Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .357 load for bowling pins

I have been shooting bowsling pins for a couple of months now using H&K .45 and Beretta 92FS. I've always been a bit better of shooter with revolvers and am thinking about trying with.357.

My question is which load would be best for the purpose? I was thinking of a heavier load say 180 grains at a moderate velocity but am not sure.

Also does anyone know of a source for .357's with heavier bullets (ie 180)?

Thanks,

I believe Speer makes some 200 grainers.

Also, if you like revolver, you may consider the S&W model 25 which was/is made in 45 colt and 45 ACP. I image you could shoot 45 schofield out of the former. Anyway, might be a way to get the best of both worlds... just a thought.

Good luck.

If you're talking about loaded ammo, Remington makes a .357 mag 180 gr. JHP that is real accurate in carbines like the Marlin 1894C.

If you are stuck using cast bullets only, you might try a 230 gr 'swc" it really looks like a long wadcutter. I use 6.0 gr of red dot under this bullet. I have used the 1/2 jacketed SWC from speer over 12.0 gr of 2400 to good results. really most any .357 bullet pushed to the limit of YOUR controllability works well. Unless you are shooting on the 2-tier tables such as at 2nd chance.

Since "killing power" is not a factor in knocking bowling pins off a table � momentum is � calculate the impact momentum* of each load that you consider. A heavier bullet isn't any better if its impact velocity is too low to give it more momentum than you get with the lighter bullet.





*weight multiplied by impact velocity

momentum and how it is transferred to the pin. Been my experience that the transfer is as important as anything, cept maybe controllability. Many factors to consider.

If the bullet stops inside the bowling pin, doesn't it transfer all its momentum to the pin? What other "how" needs to be considered? I await edification via elucidation, not sedation! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

That first word-IF, that is the key. The pin is a double tapered cylinder, most hits are glancing and bullets often do not stop inside the pin. this is especially true with the newer poly-urethane coated pins. You will end up with faster times using a bullet that "catches" a pin better. For example a 158 gr RN moving at 1200 fPS has the same momentum as a 158 gr SWC @ 1200 fps but on a glancing hit, the RN will spin the pin on the table while the SWC will more often knock the pin off the table. Since your time stops only when the last pin is off the table, you can see the advantage of moving the pins. and moving the pins, sometimes, means transfering momentum from a less than perfect hit.

Now I'm really confused. Does momentum become less important or even cease to be important if the bullet glances off the pin or exits the other side of it?

Ken, you must realize them bowloing pins are tricky. They know they don't count if they spin on the table rather then falling off, so they just don't jump at less than a HARD Straight hit, kinda like a Kung-Fu master they duck and turn to stay where they are.
Slow heavy bullets always worked the best for me, either .45ACP ball or 180 Keith style in 38/357 at 900FPS or so. The real trick is hitting them dead on and low.

YES

Momentum IS IMPORTANT. The more momentum that is transferred to the pin, the better off a shooter will be. A bullet with a flat metplat or a HP or one with more exposed lead will connect better or perhaps connect longer will give you better times overall.

Good gosh, you guys are all too technical with your math. You need to quit reading and actually get out and shoot pins <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Norm, load up some cast 158 grain bullets behind your favorite powder to obtain about 1,100-1,200 fps and knock them off the table. I cast my own 158 grain bullets and back them with 8 grains of Hodgdon Universal Clays. NO pin stays on the table. I have been pin shooting with this load for years. My all time favorite pin load is a hand cast 200 grain semi wad cutter backed by 5.5 grains of Universal Clays in a Springfield .45 ACP. Again, no pin stays on the table. My attention getter load is a 240 grain JHP bullet shot out of a 10.5" Blackhawk at a tad over 1,500 fps. The pins don't fall off the table, they....um....kinda go to pieces <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Flinch

Why not both? Since when did reading or thinking have to replace doing? What makes you think that one who reads doesn't do anything else?

Maybe you should add the habits of reading and thinking to the habit of shooting. Reading and thinking have certainly improved my shooting � immensely.

Very helpful, edifying answer. Thanks.

In my original remarks about the importance of momentum in the choice of loads for shooting bowling pins, I assumed � and thought everyone else here would, too � that the discussion at hand would apply equally to whatever bullet shape and impact point (on the pin) one would consider in comparing the efficacies of candidate loads. Thanks, all, for reminding me that I should never assume that anyone else would bring basic logic to any discussion.

Since the word meplat is French for "flat front," there's no other kind of meplat (mep-LAH) but flat ones, just as there's no other kind of sphere but round ones. So all that's necessary to refer to either is "meplat" or "sphere," not "flat meplat" or "round sphere" as if flatness or roundness isn't already included and described in the terms meplat and sphere.

Never having participated in slaying bowling pins (yet), I'm going to take a guess on this one.

If I understand the debate right: IF you hit the pin dead center, it is going down if you used enough momentum to start with and the more you put behind it, the faster/harder it goes down. Where I think the confusion is coming from is that if you DON'T hit it dead center, the pin wants to tip sideways or spin instead of going backwards and the theory is that if you use a flat meplat, you're more likely to "catch" the pin driving it off the table but if you use a roundnose, it's more likely to glance off the cylindrical pin causing it to merely tip. Am I close on this one?

Hey norm, I have a very hard hitting handload for my S&W 686 that just might do the trick.
-180gr. Cast Performance Heat Treated Gas checked Hard Cast.
-14.1 gr. Winchester W296 (start with 12.9gr)
-Winchester 357 Mag. brass
-Winchester WSPM primer
-COAL=1.565"
-1300fps
This is not only my most powerful handload for the .357Mag, it is also the most accurate. I use it as backup when I hunt wild hogs. In an experiment to find the deapest penatrating load that I could find, It was the hands down favorite, penatrating clean through a 3,500 page catalog and leaving a 1.0'+ diameter hole on the exiting side. Heavy weight hardcast bullets with large meplates cant be beat when it comes to knock down power.
Good luck killing those pins.

I've never shot the wild and elusive bowling pin either and this question is just to satisfy my own curiousity. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I keep reading your bullet needs a big meplat (of what ever shape or form <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />) so why not just use a heavy wad cutter? Wouldn't that be as big as you could get?

BCR