There is a bowling pin match this weekend at Marion County Fish and Game association; as usual I’ll be there. I missed the August match, so I’m pretty eager to get out there and do some terrible things to bowling pins.
Now that I’ve been shooting IDPA and USPSA for a bit, people have asked me why I still shoot bowling pins. There are two answers to that question, the first answer being that it’s a silly amount of fun. Look at this video and tell me that doesn’t look awesome.
You can’t, because it is quite close to the most fun you can have with a pistol. The second part of why I keep shooting pins is because it’s great practice for my “serious” matches. I was thinking about it yesterday, and hitting a bowling pin with a pistol at 25 feet is not an easy shot – the pin has a more narrow profile than the A-zone of an IDPA target, and while it’s taller than the “money zone” of the cardboard I’m used to shooting, a bad hit on a pin is just wasted. For example, in the video above I was actually hitting the pins just a little too high – and thus I left one of them on the table and had to come back for it with another round.
I actually wish that Pin shooting hadn’t fallen out of popularity – I think that the head-to-head match style along with the obvious reactive nature of the targets would make Pin shooting an excellent spectator shooting sport. The action is fast, and people can really get into watching two good shooters run head to head against one another.
Don’t forget, this Saturday morning at MCF&G – shoot pins, have fun.
Hey Ahab,
We’ve got a pretty vigorous pin culture up here in Northern Illinois; most places will run at least one straight-ahead pin match a year, but one local club actually holds pin night on Friday’s bi-weekly starting in November (most folks shoot outside during the summer here…).
The format is bit different than what you guys shoot:
You can load up to 10. We shoot two tables (versus) with 5 pins each an d then crossed falling target (bottom target is the winner…). One caveat is that the middle pin has to be knocked down last!
It is very challenging – You get to work on economy of motion a lot!
There is no squadding, just shooting – though some money is known to change hands behind the scenes…
BTW, I’d totally vote for you and the hammer!
At Windsor Marksmen, here in beautiful downtown Windsor Connecticut, we do bowling pins as a two gun shoot.
We saw the necks off above the stripe and put them up as a .22 rimfire target. Clean the “Headshots” and you go to your centerfire to take out the “Bodies”.
As always, total time wins.