Revolver for bowling pins

[sarge1967]

When I used to shoot pin matches I used a 625 Model of 1988 in 45ACP. It did a great job.

 

[-db-]

Hit the White Part by Massad Ayoob is an older but good book to grab on pin shooting, if you can find it. There's good stuff in the book even for those not particularly interested in pin shooting, but interested in guns and shooting in general.

 

[photoracer]

I use my competition .22 Brownings for pins plus a Ruger Redhawk in .41 Mag. The .41 mag is a 210g bullet of whatever I happen to have around and around 9g of Unique. Velocity is about 900 FPS. You don't need magnum speed because the recoil will just slow you down. My personal best for 5 pins is with my open .22 at 2.8s flat although I have done 2s flat in practice. We shoot from muzzle touching the table with shot timers. Everybody seems to do it a little different in my area. A good time for an open class .45 auto is in the low 3s range.

 

[getoff]

i like my 586 4" with factory remington 158 gr. i am no expert, but it seems to work for me.

 

[tomcatt51]

We shoot from muzzle touching the table with shot timers.

Timing is traditionally from start signal 'til last pin hitting the ground.
Pins for .22 set on the back edge of the table.
Pins for CF at or near the front of the table, typically 3' minimum from the back edge of the table.

 

[dswancutt]

I was fairly competitive with a 5" 610 10mm shooting 180gr RNFP (38/40 bullet).

 

[haggis]

Running light loads or small calibers at full-size pins is a good way to get bruised or worse. Anything with less power than a .357 will occasionally rebound back at the shooter (bowling pins are hard even before they get loaded up with lead). Many matches have a minimum power factor to avoid injuries.

IIRC, IPSA rules allowed a revo shooter to have a second revolver on the table in front of him, and he could switch if he ran dry. Since ISPA is no more (effectively), almost all of these matches are local with local rules, so I don't know if this is still true.

BTW, does anybody still sell .45 pin-grabbers?

Buck

 

[jon schroeder]

The 625 was created for pins. If I had pins to shoot locally and wanted to stay .357, I would use my 8 shot 627 and a 200+ grain Carmoney/Miculek load.
With the 2 extra shots and no limitation re competition rules (6 shot max for revolver), it would be my number 1 choice.
If there is a 6 shot limit for revolvers, I would probably stick with the 625 just for the ease re reloading for it.
I actually bought my 625 back in the day with Second Chance in mind. Unfortunately, it went away

Damn it. I want to shoot some pins now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[calmex]

I finished 2nd overall at the 1993 Second Chance pin match using a 7-shot Baumannize S&W 27 with the stock 8-3/8" skinny barrel, and 230-grain cast bullets (the ones we called "Lincoln Logs"). I bought the gun from Brian Enos, as a matter of fact. That year Jerry Miculek was right behind me in 3rd place using nearly identical equipment. We actually had an identical aggregate time, and I got lucky and beat him on the tie-breaker.

It goes to show you don't need anything real fancy to shoot pins, but load selection is very important. Those 230-grain .357 were the absolute best for shooting bowling pins. I'm pretty sure H&G discontinued the mold, and I think the only company still selling the bullets is GAT Bullets out of Louisiana.

Love your post. I shot at Second Chance in 1980. It was a great time. I did not place well, but loved the experience. I was checking around today and it appears a company called Ballisticast has picked up the 230 grain bullet you are referring to.

We want to start shooting Pin down here using .38 H.D. and Outdoorsman revolvers (or their reasonable facsimiles) and 195+ Power Factor loads. We are very limited as to what we can have due to the caliber restrictions, but N-frame revolvers in .38 Special abound and I'll be looking at getting one of those moulds.

What velocity do you load up to? Any particular powder you can recommend? We don't want to bust anything here, but some pointers would be nice.

My best friend has EXACTLY the same 7-shot cylinder conversion you speak of on a Model 23-ized 8 3/8 inch Smith and was delighted to find out you placed so well with yours. It gives him hope.

 

[Rollbar]

So far I have placed 1st & 2nd (Revolver Only Steel Match), 3rd (Steel plate against the Semi-Auto), and today I placed 3rd in a bowling pin match against the Semi-Auto shooters.

All w/my 586 8 3/8" Barrel

 

[kraigwy]

As I stated a time or two I'm a revolver guy. I started out using my "stock" 4 in. Model 28, which was my Service Revover when I was in LE.

I moved to my 6 in Model 27 because of the longer sight radius and beter sights.

I use 14.5 grns of 2400 pushing a LSWC at 1328 fps out of my Model 28 (haven't run those loads out of my Model 27 yet).

I tried those 158 round/flat nose bullets because they are faster loading but I found out, after the pins start to get shot up a bit, the round/flat nose (don't know what they are called) zip right through the pins. The LSWCs seem to grab more on the way through with their sharp edges.

New pins it don't matter but as they start to get tore up, the SWCs work better.

Never tired glass or red dots on my revolvers. Used them a bit on my 22s but desided to go to irons for them also, I seem to loose the dot, its easier for me to grab the front sight.

 

[DesertFox]

Running light loads or small calibers at full-size pins is a good way to get bruised or worse. Anything with less power than a .357 will occasionally rebound back at the shooter (bowling pins are hard even before they get loaded up with lead). Many matches have a minimum power factor to avoid injuries.

Haggis is correct - seen lots of 40S&W ricochet off pins. Wife got hit in arm with one. For that reason, I prefer to step up to 10mm, like 610 Classic, for pins. 629 or 625 even better yet.

They are tougher than most people think. Best to avoid hitting with birdshot too... Unless getting peppered with back-blast is your idea of fun...

 

[RGPM1A]

IMHO the best pin loads use the heaviest bullet at the fastest velocity you can still recover from recoil.

For revolvers I use a 627 with American Eagle 357 magnum 158 grain soft points or a model 610 (10mm) with 200 grain Hornady XTPs going at about 1200 fps. Both do the job quite nicely but the 610 really knocks them off the table. Both use moon clips but if you have to reload you are done anyway.