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I'm looking to get into and start a bowling pin shooting league/club in the area I live in. Any suggestions?

I haven't done a lot of it, but usually it's pretty much bring whatcha got.

You need a fairly gutsy handgun caliber (not 9mm), preferably semi-auto.

Semi-auto shotguns rule over pumps in this game.

I know the game, I need suggestions on how to get a league/club set up. Who should I talk with and get the word out. Plus I need to find a place to let us do it.

Severed

Suggest you contact Waders on this forum I know he shoot in a
league. Cheers NC

You are just going to have to contact clubs local to you.

They should be amenable, bowling pins shoots are one of the top 2 money makers for my club.

Just emailed the local private range asking if they would be interested in having it there. Now to just wait and hear what they have to say. Just wish I was a member there.

Heres a link to how it works, its a blast to do. Spectator type sport. Family friendly if ya set it up right.
http://www.handloads.com/articles/default.asp?id=13

Good Luck

Swifty

I used to shoot a lot of them when I was first married 25 years ago. It is a fun shooting game, and I do pretty well at speed type events.

Pretty dang easy to join most clubs. They usually gladly take your money for becoming a member....

Once I was shooting the pins with a .45 Colt SAA using factory 255 grain lead bullets. The timer was standing to my left. On one shot, I thought I saw a flicker of something fly past and behind me. When I was done the guy handed me a mangled bullet and said, "Here, you shot me." the bullet had ricocheted off the bowling pin and hit his jacket. I was very alarmed but he said not to worry, it happened all the time.

Where can one find old bowling pins to shoot?

Note to self: check eBay first......

saw some on Ebay, but shipping was horrendous......

Local bowling alley. They change out the pins every so often. Going rate is 30 to 40 bucks for box of 10. Go in leave your name and see what happens.

Swifty

How many hits will they take?

A Whole bunch. They will get so heavy, it will take a dirct hit from a magnum pistol twice to get it off the table.

Swifty

i would suggest your local bowling alley for pins, however you need to be sure you are getting the plastic coated wood pins, and not the "twister" pins that are solid plastic and blow apart when hit with shotgun...

ask me how i know...

the other thing is, when our local alley is finished with their used pins, they frequently throw them out. when they replaced all of the pins in the alley, there were around 4,000 old pins out back for a month with a big "free" sign on them.

Thats what the lousy shots tell you.....

WOW, Guess I had better learn how to phrase things so my secrets wont get out

Swifty

We had the same happen when I shot pins too many years ago... our theory is it was not richochet, but simply a slow 45 bullet that hit the pin off center and the pin was spinning around 180 as the bullet exited. Only reason a brand new pin never shot before in the above instance would have an offcenter hit, and an entry and exit hole...

I shot bowling pins in college. You had to use a revolver or only load 6 shots to a mag. You had to change mags. My friend had a .45 revolver and used a loader that held 2 half moon clips. That was the slick rig to have. I used a S&W model 629 Classic .44 mag. Neither of us had a problem knocking down pins. I used 240 grain Carrol bullets and unique powder. Nothing special. It was fun.