot easier. My Blackhawk was iron sights.

 

Wow TexDanm,

I have my Blackhawk in 41 Magnum..but the factory rounds are to hot for what I like. I am learning to download them a bit from factory settings.

I have a Thompson Contender in .223 barrels, 35 Remington, and also 7mm TCU.

Eventually I also want a 14 inch .22 long rifle barrel for my Contender.

I very much like this piece for just sitting down at the bench and taking my time and shooting.

However...The .35 Remington Barrel is a Mule. She does kick hard and I have downloaded my reloads a bit just like my 41 magnum.

I bought the .35 Remington Barrel because at the time I also had a Marlin lever gun in .35 Remington. I thought they would make a nice pair. The Contender is a pure angry Mule in .35 Remington. But there is little doubt at the .35 Remingtons ability to deliver great energy.

However....one feature I have come to verily appreciate in a Contender is the trigger pull...very clean light and crisp...but with very little over travel. This gun has spoiled me on a good trigger pull from the factory. This is now the gun by which I measure the trigger pull on all guns.

Once you get spoiled by a great trigger pull...there is nothing quite like it


Thanks for your post and keep them in the X ring,
Watcherchis.

 

My Ruger had a 2 pound break with no creep or slack. I had to made some changes in the basic design to get this done. The problem was that the transfer bar wouldn't always be far enough up and you would have a failure to fire. I lengthened the transfer bar and that fixed it but also could allow a drop fire so when I had this in I only loaded 5 rounds. I went through a lot of happens and trigger sears. The sear was done with a ceramic file so it was slick and tiny. They wore out after about 500 rounds. I also was loading way over the sane levels for the silhouette shooting. Most of my primers were flat and cratered after firing. I was getting a little 0ver 1700 FPS with 160 grain bullets out of an aprox 8" barrel with compressed loads of 2400.

Man those Super 14 TCs are the STUFF. They can make varment hunting look easy with a 223!! I have to admit, that 35 remington out of a standard TC is a handful!! Recoil is a strange thing though. Different guns and different people. Pistol recoil just never has bothered me. You know what my nemesis is. A danm Marlin 44 mag carbine almost crippled me one time!! That short stock made it so the recoil bruised me and sort of dislocated my shoulder. Hell I used to love the Super Blackhawk in 44 mag. I didn't like it a lot because it was awkward but the 454 cassul in the original Freedom Arms Revolver weren't a big problem but I will just run from a short stocked carbine with a beg heavy loaded chamber!!

 

Wow!!!

2400 is a well liked powder for those calibers. And 1700 fps is screaming to me. Understand about the ceramic file. You really must have patience to do that kind of trigger work.

I've recently bought myself a set of boxed stones for various trigger work. Mostly polishing and smoothing up in my Ruger GP 100.

Yeah.....I could see why you were want to only load five rounds.

Thanks for a very interesting post,

Watcherchris.

 

LOL, That was an insane load and would have blown up anything that wasn't a Ruger except maybe a Model 28 S&W. They reamed the cylinder out of it and hung a 44 barrel on it and called it the model 29. I was young stupid, 7' tall and armor plated back then. I would NEVER do stuff like that now! I actually once had a round basically detonate. I had to pull the cylinder out to get the case out with a hammer and punch. The primer just fell out of the primer pocket when I pulled the cylinder out of the frame. And THAT was the end of me using Winchester 296 powder. You do NOT experiment with that powder!

Cutting a sear with a ceramic file is an act of love; Patience just won't get it. I offered that same love to my Ruger Security Six and it is as slick as glass. It has a crisp 5 pound trigger that feels like 3 pound because it moves effortlessly. I don't want a combat piece to have a super light trigger. If I shoot you I want it to be intentional. Back in my day I could work magic with quality double actions. I could even improve on a factory custom Python though I always felt like it was a waste of time. Colts have weak cranes and I never cared for them for combat shooting.