bowling pin shoot

[jpm2953]

How many ranges around atlanta do a pin shoot? I was a regular at Cedar Creek when they were still in business and doing pin shoots. Miss doing that.
-Trigger Time in Flowery Branch does them but you can't use handloaded ammo and i'm not going to pay double what I reload for just to shoot pins.
-Johns Creek Range does it but there are no perks to winning. Its not competitive at all. Just like a fun shoot. Kinda a buzz kill if you drive(45 min) to go shoot and when you win its like nothing ever happened.
Where am I missing? I'd love to get back into it.

 

[kuduman]

Norcross and Sandy Springs alternate Monday nights.

Yeah, the John's Creek one is pointless-- you may as well shoot a .22, and there's lousy control over the crowd in back-- I quit going out of fear for my safety as much as anything.

Bullseye in Lawrenceville, Wed. at 7. Plastic 5" cubes though.

Trigger Time has their reasons, I'm going to suspect, for banning handloads.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

A few years ago I did a bowling pin shoot at Hi Caliber in Canton (Holly Springs).
10 years ago I used to do bowling pins at Wild West Traders in west Marietta (formerly Hot Shots range).
My big problem with bowling pin shoots, and the reason I suspect they're not very popular is that you really need a .45 ACP with 200+ grain bullets, or a .44 Special / .45 Colt, to knock them off the table reliably.
9mm and 40 and even .357 Sig / .357 Mag won't do it all the time, even with a center-of-mass hit.

I'd like to see a shoot involving blocks of wood (4 x 6 lumber from a sawmill would be fine) that you have to knock off a table. Make it suitable for 9mm rounds, too.

 

[cmshoot]

I've sent bowling pins flying cleanly with .357SIG 125grn Gold Dots. Won an LE bowling pin match using that load from a SIG P229.

When I shot pins regularly, I used a 1911 .45ACP and a handload topped with Speer's 200grn "flying ashtray".

 

[Jcchance]

Stars and Strikes of Buford bowling alley is close to you, not sure what kind of back stop they have but definitely wont be very crowded once you start shooting

 

[jpm2953]

A few years ago I did a bowling pin shoot at Hi Caliber in Canton (Holly Springs).
10 years ago I used to do bowling pins at Wild West Traders in west Marietta (formerly Hot Shots range).
My big problem with bowling pin shoots, and the reason I suspect they're not very popular is that you really need a .45 ACP with 200+ grain bullets, or a .44 Special / .45 Colt, to knock them off the table reliably.
9mm and 40 and even .357 Sig / .357 Mag won't do it all the time, even with a center-of-mass hit.

I'd like to see a shoot involving blocks of wood (4 x 6 lumber from a sawmill would be fine) that you have to knock off a table. Make it suitable for 9mm rounds, too.

I've always read that you need a .45acp to do a pin shoot successfully. In my experience, majority of people use 9mm. I have probably shot close to 100 pin matches in the past 3 years. Probably won about 20 of them. Average time for me is in the low 4's. all with a 9mm. Never had a problem knocking pins clean off the table. I am much quicker with a 9mm than a .45acp.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

Well, I tried it a few times with 9's and .40's. Even a .357 mag wheelgun.
And I KNOW that I'm more accurate with my 9mm than any other gun I own.
But, my experience is way too many of the pins solidly hit with the smaller calibers just fall over. They don't go tumbling backward and off the table.

 

[gh1950]

Well, I tried it a few times with 9's and .40's. Even a .357 mag wheelgun.
And I KNOW that I'm more accurate with my 9mm than any other gun I own.
But, my experience is way too many of the pins solidly hit with the smaller calibers just fall over. They don't go tumbling backward and off the table.

You need the right bullet.

I shot .357 Mag for the few years we had a pin shoot with 180 gr. cast bullets. One "theory" at the time was that lead bullets would "stick" to the pins better and you could get more movement from marginal hits. i never really tested it empirically, but like a lot of the b.s. you hear at the range, it sounded good and didn't hurt anything.

Anyway, a 180 gr. max. load will move a pin just fine.

The best pin gun I had, though, was a 10mm semi-auto. The biggest problem with the 10mm was the hang time when the pins went off the table hurt your score. It didn't knock them down, it blew them off.

Agree about the 9's and 40's - the guys that shot them never got clean falls. They tended to knock them over and have them spin off the table, which cost them time.

I really liked shooting pins, but it sort of fizzeled out locally.

 

[gh1950]

I've always read that you need a .45acp to do a pin shoot successfully. In my experience, majority of people use 9mm. I have probably shot close to 100 pin matches in the past 3 years. Probably won about 20 of them. Average time for me is in the low 4's. all with a 9mm. Never had a problem knocking pins clean off the table. I am much quicker with a 9mm than a .45acp.

One things that makes a difference is how big the table is.

A lot of ranges fudge on the size of the table so the 9's and 40's can spin them off the table. I've seen some ranges that just use a 2 X10 -no table.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

When I shot a .40 S&W (Walther P99) at bowling pins, I always used 180 grain loads.
I wasn't impressed with the pin-kicking abilities of that gun.
The Colt Officer's Model I used the next week did a great job, with 240 grain FMJ or RNL.