Aiming or Point Shooting?

There has been some discussion over the last month about point shooting or using the sights when shooting a handgun. The discussion has been mostly along the lines of should you use one, or the other, or one method sometimes, and something different at other times. I should mention up front that I am not a highly trained and paid firearms instructor, and I have never been mistaken for Todd Jarrett, Max Michel, or Dave Sevigny at a match, nor is that likely ever to happen. I do shoot a lot though, and I've spent a lot of time over the last few years watching the pros shoot, trying to figure out what they do and how they manage to do it so quickly.

One of the first things I noticed is that most of the top shooters have excellent eye sight. There's not too much you can do about that if your eye sight sucks though, except correct things as best you can.

Another thing I've noticed is that the pros don't miss very often in matches, and when they do, their pickup shot is almost instantaneous. That tells me they are using their sights, since they can tell their misses, "Call their shots", at the time they pull the trigger, rather than waiting to hear or see the result of their shot. It's just about impossible to do that without some sort of a sight picture to go by.

But if they are using their sights, how do they manage to shoot so quickly? I don't know for sure, and I suspect some of them may not know for sure either, but here's what I think they are doing. It's actually fairly simple to describe, but actually doing it is another story entirely. To make it work, it takes tens of thousands of rounds of practice every season. First, they are ignoring the sights completely leading up to the shot, as they can get on, or very close to on target by point shooting, or more accurately, "Point Aiming".

Here's the part that separates the pros from the rest of us. Just before taking the shot, they verify their aim with an instantaneous sight picture to ascertain that they are where they think they are, and if they are not, adjust until the sight picture is proper, then fire the shot. Since tempo is a significant part of speed shooting, holding the shot for that fraction of a second is really hard. Your body says "Shoot Now!" and your instantaneous sight picture says "Don't Shoot Yet!". For most of us the "Shoot Now" usually wins, and we miss the shot! That's where practice comes in, and learning to look for that instantaneous "Sight Picture Verification", and more importantly, learning not to ignore it and shoot anyway.

One of the things I like about true Steel Challenge competition is that each stage, or target layout, has something in it that challenges one specific aspect of fast and accurate shooting. Smoke & Hope, specifically challenges you to not forget to use your sights for that sight picture verification. There are four large plates close in, two on the left and two on the right. The stop plate is much smaller, and much farther away. A good point shooter can hit the first four quickly, but will often miss the stop plate since he will fail to switch back to using the sights for the last shot. Shooting that way also requires two sighting techniques, and changing from one to the other after the fourth plate.

On the other hand, using the point aim/quick verify/shoot method allows you to use the same technique for all five shots. With practice, LOTS of practice, the instantaneous verification can be as fast as straight point shooting on a stage like Smoke & Hope, as all you are looking for is to see that there's some "White" on the other side of your sights!

As I've said in previous posts, though, 95% or more of successful handgun shooting boils down to trigger control. A While back I was watching a shooter shooting with a Crimson Trace laser sight. I could see the laser dot on the plate just before the shot was fired, but his shots would often miss the plate. In pulling the trigger he was pulling the gun off the target. Without good trigger control it doesn't matter what other techniques you use. The top shooters all have incredible trigger control, and winning or losing boils down to the remaining elements.

The next time you see one of the pros running Smoke & Hope in sub two seconds and making it look easy, remember you are watching someone who has practiced that specific stage thousands and thousands of times. Not just shot it thousands of times, but "Practiced" it thousands of times. There IS a difference between just shooting and practicing, and that's a good topic for some other time!

Idaho & Montana Road Trip - Part 4

At last things were starting to move smoothly and as planned, in spite of arriving in Missoula a couple of hours later than originally planned. We got the RV parked at a friend's place, and turned in for a good night's sleep. We awoke at a reasonable hour, considering there was a match to shoot, and started getting everything ready to go. We had plenty of time to swing by a local restaurant and get a good breakfast before heading out to the range, or so we thought. Fortunately our host reminded us that we better get on the road or we'd be late for the match. We had forgotten that we had traveled far enough East that we were in a different time zone and it was an hour later than we thought. No restaurant breakfast for us! We jumped into the RV and headed for the Deer Creek range in East Missoula.

We met up with Ty, the match director, and I agreed to R/O one of the pin bays for the day, and KeeWee offered to help with the scoring. Soon everyone was blasting away at pins with great enthusiasm. It even looked like the weather was going to cooperate a bit and it was only going to get up to the low nineties, which for Missoula this time of year is fairly moderate.

Bill, on the line, is one of the top shooters we see every year at this shoot.

The basic match format is each ticket you buy gets you three runs at the pins, with five on the table. Your two best runs are combined for your score. You can buy as many tickets as you can afford and shoot as many times as you like. Centerfire pistols and long guns have to shoot every pin clear off the table. Rimfire rifle and pistol only have to knock the pins over. There's also a "9mm.- 9 pin" class where they set up nine pins on the back edge of the table and you have to shoot all nine.

Mr. C. shooting the Taurus 66 .357 single action in the Single Action class.

KeeWee shooting the High Standard in Rimfire.

A common question from new pin shooters is "Where should I aim?". The answer is "Right there!". (A bit more powder might be a good idea, though......)

Here's the nearly almost but not quite world famous Taurus PT-92 "Econo Race Gun" and the "Taco" grip in the 9 by 9 class.

By mid-afternoon the unaccustomed heat was starting to get to both Keewee and I, being as we are used to more "Seattle-like" temperatures and rain. Fortunately the match finally wound down and we all pitched in to dismantle and store the pin tables and pins.

We all gathered in the shade under the covered pistol range to talk over the match and share stories while Ty sorted out the scores. Jennifer had won "Top Lady" with a second in rimfire pistol and a good time in rimfire rifle, thanks to Ty loaning her his Ruger 10/22 to try. Next year we'll have our own 10/22 to take to Missoula! I had entered rimfire pistol, single action revolver, and 9 by 9, and did OK in all three. KeeWee also got an award for "Most Supportive Spouse" and I won an award for "Most Reputable Media Representative". None of the local radio or TV stations that had promised to be there showed up all day. Actually I think both Keewee and I got the media award together, since we are both gun bloggers and have written about the Missoula Montana Shooting Sports Association Celebrity Pin Shoot in the past.

After the match was all wrapped up, Ty's dad Gary, Ty, KeeWee and I headed to the local McKenzie's Pizza place for an excellent dinner.

After dinner we said farewell for another year and hit the road for home. We stopped at Vantage again for some sleep, then the next morning, after a hearty breakfast in Ellensburg, headed West on I-90 towards home. We stopped at a fruit stand for some Eastern Washington produce, then back on the road. A quick stop at Lake Easton to check out the campground as a future destination, then back on the road and across Snoqualmie pass.

Coming down the West slope of Snoqualmie pass, as we neared North Bend, we heard what sounded like a muffled explosion under the hood. Now What? Almost instantly the temperature gauge pegged, and I limped down the off ramp into North Bend, grinding and graunching noises coming from under the hood.

I made it to a gas station, and came to a stop in the back where I could assess the problem. The water pump bearing had completely gone to pieces and the seal had blown out the front of the pump, followed by all the coolant.

I checked at the gas station and it turned out there was an auto parts store only three blocks away. I walked to the store, and they even had a new pump in stock! Two hours later I had the new pump installed, everything filled with coolant, and we were back on the road again.

From North Bend everything went smoothly, we caught the ferry back to Whidbey Island, and finally, we were home. WHEW!

It had been a long weekend with highs and lows, but we had a good time, met some great new folks, and will definitely do it again next year, but hopefully without the mechanical problems.

Shootin' With Mr. C.

Note: This is the second part of this series. Reading the first part before reading this part will make this part make more sense.

When I first started using the red dot sight I wasn't having much luck with it, and I was even slower and less accurate than I was with the iron sights, and that's REALLY slow and inaccurate. The more I used it, though, it started to work better and better. After two or three times at the range I was actually faster and more accurate than with iron sights. Like just about anything, it was obvious that how successful I would become would depend mostly on how much I wanted to practice. In those days the only handgun action shooting at the CWSA club was rimfire hanging plates, bowling pins, and bowling pin tops for the rimfire pistols. My first year or so, even with some practice, I was still lucky to finish in the middle of the pack overall.

One day while ordering some High Standard parts from Brownell's, the sales rep mentioned a new stainless steel and carbon fiber barrel from Volquartsen that Brownell's had just started to stock. I took a look at the pictures and decided that I had to have one! Twelve inches of barrel and a compensator too, how cool! It took me a while to scrape up the money, but finally I ordered one.

I snapped it onto my High Standard and mounted a red dot sight. The first thing I found out, shooting it from a sandbag, was that it was REALLY accurate. The close tolerances and tight fitting match chamber really made it shoot well.

Then I found out that even though it was quite light, it was still difficult to hold and control, especially if you were trying to move quickly from target to target. A little experimenting and I discovered that if I wrapped a couple of fingers around the barrel a bit back from the compensator I could hold it fairly steady and still move it around. Since there were no rules regarding exactly where you placed your weak hand on the gun, I started shooting that way to see if I could actually get fast enough and accurate enough to be competitive.

Over the next couple of years I discovered, addressed, and resolved a number of problems that cropped up. I found that I was having a large number of 'failure to fire' situations, and when that happened, you had to pry the round out of the chamber as the extractor couldn't grab it solidly enough to pull it out. I experimented with extractors and extractor springs, but the problem just wouldn't go away. Finally I figured out what was going on. The match chamber actually allows the bullet to engage the rifling in the barrel. Sometimes that engagement would keep the rim of the cartridge from fully seating against the face of the barrel. When the firing pin would hit the rim the round would move forward the last small amount and the firing pin wouldn't strike the rim solidly enough to fire the round. Changing the chamber to a standard depth chamber and polishing it a bit resolved the problem. I'm sure a little bit of accuracy was sacrificed, but not enough to affect action shooting.

All of this work and practice takes us up to a couple of years ago. The gun was running reliably and as a result of a ton of practice, I was starting to visit the winner's circle in the bowling pin top matches from time to time. Being fairly accurate but not particularly fast worked well in the rimfire hanging plate matches. Then CWSA decided to start running some steel plate matches, a little like steel challenge, and also to start running some rimfire falling plate matches. I shot some of those, but with very limited success. I was set up for pin tops, I practiced for pin tops, and that was where it all seemed to work together, along with the hanging plates.

At the start of last Summer I decided to try to take it to the next level, practice all I could, and then at the end of the Summer go to California and shoot in the Steel Challenge World Championships. The difference between a small local club shooter and a world class shooter is immense, but I decided to do the best I could, and try not to be dead last!

I started shooting on the average five days a week. The last month before I went to the World Championships I was practicing almost every day, and twice a day once or twice a week. I don't know the exact count, but I figure I shot approximately 20,000 rounds of rimfire in practice. Did I improve? Yes, definitely, but still miles away from the top shooters in the game. I was now winning the rimfire pin top matches and rimfire hanging plate matches at CWSA quite often, but still not every one. I had, however, greatly improved both the physical and mental parts of my competitive shooting. I took a lot of seconds in rimfire falling plates and speed steel matches. One shooter won just about all of those, and I couldn't quite catch up. Close, but not close enough! I also started entering every class at the bowling pin matches to gain additional match experience.

I took a break from shooting for a couple of months over last Winter, as I was starting to get burned out from all of the matches and all of the practice range time. In February, though, I was back at it, practicing all of those things I wasn't happy with. The first four matches of the year went well, and I won all four of them, a hanging plate match, a falling plate match, and two bowling pin top matches.

All of the work I had put in was finally paying off. I had learned a way to coax a bit of speed out of a shooting technique usually only used by silhouette shooters. I still wasn't as fast as the fastest shooters, but I would seldom miss. At the last bowling pin top match I broke the range record for pin tops, shooting five pin tops off the table, starting from a low ready, in 2.85 seconds. Sure, a really fast shooter could probably do it in sub two, but this is just a small club match. I was kinda proud of my time, even if it did involve a little luck!

At the World Steel Challenge Championships I ended up 49th out of 73 Optic Sight rimfire shooters. I know I could have, and will, do better, but for a first World Championship I was really pretty happy. I left that match with the will to practice even harder and see if I can do even better!

Then the bomb dropped. The CWSA club member who has absolute power as to the match rules, and who had up until this year won just about every CWSA match week after week, changed the rules. Under his new rules, in all bowling pin, speed steel, and falling plate matches my shooting method was now banned. You were now required to start with both hands on the rear grip. Taco grips and any other form of grip where you had your weak hand anywhere else other than on the rear grip at the start was now illegal.

Sure, I could probably learn a different way to shoot that complies with his rules, but really, why bother learning something new just for shooting at one club when the method I use is perfectly legal at the only other club in the state's Pin Shoots, and it's just fine under the Steel Challenge Association's rules, and it's just fine at the big Man of Steel match held a few weeks ago.

I shoot competition just for the fun of it, and there's no way I'll ever get good enough for a big bucks sponsorship. I enjoy the fellowship, I enjoy the chance to innovate, and I enjoy trying to shoot the best I can. If that gets me a first, or dead last, it really doesn't make much difference. If I had a good time, that's what matters.

As someone once said, a door closing can be a door opening, and perhaps that's the case for me. Perhaps it's time to travel farther to matches and shoot against stiffer competition, and thereby continue to improve.

Any shooter that takes shooting so seriously that they no longer are having any fun, so seriously that losing is a crushing blow to their ego, so seriously that they will change the rules so they can win, that shooter should ask themselves why they are even attending the matches in the first place. Sadly, they have lost something of great value, the ability to have fun and not take themselves, anyone, or anything too seriously.

Pin Shooting with Mr. C.

Quite a few years ago I went to the Central Whidbey Sportsman's range and entered my first bowling pin shoot. To be more specific, it was actually a rimfire bowling pin top match. The competition was head to head and single elimination. The pistol I was using wasn't very competitive, but neither was I, being both slow and inaccurate. I considered it an outstanding run if I could clear the five pin tops off the table in seven seconds and only have to use one magazine's worth of ammunition in doing so.

In those days the centerfire classes were absolutely dominated by one shooter who won every time, and no one else was even close. The rimfire competition was the same, the same shooter won every time. Sometimes a new shooter would show up, get trounced, and never come back. Of course, any new shooter who expects anything else than getting beat the first times he tries it has a lot to learn. Everyone loses a lot when they start.

Of the shooters who used to show up at the bowling pin matches back then, very few do we see today at the pin matches. I too could have gotten discouraged and given up, but that's not my nature. I took a hard look at what I was doing, and took a good look at what was needed to be competative. I could see that the pistol I was using wasn't up to the task. I started researching all the .22 pistols on the market looking for one that was rugged as a tank, easy to work on, and preferably all steel so it wouldn't get loose after tens of thousands of rounds of practice. It also had to be accurate, and left handed shooter friendly. I finally narrowed it down to either a Smith & Wesson model 41, a Browning Buckmark, or a late model series High Standard. The model 41's were by far more expensive, so I narrowed it to the Browning or the High Standard. The Buckmark's aluminum frame was a consideration, but it seemed to be really well made, so I was willing to give it a try in my effort to become more competitive. I started asking around to see if anyone had either one for sale used. By luck a friend of mine had just sold and traded some guns to a friend of his and had ended up with a High Standard Supermatic Citation in the deal. I went and looked at it and it even had a set of left hand grip panels with it. As soon as I picked it up it just felt right, like an extension of my hand. We negotiated a price, and I went home with my new pistol.

I shot a few pin matches with the new High Standard, and it was a definite improvement. I was still finishing way down the list, but I was starting to make a little progress. I could see that a red dot sight was faster and also much easier to shoot quickly, especially for old eyes like mine. The first year I competed, the iron sight and optic sighted guns shot in the same class. The next year it was split into two classes. Looking through the Brownell's catalog I came across a Lebanon Machine Products 5.5" bull barrel for the High Standard that was drilled and tapped to accept their Weaver type sight rail. Out came the credit card! I also ordered a Simmons 42mm. red dot sight to mount on the new barrel.

Once the BTH (brown truck of happiness) arrived, I quickly put the new barrel on the High Standard and mounted the sight. Off to the range to try it out!

The first time shooting with a red dot was a definite learning experience. I learned the "C-More Shuffle" as it's called. When you raise the gun to firing level, if you don't have it aligned properly you can't see the red dot. You then wiggle the gun back and forth and up and down until you find the dot! You look even more silly if you have forgotten to turn the sight on in the first place, as no matter how much you "shuffle", the dot never appears! First lesson, practice A LOT until the gun comes up with the dot centered every time.

The next thing I learned is to keep both eyes open, and focus on the target, not the sight, as you would do with iron sights. More practice need here, too!

When I first tried the red dot sight I was not only slower than with iron sights, I wasn't any more accurate. I could see I needed to put in a lot of work if I was ever going to get the hang of it.

I also learned that the faster you try to shoot, the better your trigger control needs to be. 95% of the mechanics of pistol shooting is trigger control, and trigger control isn't something that comes easily. Most of the top shooters shoot in excess of 20,000 rounds a year, and to get really good trigger control you need to not only practice a lot, but practice regularly. If I don't practice for a week or so, I really notice the drop in trigger control. Fortunately, it returns fairly quickly!

....... end of Part One - to be continued.

Thoughts on Pin Shooting

Lou G., Rainy, and Dean at CWSA

Ahab is going to try out pin shooting in a week or so, and he asked me if I had any tips for him. After thinking about it, I decided there was more to cover than I could cover in an email, so I decided to put it together as a post for all to see.

Pin Shooting Thoughts and Observations

The number of rounds in your magazine is usually limited, so accuracy is REALLY important. You can beat a much faster shooter if he has to reload and you don't.

If you shoot your best against a faster shooter and he shoots his best too, you will lose. Don't try to shoot at his speed. Shoot at your speed, put yourself in a position to win, and let him beat himself. Don't beat yourself, make him beat you.

DO NOT WATCH THE OTHER SHOOTER'S PINS! Focus on YOUR pins only! His pins are HIS problem.

Focus, and stay focused, even against slower shooters where you might be tempted to ease up a bit.

Try to hit the pin between just below the emblem and a little bit above the fattest part. If you hit them too low and kick the bottom out they actually fall forward, and then they're miserable to get off the table.

Even if you have a jam or are way behind, KEEP SHOOTING! Your competitor may jam on his next shot.

Count your ammo. Count them out of the box into your hand, count them out of your hand into the magazine, and most importantly, count them as each round is fired. Even as you are watching other shooters, count their shots too, just for practice. You need to know when it's time to reload without wasting time dropping the hammer on an empty chamber.

Get the first pin, even if it means slowing down a little bit and getting a slightly better sight picture. When you miss the first pin everything else falls apart and the run is hard to salvage. Even if you get the next four pins cleanly, you still have to come all the way back for the first one.

Don't change plans in mid run. If you miss a pin continue to the next one and finish the run, then come back and pick up the cripples. Don't break the rhythm of the run.

After you have shot the last pin off the table, take another look to verify every one you thought left the table actually did so. Do this check by holding sight picture and scanning back across the table. Sometimes a pin that you were sure was off the table will still be sitting there. If you don't bring the gun down while you are checking, you are all set to shoot the rogue pin off the table.

Strive for a smooth style and tempo. Smooth feels slower, but it's usually faster. There's a lot of truth in "Slow down to shoot faster!"

Every table already shot, good, bad, or downright ugly, is history. Don't let the last table screw up the next one.

When the match is over, help the range officers clean up, pick up brass, put stuff away, whatever you can do to help them out. They're volunteers, and they can always use an extra hand. Showing up before the match and helping them set everything up isn't a bad idea, and it doesn't hurt to thank the folks putting on the match, either.

Never forget that the reason you are here is to have some fun. Don't take it so seriously that you stop enjoying yourself. I've had the chance to meet and shoot with some of the best shooters in the world, and almost every one of them is having a ball doing what they love to do, shoot!

Lastly, always remember that
slow hits beat fast misses,
every time!

CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot - 03/29/08

All day Friday it was snowing wet sloppy snow, and the weather forecast didn't look really great for Saturday, but they said it should at least be not snowing. Saturday morning the wind was cold and damp, not the kind of weather you'd prefer for spending the day outdoors.

None the less, KeeWee and Mr. C., the fearless pin shooters, loaded up the van with enough guns and ammo to open a small gun shop and headed to the CWSA range in Coupeville, WA. CWSA shoots a lot of different classes, so if I want to get in a lot of shooting I need to enter several classes. Glutton for punishment that I am, I planned to enter every class, and enter two different guns in the rimfire optical class. Rimfire optical and big bore revolver are my favorites, but I enjoy them all.

John D. from the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver club and blogger Mad Rocket Scientist were both planning to give pin shooting a try too, so the more the merrier.

John showing that when a 10mm. Glock speaks, the pins pay attention!

We start out the day by everyone shooting four tables of pins against the clock, the three best times added together, and those totals used to determine your first round opponent. That way everyone shoots their first round against a similar skill level shooter. That makes for lots of close matches.

In qualifying I noticed that I was shooting fairly quickly, but I was missing a lot, too. In fact, by the end of the day I was almost out of .45ACP, I had about 15 rounds left! I also noticed that I seemed to be getting a lot of lucky rolls. Marginally placed shots that may or may not actually take the pin off the table were usually getting the pin off the table. Some days the pins will roll for you, and other days the pins won't leave the table no matter what you hit them with.

When we got into the matches themselves, there were lots of really close tables, and even several tables so close they were deemed as ties and were shot again to break the tie.

It was great to see Lou G. AKA "Mad Gun" back shooting again after a long recovery from breaking has left arm last December. By the end of the day Lou was stiff, sore, and tired, but the ear to ear grin let us all know that Lou was back, and couldn't have been happier. All of the usual suspects were there, including Dean, Rainy, "Evil Al", Chris, Tony, Larry, Larry, (sometimes we have four Larrys), KeeWee, myself, and the rest of the gang.

Pin shoots at CWSA are a social event as much as a shooting match, and we all enjoy getting together and swapping stories, rumors, jokes, and tall tales. It's not about winning and losing. It's about having fun spending a day with a bunch of friends and getting in a lot of shooting too! Having John and Mad Rocket Scientist shoot with us was great too, as they are both great shooters and a pleasure to be with!

After shooting all of the centerfire classes, including Optic Sight, Iron sight, Revolver, and Big Bore Revolver, we swapped out the full sized pins for 6" tall pin tops for the rimfire classes. When the full size pins get shot up too badly, we bandsaw off the top of the pin and use them for the rimfire classes.

Scott , Rainy, and Mad Rocket Scientist in a close match.

In the qualifying part for the rimfire classes lots of good times were being turned in. In qualifying my Volquartsen barreled High Standard, I had three good runs, and the gun seemed to be almost on auto-pilot. It was almost like whenever the red dot was on a pin the gun fired all by itself, and I was just watching it all happen through the sight! Since I had one run to throw away, I decided to push the speed a little bit and see what happened. Usually when I try this I would miss the first two are three pins and the run would pretty much be a disaster. One of the keys to pin shooting is to be sure to hit the first pin. If you miss the first one the rest of the run usually falls apart, and even if it doesn't, you still have to pick up the pin you missed. To be sure I get the first pin, I always hold on the first pin for just a fraction of a second to be sure of my sight picture. For the remaining pins the gun is actually moving as I shoot. This time I went for a snap shot at the first pin and nailed it, sending it flying. I swept across the remaining four pins, trying to accelerate as I moved across them. Four more shots, and the table was clear of pins! When Al announced the time I just about fell over! As long as I've been shooting pin tops at CWSA, I can't remember anyone ever getting below three seconds for a run, and I had just shot a lucky 2.85 seconds! Fastest time ever shot at CWSA was 2.43 seconds, and that was with a centerfire pistol shooting full size pins. I still can't believe the time. I may never see a time like that again, but what a rush to shoot it!

Anyhow, after the qualifying ,we went into the matches themselves. Just like in centerfire, there were a whole lot of really close matches. I had loaned my tricked up S&W 22A .22 to Mad Rocket Scientist for the match, and although it took him a little bit to get used to the light trigger, he figured it out and shot it very well. I already knew that John D. was an excellent .22 shooter, and particularly with iron sights, so it was no surprise when he ended up second in Rimfire iron sight class, almost winning the class.

It was a long day filled with a lot of fun match ups, and by the end of the day everyone was about worn out. The weather hadn't rained on us at all, and the sun even tried to peek through a couple of times.

After the match Jon, his wife Jeannette, KeeWee, and I headed up to Oak Harbor to our favorite Mexican restaurant for a good meal and a great end for a perfect day.

(Click here for match results)

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For a hilarious write-up about the pin shoot, check out Mad Rocket Scientist's post HERE!

Are You Ready To Try Pin Shooting?

Chris and Mr. C., dead even in the revolver class.

If you've been thinking about joining in on the fun at a bowling pin shoot, Saturday, Mar. 29th at Central Whidbey Sportsman's Assn. range in Coupeville is the place to be on Saturday, March 29th. You want to be there at 9am. for signup. After signup each shooter will get to shoot four tables of five pins each against the clock. Your three best times are added together, and this total is used to match you up with someone of about the same speed in the first round. That way the new shooters get to shoot against other shooters of similar skill level. It's a single elimination format, with each matchup being two out of three with the winner advancing and the loser being magically transformed into a spectator!

We shoot a number of different classes:

Optic sight centerfire
Iron sight centerfire
Revolver (any sight)
Big bore Revolver (.429 bore minimum)
Optic sight rimfire
Iron sight Rimfire

Revolver shooters can shoot both in the revolver class and the centerfire class. The rimfire classes use 6" pin tops instead of full size pins. No FMJ bullets allowed, but plated (like Rainier) or jacket hollow points, or lead are all OK.

The shoots are small and fun, but it's a good idea to shoot several classes to get in plenty of shooting. Cash pay out for first and second place in all classes except rimfire and big bore, where the entry fee is less, but it only pays for 1st. place.

If you have any questions, leave a comment to this post, or drop me an email. The email address is at the top of the right sidebar just below the pin top shooting picture.

If you want to make a weekend of it, there are plenty of restaurants, B&B's, motels, and campgrounds available here on Whidbey Island.

Come on and give it a try. Even if you finish last, you still beat out every other shooter who didn't show up!!

CWSA Pin Shoot & Range Construction

Sunday was a big day at the CWSA range in Coupeville, Washington. On the bowling pin range we had our first pin shoot of the year, and just to the side of the pin range the excavators were hard at it excavating and building berms for five brand new pistol bays.

The excavator and one of the dozers.

It doesn't take them all that long to dig down three feet and build the berms when you have two dozers and an excavator all going at the same time.

The berms aren't up to full height, but the 'floor' is finished.

In spite of all the racket going on with the excavating, Sunday was also the first pin shoot of the year. It was kind of a 'flat light' day, so I knew that the iron sight classes were going to be a struggle. For the first time KeeWee decided to shoot in the iron sight rimfire class with the Beretta Neos, as well as shooting the High Standard in the optical sight rimfire class.

As pin shoots go, we start by shooting four tables of five pins each against the clock for qualifying. Your three best times are added together and that's what's used to determine your first round opponent, the fastest shooters against the fastest shooters on down to the slowest against the next slowest.

Tony C. broke the previous range record of five pins in 2.46 seconds with a run of 2.43 seconds. If Tony hits everything with his first shot, no one's faster. Fortunately for us mortals, Tony misses some!

Today KeeWee grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. I entered every class, so I was pretty busy all day and didn't have much time for picture taking.

Mr. C. shooting the Taurus 9mm. PT92 'Econo Race Gun' Taco style in Centerfire Open class.

This picture was the second table against 'Evil Al'. Al was hitting the pins a little bit low and they were falling forward, staying on the table. A perfect hit on a pin is just below the label and very slightly to one side. That way the pin tips back and also moves back at the same time. Hitting slightly to one side sets the pin rotating so if the pin does fall on the table it may still be rotating enough to roll of the back edge.

Mr. C. and Tony in the Centerfire Optic final.

I actually managed to get past Tony for the win, but only because he missed a couple of pins. He's so much faster than I am that when he has a good run against you it can blow your confidence for the rest of the day!

When we got down to the rimfire classes the weather had finally improved a bit and it was almost pleasant. Not quite, but almost.

For rimfire we saw off the top 6" of the bowling pin and use just the pin top for the target instead of a full sized pin. .22's will send the pin top flying if you hit it squarely. If you don't hit it squarely it's totally unpredictable. It may jump, spin, or roll, and you may end up having to hit a moving target!

In qualifying for rimfire optical I shot my best ever single table, 3.43 seconds, and my best ever three table total, a 3.43, a 3.81, and a 3.81 for 11.05. That's the closest I've ever come to breaking into the ten's. I sure hope I didn't use up all my fast tables fro the year at the first pin shoot! In rimrire iron sight qualifying KeeWee struggled a bit on a table or two, but started to get it figured out on the third and fourth table. Her first opponent was Big Phil, a good iron sight shooter who has won the iro nsight class in the past. KeeWee knocked him out two tables in a row! With a bye she was then into the final, and although she lost, she did very well for her first try at it, and will certainly be a very competitive at future pin shoots.

All things considered, it was a good day at the range. All the guns seemed to run pretty well, and everyone had a good time. LouG., in spite of only recently having had the outside rod removed that was holding his left arm together while the bones set up, did manage to shoot his .38 revolver and not only was he glad to be back shooting, he made Evil Al work plenty hard to beat him!

After the shoot KeeWee and I headed to Oak Harbor to spend our prize winnings on a mexican dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant.

Then home, and a nap.....................

Norm's .357 Pin Shooting Loads

In my previous post "I Need A Vacation........" I mentioned that I had just purchased a Taurus 8 shot .357 Magnum revolver. Norm is apparently a rabid bowling pin shooter like me, and he has done some good work in developing loads for the .357 for bowling pin shooting. He left me a detailed post on some of what he's come up with, including the contact info for R&R Bullet company, where he obtains the 230 Grain wadcutters he's been using.

Remember that all disclaimers apply, as this is just what Norm has been doing in HIS revolver, and if it is safe for you to use in yours, that's your decision. If you aren't sure, PLEASE find out first. You've been warned........

Here's Norm's comment:

R&R Bullet
233 Goffena Rd
Chadron NE 69337
800-865-1312

I like the 230 WC over 5.6 gr. of VV N 350. Gets 900 fps (207PF) .38 Spl brass seated to the crimp groove.

Some folks use Blue dot

Excerpt from an exchange I was having with the folks at VV while I was doing the load development: "Just got back from the range a few minutes ago. It started raining, else I'd still be there. Here are some preliminary results. Actually I may have enough data that I don't need to dig much further, but I probably will if time is not a problem.

I used my wife's new S&W 686 plus (7-shot), 6 inch barrel. It was sent to mag-na-port for dual traps (4 holes of braking) and installation of a patridge front sight with the McGivern gold bead. This required machining. When it returned I did an action tuning job. Then I loaded up some rounds and headed out.

I used Federal (no. 100) Small Pistol Primers in every instance.

Winchester .38 Spl Brass

R&R 230 grain Lead Wadcutter seated to the crimp groove. COL 1.458 inches Bullet is about .8925"

4.2 grains V V N350, Moly-Kote on bullets, V average = 719fps Sd= 10 fps

4.2 grains V V N350, regular lube on bullets, V average = 726 fps Sd= 8 fps

5.3 grains V V N350, regular lube on bullets, V average = 853.8 fps Sd= 10 fps

6.4 grains Blue Dot, regular lube on bullets, V average = 8 74 fps Sd= 8 fps (this was reference)

Accuracy is superb. I had loaded some with 5.0 gr. of VV N350 but left them behind in my race to beat the rain. So have no data. I wanted to check linearity of velocity versus charge weight response. I find this is useful in avoiding high pressure situations.

I plan to load 5.4 or 5.5 grains for competition as a power factor of l95 is considered minimum for bowling pin shooting and we need to allow for some tolerance in the reloading equipment.

I'll let you know how it works if you are interested. This pinbuster bullet has really made the .357 Mag a viable competitor in this game.


Cheers,

Norm

I think maybe I better contact R&R and get some of those bullets on the way! I wonder if they make a 500 grain WC for the .480 Ruger? THAT would be fun!

---

Norm: drop me an email at

b l o g (at) w h i d b e y (dot) c o m

so I can email you directly. I'd like to find out more about where you hold your pin shoots and what rules you use. Thanks!

CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot - 10/20/2007

It was definitely not the nicest of weather for a pin shoot, but fortunately it was only blowing and the rain was mostly holding off for a while. The covered shooting stations were a comfort in case the rain did start falling, but they weren't much help with the wind.

As I have been doing lately, I entered every class so I could get in the maximum amount of shooting. I always shoot in qualifying just as I plan to shoot in the matches, as I figure it's just one more chance to practice and get warmed up. If I'd slow down a little in qualifying I'd draw easier first round opponents, instead of running into Evil Al all the time in the first round. Shooting against the fastest gun in the place forces you to work at being a better shooter, which I prefer.

In Centerfire Open I timed in second behind Al shooting the Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun, so he was my first round opponent. I shot as fast as I could go, but Al is at a whole different level, and even though I kept it close on one of the tables, he cruised past with little effort. He also smacked down everyone else he met in the class to take the class win.

In Centerfire Iron sight I timed in second with my Charles Daly 1911, and faced Chris C. in the first round. I narrowly won the first round, and was slightly ahead in the second, when with one pin left and one round left to shoot, I got a failure to fire and had to clear the round and change magazines. It was close, but I lost, and that retired me from the class. I think Chris won the class, but I'm not sure.

Centerfire revolver was interesting, as Al had a little trouble timing in and My Taurus 66 and I actually timed in slightly faster than he did! Qualifying times and how you shoot in the match are two different critters, however, and he got me easily on the first table. The second table was really close, but one of my pins required a second shot to get it off the table, and that was about the margin by which I lost. If I would have hit it a little closer to center mass, I would have won the table, a rare occurrence against Al, indeed! So much for centerfire revolver!

Two-and-out was getting to be the pattern for the day, but not a big surprise when you come up against Al. Still to come, however, was big bore revolver, rimfire optic, and rimfire iron sight, three classes where I stand a bit better chance.

Big bore revolver was to be a really interesting contrast between guns and techniques. The pins are set three feet from the back of the table, so you have to hit them pretty hard to get them off the table. Al was shooting a double action Smith & Wesson revolver (I think it's in 45LC using .45ACP and moon clips, but it might have been a .44 Magnum) with iron sights. Al is VERY proficient shooting it double-action. If I remember correctly, he had loaded up 220 grain bullets with a healthy amount of powder behind them. The S&W is relatively small and light, so recoil is an issue, but it's fast to get it on target. On the other hand, I was shooting a Ruger Super Red Hawk .480. I was using 525 grain semi-wad cutters, with a reduced powder load, but still enough oomph to send a WHOLE lot of energy down range. As I am a terrible double-action shooter, I shoot single action, even though it's slower. As the saying goes, fast misses don't count for much! I also have a red dot sight mounted on the Ruger. It was a contrast between lighter bullets with a lot of velocity, or heavier bullets moving slower, between slower but more accurate single action or faster but less accurate double action, between a heavier red dot sighted Ruger, or a lighter and quicker Smith & Wesson.

Timing in didn't do much to answer any questions as to who had the edge for the day. Since there was only a small turn out we only had the two of us entered in the big bore revolver class, but every time we have met in the past it has been really close. Today was going to prove to be no exception. The big bore class has slightly different rules from the other classes, and you are not allowed to reload, limiting you to six shots for the five pins. Needless to say, you don't want to miss!

The first table was close, but Al left a pin on the table, and I was able to get all of mine off, giving me the first round. The second table was REALLY close, each of us hitting the fifth pin with our sixth shot. My last pin found it's way to the ground slightly ahead of Al's, giving me the class win. Dang, those big bores are fun to shoot!

After the centerfire classes were finished, we set up the bowling pin tops for the rimfire classes. We all shot four tables of pin tops against the clock, our worst run of the four was thrown out, and our first round match ups were determined by the times. Al shot times faster than I have ever shot in my life to qualify in first place. I qualified my Long Barrel High Standard second, and my S&W model 422 in fourth. KeeWee was somewhere around sixth. Shooting two guns in the same class it's easy to lose track of what you were shooting and who you shot against. I do remember that I won both first round match ups, one against Al, and one against Chris(?), to advance to the second round against myself, so I retired the 422 and continued on with the High Standard. KeeWee came up against Rainy and they both were trying a little to hard, and neither one of them shot as well as they normally do, but Rainy advanced, and KeeWee was done for the day. The rest of the match is such a blur that I don't even remember who I met in the final! Rainy? Anyhow, I won the final, and we were then on to the Rimfire Iron sight class. We only had three of us in the class, but Jim P., who usually only shoots rimfire, and usually just the iron sight class, was definitely the one to beat. I don't think Jim has lost a Steel Challenge Iron Sight match this year! Our third shooter was Murray, who I was surprised to find out has only been shooting since June. He sure doesn't shoot like it! Anyhow, usually Jim clobbers me, but I got lucky this time and managed to pull out the class win. Not by much ,but I'll take it!!

We had a great time, the weather was actually pleasant by afternoon, and after the match we went to the Oak Harbor Dairy Queen for treats. Have you tried their Banana Cream Pie Blizzard? I love ice cream, and I love banana cream pie, so I was in hog heaven with one of those, in the largest size they make of course.........

On the way home from the DQ we stopped by Al's place to pick up my bullet order from Rainier bullets. We all go together and buy our bullets once or twice a year in bulk to get a slightly better price. Even so, it was $430 worth of bullets. YIKES.........

..... a busy weekend!

It's Monday morning and it's been a really busy weekend. It seemed like KeeWee and I were on the go all the time. Saturday was a CWSA Bowling Pin shoot. As I have been doing lately I shot every class, using either a Charles Daly 1911 with iron sights, the 9mm.Taurus PT92 'Econo Race Gun', the .357 Taurus Model 66 revolver, the .480 Ruger Super Red Hawk, the High Standard/Volquartzen .22 race gun, or the Smith & Wesson model 422 in .22 caliber. That's a lot of changing back and forth and trying to remember which gun you are shooting at the moment, and where the magazine release is!

Was it Jeff Cooper who said that you should beware the shooter who shoots only one gun? Anyhow, if you shoot only one gun, you can really fine tune your skills for just that one particular gun. If you start shooting many different guns, you will, in my opinion, become a better overall shooter, although your performance with any one particular gun may not be quite as good. A really good shooter can pick up just about anything and shoot it well. Not only that, but the more guns you shoot, and the more classes you enter, the more shooting you get to do in a day, and when you really enjoy shooting, what more could you ask for?

The bowling pin matches are single elimination format, so if you lose against only one other shooter, you are done for the day in that class. Prior to the match we shoot four tables of five pins per table against the clock to determine your first round opponent, fastest qualifier against number two, number three against number four, and so on down the list. Unfortunately with this system, if you have one really outstanding shooter, whoever qualifies second is almost always going to have a very quick exit from the class! In every centerfire class I lost in the first round!

Big bore revolver only had two shooters this time, Evil Al and myself. I talked Al into shooting 3 out of 5 instead of the normal 2 out of 3 so we could do a little bit more shooting, and he agreed. I narrowly won the first table, and also the second. Had it been the regular 2 out of 3, I would have won, but no, it was 3 out of 5, and Al came roaring back and won the next three in a row! Every table was really close, as I was right with him all the way, but he got me every time, but by the smallest of margins. Great fun, and there's something about shooting the big bore revolvers that's particularly enjoyable!

Rimfire pin tops was the last event for the day. I entered both the Long Barreled High Standard and the Smith & Wesson 422, and KeeWee entered with the High Standard Sharpshooter 103. I had a couple of bad runs with the High Standard in qualifying, and was slightly faster with the 422, so once again, I was up against Al in the first round, this time with the 422. Also once again, Al won the round, not by much, retiring the 422 for the day. A few rounds later, however, I was up against Al again, this time with the Long Barreled High Standard pin gun, and it was again really close, but this time I managed to retire Al, rather than the other way around! I ended up with the class win, and KeeWee ended up somewhere around fifth or sixth, I don't remember for sure.

After the pin shoot we headed up to Oak Harbor to the Dairy Queen for something to eat. Have you tried the banana cream pie blizzards? Delicious!

Sunday morning we were back to the CWSA range for a rimfire falling plate match. Like a pin shoot, it's also a head to head match, but unlike pin shoots, it's a round robin format rather than a single elimination. That means you get to shoot three times against every other shooter in the match! You better bring lots of ammo for one of these, as you get in a lot of shooting! Final placing is determined by how many rounds you win. We had thirteen shooters, so everyone got to shoot 36 rounds against other opponents. No times are recorded since it's head to head, but there was a whole lot of amazingly fast shooting going on.


Once the dust had settled, KeeWee and Chris were tied for fifth, Johan was fourth, Tony was third, and Al and I were tied for first with 30.5 points. First place ties are settled by a 2 out of 3 shoot-off. I wasn't very optimistic as Al got me 2 out of 3 in the match itself, and he was definitely shooting faster than I was, but he was missing more plates, too, so there was at least hope that if I shot as fast as I could go without mistakes and if he missed a plate I might get him. It turns out that's exactly how it played out. What a fun way to end a match, in a shootout to break a tie!

After the match we helped put everything away, then drove to Burlington to Costco's for hot polish sausages. I love good hot dogs, and those are even better! From Costco we drove a couple of blocks to the new Sportsman's Warehouse to pick up some ammo. I also picked up three more Glock magazines for the 9mm. Glock.

From Burlington we drove back to Whidbey Island, crossing the Deception Pass bridge to get onto Whidbey. We stopped at Deception Pass bridge and also at the state park so KeeWee could take a few pictures and we could go for a short walk on the beach.

After another 4o minute drive we pulled into the driveway at Completely Castle.

It had been a fun day!

CWSA Hanging Plates & Pin Shoot

Once again it's been a busy weekend, with a CWSA Rimfire Hanging Plates match on Saturday, and a Bowling Pin Shoot on Sunday. The Weather was perfect both days, with scattered clouds in the morning, and clearing off and sunny in the afternoons.

Hanging Plate matches aren't quite the pressure cooker that pin shoots are, as you aren't shooting head to head, but are taking turns shooting at the plates. Although you are required to get six shots off in six seconds, that seems downright leisurely compared to pin shooting or falling plate matches. KeeWee shot perhaps her best score ever in the Optical Sight class, good enough for third place. We all had a good time, and no one really worried too much about scores.

Sunday was the CWSA Bowling Pin Shoot, and those ARE adrenalin laden matches. It's two tables out of three, head to head, and loser is out! No Second chance to redeem yourself. The first round match ups are determined by shooting four tables of pins against the clock. Your slowest time is discarded, and the remaining three are totaled to determine your first round opponent. The fastest against number two, number three against number four, and so forth. No easy first round match ups!

In Centerfire Optical Sight and Centerfire Iron sight I got eliminated in the first round. Things were not looking good, as my qualifying times had been right near the top in every class, but that meant I was matched with someone really fast, usually "Evil Al". The third class up was Revolver, and both Evil Al and Tony (the two fast guys) had both had problems in qualifying, and I ended up with fast time, although it was far slower than they usually shoot. Once again Al knocked me out in the first round, although I was close enough that if he had made any mistakes I might have had a chance. He didn't make any mistakes. Score so far: Three classes, three first round eliminations. Next up was Big Bore Revolver, where everything had to be a .44 or larger. The class also limited you to only six shots per table, so speed was still important, but accuracy was really important, too. Unfortunately we only had two shooters in the class today, Al and I. We decided to shoot 3 out of 5, instead of 2 out of 3, just for the fun of it. Al's .44 Magnum loads were a little light and they weren't getting the pins solidly off the table. My .480 Ruger loads were getting the pins emphatically off the table, and I ended up doing a little better than Al, mostly because of the loads, rather than shooting skills. At least I wasn't "Two and Out" as the trend had been so far!

Next on the schedule was to change over to the bowling pin tops for the two rimfire pistol classes, Rimfire Optic, and Rimfire iron sight. With the relatively small turnout, we only had two shooters in Rimfire Iron sight, Randy N. and I. Randy and I have had some really close matches in the past, and today was no exception. Today was my day, as I got a couple of fortunate rolls and managed to squeak by for a narrow win.

In Rimfire Optic sight qualifying I was clearly having problems hitting anything with my regular long barreled High Standard. I wasn't shooting accurately, and I wasn't shooting fast, either. If you are really accurate, you can get by being a little slow, and if you are really shooting fast, you can tolerate a little inaccuracy, but I couldn't find either speed or accuracy. I ended up matched against Al in the first round, and once again he dusted me off pretty good! I had also entered my S&W 422. For some reason it seemed to be working better than usual! I won my first round match up, and then ended up back up against Al, the same Al who had just blown my doors off when I was shooting my "Fast" gun, but now I was using my "Slow" gun.

One of the things that makes pin shooting so much fun is the unpredictability of the pins. Once they've been shot up a bit, you never know what they are going to do. If you hit them exactly center mass, they usually go off the table, but if you are off just the smallest amount, they might just tip over, or jump sideways and knock over another pin, or go spinning across the table giving you a moving target to chase! Sometimes you will end up with pins tipped over and lying all over the table, one giant mess, often called a "Train Wreck" for obvious reasons.

I figured all I could do was try to shoot as cleanly as I could, try to not beat myself, and if Al had a good run, I was toast! If Al had a bad run, anything could happen. On the first table Al got a trainwreck, and I was able to win the table. To my amazement, the second table went almost the same, and Al got a second crop of pin tops that just wouldn't cooperate. I had managed to eliminate Al with my slow gun, after he had wiped me out solidly when I was shooting the fast gun! That's what makes pin shooting so much fun, you just never know what's going to happen!

Meanwhile, KeeWee had been cruising along with solid shooting, and came up against Rainy. KeeWee and Rainy both shoot just about the same, and one week one will beat the other, and the next week they will trade places. Their matches are usually really close. This was KeeWee's week to shine, as in the semi-final round the two of them met again. KeeWee won the first table. The video below is their second table to decide who moves on to the finals.

This is what club shooting is all about, two evenly matched shooters each giving it their all. KeeWee put this round solidly in the win column.

That put KeeWee and I in the finals.

KeeWee: "Don't forget who does the cooking........"

Mr. C. "Don't forget who does your gunsmithing....."

KeeWee: "Fair enough....."

I shot the best I could shoot, and she shot well too, but I managed to sneak away with the win. We ended up first and second, how cool is that!

Two CWSA Shoots This Weekend!

I have no idea where this last week went, it just sort of evaporated! It seems like we just got back from California a day or so ago.

Anyhow, I've got everything unpacked and the range box re-loaded so we're all set to go for tomorrow's Pin Shoot at Central Whidbey. This afternoon I loaded up another 100 rounds of .45. A quick inventory showed that I had enough .38SPL and 9mm. to get me through the weekend. I just finished cleaning and oiling the High Standard and KeeWee's High Standard, too. We should be all set to go for tomorrow.

I just have to remember that if I try to shoot pin tops at the tempo I shoot steel plates, I won't hit a single pin top all day! Pin tops are a whole lot smaller and harder to hit, and you have to concentrate on slowing down!

Stay tuned, I'll let you know what happens.........

CWSA Pin Shoot Report -- 08/04/2007

We had a beautiful day for a pin shoot, a little foggy in the morning, but it burned off mid-morning, leaving a blue sky with a few little clouds. To get in as much shooting as I could, I entered every class; Centerfire Optical with the Taurus 9mm. 'Econo Race Gun', Centerfire Iron Sight with a Charles Daly 1911 in .4ACP, Revolver Optical with the Taurus 66, Big Bore Revolver with the Ruger .480, Rimfire Optical with both the Long barreled High Standard and the Smith & Wesson 422. Unfortunately we didn't have enough rimfire iron sight shooters to make a class, so it was canceled. After centerfire and revolver qualifying, I had timed in third or better in every class. Not exactly good news, though, as it meant I'd be shooting against the fastest shooters in the first round, a good way to get knocked out of the class in the first round.

The real news in qualifying was Tony C. and his revolver, not only setting a new range record for five pins with a revolver, he also tied the overall range record, set with a full race .38 Super! His time was 2.46 seconds, and I just happened to be filming when he broke the record. Check this out:



To make matters worse, Tony is getting faster each shoot, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him break his own record a few more times. Just, WOW........

Being as I was shooting one class right after another all day, I never did exactly keep track of where I was or how I was doing in the class. I was knocked out early in centerfire optic, and in revolver class. I did OK in centerfire iron sight, much to my amazement! In big bore revolver I had second fastest time in qualifying, but also got knocked out in the first round, although it was close.

Finally we had worked our way through the centerfire classes, and we were ready to set up the pin tops for rimfire optical sight class. I qualified the long barreled High Standard at the top of the chart with a 10.5-ish combined time for three tables of pins. Murray wasn't far behind, with KeeWee in third around 17 seconds, and 'Evil Al' in a position unusual for him, 4th. place. I was having a terrible time with the S&W 422, and I couldn't seem to hit the first pin no matter what i did! The 422 was well down the list, time-wise. I don't remember all the match-ups and outcomes, but Al knocked out KeeWee and I knocked out Murray. I managed to struggle my way through with the S&W, eking out the narrowest of wins, but staying in the game, none the less. The big match was when the High Standard and I came up against Al and his S&W Model 41. It was very close, but I managed to retire Al for the day, and a match or two later I ended up in the final round against myself with the second gun, leaving me with both first and second place!

It was one of the hardest fought rimfire optic matches of the season, with lots of fast times and close decisions. We all had a grand time, and it was over almost too soon.

After the match KeeWee and I headed North to Oak Harbor for a cooling visit to Dairy Queen for ice cream, then a visit to the Dollar Store, Wallyworld (the ammo counter guys always recognize me and wave when I walk by) then home.

I think I'll hit the sack early tonight, I'm kinda bushed, and there's a Steel Challenge match at CWSA tomorrow, so a good night's sleep might be a good idea!

How To Shoot Pins

George, in a comment to a previous post on bowling pin shooting, asked why it is that if the shooter misses a pin, particularly pin one or two, the shooter continues across the pins, making it a longer distance back to the first pin. This brings up the subject of pin shooting sequence and methods.

For practice purposes, I break pin shooting down to three movement groups.

1. Group One: From the start position raising the gun vertically, to the shot at the first pin.
2. Group Two: The transition from vertical movement to horizontal movement, and the shot on pin two.
3. Group Three: Horizontal movement from pin two through pin five.

When you first try pin shooting, you stop the gun movement at each pin, fire, and then move to the next pin, stop, fire, and so on. As your skill and speed increase, you reach a point where the gun never stops moving, with each shot being fired with the gun in motion.

Regardless of the method you use, the first shot is the key to a successful run. If you miss the first pin, or the second, it's tough to recover with a reasonable time. A good portion of your practice time should be devoted to Group One, shooting just that element until it becomes smooth and accurate. Of the groups, it's also the least fun to practice, but it is perhaps the most important.

When practicing, you should concentrate on smoothness of movement and accuracy over speed. Smoothness and accuracy will automatically generate speed the more you practice. Try to find the "groove", where the movements seem to flow together. Pushing for speed will only allow you to miss the pins at a faster and faster rate, and you can't miss fast enough to win!

Don't practice any one movement group too long in any one session, as you tend to get tired of it. After practicing Group One for a while, try adding Group Two to the end of Group One, from the start position come up to the first pin, shoot, then move to pin two and shoot it. This is a good drill that should be practiced regularly. I save Group Three as sort of a bonus practice, since it's the most fun to shoot. If you get group One and Group Two working well for you, Group Three will pretty much fall into place without a lot of work.

One of the keys to successful pin shooting is tempo or rhythm. If you listen to a really proficient pin shooter you will notice that the shots are spaced with amazing precision. Newer shooters will vary faster and slower between shots. Really good shooters will actually accelerate through the run, with the time between pins decreasing across the run. This is really difficult to do at fast speeds, and I am just now starting to experiment with the technique, with mixed results!

OK, you've been doing your practicing, but how exactly should you shoot the pins, left to right or right to left? Like everything, everyone has their own opinions. Initially most shooters shoot left to right, since we are used to doing things that way in this country. For that reason, it may seem faster and easier, although it may only be easier due to familiarity. When practicing, practice shooting both ways. It will come in handy when you miss a pin and have to come back for it.

My personal opinion is that the most effective method is to move in the direction of your non-dominant/non-sighting eye. For example, if you are right handed and you sight with your right eye, I would suggest shooting right to left. Why? This way your non-sighting eye will be looking at the next pin in your sequence, rather than looking at the last pin you shot. This assumes that you are shooting with both eyes open. If you close one eye, it probably doesn't make any difference!

When you get your pin shooting in the groove, it becomes one smooth and continuous motion from the start position through the last pin. Anything that disrupts the rhythm leads to missed pins and slow times. Two guidelines are:

1. Try not to disrupt the rhythm.
2. Try to minimize changes in direction.

For example, if you miss the first pin, by the time the bullet misses the pin and you know you missed, you are already focused on the second pin. Continue on, maintaining the rhythm and tempo and shoot the rest of them. If you miss another one, continue on, and when you shoot the last pin, then change direction and go the other way, picking them up in reverse order. If you miss the last pin, stay on it until you get it off the table, then move back picking them off in sequence. Whatever you do, don't try to change your game plan in the middle of a run.

As I said before, the first pin is the worst one to miss as it has the potential to cause you the most trouble. If you miss the first pin, the temptation is to change your plan and shoot it again, but to do so, you have to stop your rhythm, move back to the pin, shoot it, then start up again, and move back to the second pin. Starting and stopping, and changing directions, usually leads to missing more pins! The two videos in the posts below demonstrate effectively dealing with missed pins.

And finally, a short discussion on a pin shooter's worst nightmare, the "Train Wreck". First off, don't give up on it. Sometimes two good shooters will both shoot faster than they should, and both end up with Train Wrecks. Every one is different, and there is no easy way to clean one up. If a pin is on its side, try to hit it slightly above centerline, as that will make it rotate in the right direction to roll off the table. If you hit it low, it will get backspin and like a golf ball, try to roll towards you sometimes!

At least, that's how I do it, and what works for one person may not work for someone else. This at least gives you one perspective on pin shooting, and you may well develop techniques of your own that work better.

Happy Pin Shooting!

Missoula 9mm. Pin Shoot Video

Here's another video by Hosta Girl from the Missoula bowling pin shoot. This shows Mr. C. with the 9mm. Taurus PT-92 "Econo Race Gun" project gun being shot "Taco Style" in the Nine by Nine class. Nine pins are set near the back edge of the table and you only have to knock them down. The class is limited to 9mm. pistols only.


I've got it loaded with 147 gr. Rainier hollow points and a fairly good amount of powder, probably not far from a 9mm. Plus P.

KeeWee's Missoula Pin Shoot Video

At the Montana Great Western Celebrity Bowling Pin Shoot Hosta Girl not only took some pictures for us, she also took a few videos. This first one is of KeeWee shooting the High Standard 103 Sharpshooter with a red dot sight on it at the pins against the clock. This was not one of her best runs, but it wasn't too bad, either!

Have a look....



I keep telling everyone that her success is because of her shooting coach and gunsmith, but no one seems to believe me!

KeeWee rocks!!

Missoula Bowling Pin Shoot - Part Two

Bright and early Sunday morning KeeWee and I headed over to the Deer Creek Range for the big Montana Shooting Sports Association Bowling Pin Shoot. It was already starting to get warm, and we wanted to get in our shooting before it got too hot. KeeWee's friend Hosta Girl and her husband drove up to Missoula from Darby, Montana to see us and visit a bit. She took some pictures, (all can be clicked on to biggify) and here's a few of them:

Mr. C. with the .480 Ruger Super Red Hawk. One pin down, four to go.
(Photo Credit: Hosta Girl)


One pin to go.
(Photo Credit: Hosta Girl)


Got It! Already going for the hammer to re-cock if needed, as this was a single action class.
(Photo Credit: Hosta Girl)


Mr. C. in the Centerfire Handgun class shooting a Charles Daly 1911 clone in .45ACP. (Rivrdog: Note the iron sights!)
(Photo Credit: Hosta Girl)


Ty's friend Dan shooting rimfire handgun class. Ty's running the timer.


Ty mows 'em down quickly!


You can caption this one!


It wasn't all adults, either, as kids enjoy shooting too. The bipod wasn't exactly legal, but no one really cared, and everyone was having fun shooting.


Top Junior, and Youngest Competitor!

That's the first batch of pictures from the match, but I've got still more stuff to post on the Missoula pin shoot, so stay tuned!

End of Part Two