pin guns

[gerrycaruso]

I tried a Tokarev but those tiny supersonic .30 bullets went right through without disturbing the pins. I'm sure the fmj military ammo didn't help. The 9mm with fmj is unreliable but works fine with hollow points. The .45acp works fine with fmj. I'll try the 10mm next. I don't want to buy hollow points unless I have to and I'm curious to know how small I can go before a fmj is unreliable.

 

[allen-1]

I'm shooting in a medium bore pin league right now. Using a G17 with a trijicon, just running factory 9mm hardball ammo. Towards the end of the night I'll swap from 115 to 147 grn ammo.

When we go to big-bore league, I'll run hardball in a .45; it does the job just fine.

I'm also shooting revolver, .38's 158 grn LRN for medium bore, and I'll swap to 158 grn magnum for big bore.

 

[atmay]

I always used a 1911. .45, lovely trigger.....they’re (IMO), the perfect pin gun.

 

[PSS]

I use S&W 686 6” with vortex venom red dot

 

[HorizontalHunter]

I use S&W 686 6” with vortex venom red dot

That's my wife's favorite. Anytime we go to the range she wants Maggie to come.

Bob

 

[whacko]

I tried a Tokarev but those tiny supersonic .30 bullets went right through without disturbing the pins. I'm sure the fmj military ammo didn't help. The 9mm with fmj is unreliable but works fine with hollow points. The .45acp works fine with fmj. I'll try the 10mm next. I don't want to buy hollow points unless I have to and I'm curious to know how small I can go before a fmj is unreliable.

The guys I know that reload use lrn for pin shoot loads.......45acp or 357. No need to spring the $ for hollow points if you can get Lrn.

 

[Lefty38-55]

Back in the 80s I shot on the bowling pin circuit, personally using a S&W ‘S’ s/n pre-m29 4-screw 44 Mag loaded down to mild 44 Special loads (using Unique). Hit ‘em square and off the table they went! I’d always place in the top 3, if not 1st or 2nd.

Other top guns were all 1911s, as a big, heavy bullet just moving fast enough to impart the momentum, was key. Accuracy w/ speed ruled, where from what I recall, the top scores would always go ‘5 for 5’ on the pins.

 

[dcmdon]

I made up a static steel / pin load a few years ago.
I used 200 gr SWC (square front) bullets over roughly 4.3 gr of Clays.

The gun is a Les Baer Premier II with a Wolf reduced power 12 lb recoil spring.
It was so fast to shoot with no recoil and pins were knocked cleanly off the table if I did my part. Obviously there was some recoil. But when the slide slammed forward, the sights ended up right where they were before the shot broke.