Bowling pin shooting

Bowling pin shooting is a shooting sport (primarily for handguns) in which the competitors race against one another to knock standard bowling pins from a table in the shortest elapsed time.

Massad Ayoob credits the origin of bowling pin shooting with Richard Davis in the mid-1970s.

Pin shooting is conducted with both revolvers and semi-automatic pistols in calibers ranging from .22 Long Rifle to .500 S&W Magnum, among many others.

[1] Other large-bore handguns have the greatest advantage in removing the pins from the table.

[6] While handloaded ammunition is regularly employed among pin shooters, it is considered a serious breach of etiquette and sportsmanship for a shooter of a "minor" caliber to handload "minor" ammunition to levels approaching "major" calibers, thus taking unfair advantage of a rule intended to allow novice shooters to participate.

The "pin gun class" is for highly advanced, often very expensive "race guns" in which almost all manner of enhancement is allowed, including optical sights (generally red dot sights) and compensators.

Generally, .22 Long Rifle competitions shoot the tops of the pins, known as "pin-tops," which are lighter and more easily knocked down by the light, comparatively low energy bullets.

Some matches are also shot with a semi-automatic or pump-action shotgun, usually firing buckshot.

Modern plastic coated bowling pins are very resilient, and can absorb many rounds before becoming too splintered or unbalanced to function as targets.

Given the very light weight of the "pin top," the .22 is quite capable of removing the target from the table with a single well-placed shot.