Pin Shoot 2024 Articles

[Cruel Hand Luke]

Passing along a couple of pieces written about the Pin Shoot 2024. I wrote one and then Massad Ayoob wrote the other that mentions me in it.....

 

https://www.natchezss.com/blog/pin-shoot-the-premier-precision-shooting-event-for-gun-enthusiasts and https://www.thearmorylife.com/pin-shoot-2024-a-radical-new-approach/

 

Pin Shoot 2024: The Premier Precision Shooting Event for Gun Enthusiasts

Randy Harris25/06/2024

 

Arrival and Background

On Monday, June 3rd, I made the pilgrimage to Central Lake, Michigan, to shoot The Pin Shoot. This event was previously known as the Second Chance Pin Shoot in years past, and I had wanted to attend this since I first read about it in Shooting Times Handgun Quarterly magazine back in 1988. By the time I was old enough and in a position to be able to go, the event was no longer held. However, when they started holding the event again in 2016, my friend Mike Swisher and I decided we were going to go, and we finally made it this year.

Event Explanation

A little explanation of the event is for those not familiar with it. The match runs from Saturday to Thursday. There are two classes of shooters: Ordinary Standard Shooter (OSS) and Master Blaster. OSS is what you are classified as until you win an event or finish 2nd in two events, and then you move up to Master Blaster. This way, the people who have been pin shooting and winning since the 1980s are not directly competing with the folks who have never shot this before. Then there are six “5 Pin Main Events” where you shoot six tables of five pins with some "hostage" pins interspersed among the pins.

Main Events and Side Matches

The main events are Stock Gun (standard iron sight pistols), Stock Minor (iron sight pistols in "minor calibers”), Pin Gun (can have a compensator), Space Gun (can have an optic and a compensator), CCW (barrel 4" or less and allows optics), and PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbines allows optics, comps, or suppressors), along with an assortment of side matches, shoot-offs, and team events. In fact, there are so many events that it was a little overwhelming for us two Pin Shoot newbies. We have shot plenty of competitions in different disciplines (we have both won IDPA State titles in our respective divisions) but nothing quite like this. The ladies who handle the scheduling and getting the shooters ready must be saints for being able to herd cats and deal with all the moving parts.

First Day Challenges

We arrived at the range on Tuesday afternoon and went to the registration desk to get our shooting times for the events. To our great surprise (and panic?), they scheduled us for about 15 minutes after we got there, even though we did not know exactly where to go or what to do, and there was no time for us to get the new shooter orientation. Oh well … if you are going to get wet, you might as well jump in the deep end of the pool first.

I shot Minor Stock for my first event using a full-size iron-sighted Sig 320 and Speer Lawman 147gr 9mm. Mike shot CCW using his carry gun, Sig 365X Macro, and Fiocchi 115 9mm. Unfortunately, while last year you just had to knock the pins down, this year - even in the minor caliber events - you had to knock the pins completely off the table. Uh oh …. We did not get that memo.

Pizza Party and Meeting Richard Davis

Tuesday night, they held a pizza party for the shooters at The Side Door Saloon, a local bar. Mike and I snagged a table and awaited the pizza to be brought out. Soon after we got our table, an older woman came to our table and essentially deposited an older gentleman wearing a Pin Shoot t-shirt at our table and then went on her way. As he talked and told stories, I realized that was Richard Davis, the guy who founded Second Chance Body Armor and the Pin Shoot. He acts as the Master of Ceremonies for the match, asking trivia questions between shooting runs, and calling the match. So, we sat with him for the evening and were regaled with far-ranging stories from adventures in Las Vegas to the history of the Pin Shoot event, how he had gotten prizes for the prize table in years past, and how he helped Massad Ayoob write “Hit the White Part”.

Second Day Events

The next day, we rolled to the range, and I shot the .22 Pin Head side event (7 pin heads 5 yards away with 10 rounds in your pistol). I shot my suppressed Ruger MK II, which of course picked the absolute most inopportune time to malfunction. After that, we prepared to shoot the Stock Gun main event. For this one, I shot a Springfield Armory Trophy Match pistol loaded with Federal TSJ 230gr .45 ACP. In this event, you have five pins per table plus two hostage pins that you do not want to shoot or knock down. You start with eight rounds loaded in the gun, but reload capacity is unlimited.

For the Stock Gun event, the .45 took the pins off the tables easily enough that I did not have to reload on any of the strings of fire, unlike in the Minor Stock and CCW events. If I remember correctly, Mike shot a Ruger 1911 in the Stock event. Afterwards, I shot the CCW event, and unfortunately, the 9mm did not do any better on Wednesday than it had on Tuesday, and I had a lackluster finish in the event. For dinner, we hit Outback, and then I got to watch the Boston Celtics win game 3 of the NBA finals.

Final Day and Awards

Thursday rolled around, and it was time for my Shotgun and 9x12 side events. The shotgun event was three tables of eight pins each, and 9x12 was three tables of 12 pins with three hostage pins spread out between them per table. Shotgun capacity was eight max in the gun, and FULL POWER buckshot is the medicine of choice. For the shotgun, I used a borrowed Benelli M2 that I did not get to fire until my first string of fire on the shooting line. It was about that time that I also realized that due to the way they are crimped, only six Rio Buckshot shells would fit in the magazine tube! Fortunately, the gun’s owner had also given me some Winchester 00 Buck, and I ended up having to load five Rio and two Winchester in the tube and a Rio in the chamber to get eight in the gun. It is always something.

Knowing I had to beat 3.60 seconds for the eight pins, I went as fast as I could but caught a few unlucky breaks with some fast runs being undone by a rebellious pin here and there refusing to leave the table. This game does involve a degree of luck as pins falling off the top shelf can fall onto a lower shelf, and your time does not stop until the last pin hits the ground. A 4.90 was the best clean score I was able to manage, which was nowhere near the 3.60 I needed to hit to be competitive. After shooting 72 rounds of full power buck, it was time for the 9x12 side match.

My 9x12 runs were still not terrible but were noncompetitive due to the inability of 9mm to convey enough momentum to quickly clear the tables. If I had known about the rule change before I left home, I would’ve been running my Glock 35 with 180 grain ammo and a 22-round mag for the 9x12 event.

After a BBQ food truck dinner at the range, the awards ceremony took place. I had ended up 3rd in the OSS class in the Stock Gun event and ended up winning a gift certificate for Magna Porting a pistol or revolver. I also got my old copy of "Hit the White Part" (the book about pin shooting co-authored by Massad Ayoob and Richard Davis) autographed and got a pic with Mas and Rich. I also got Richard to autograph my copy of "Pin Shooting- A Complete Guide" by Mitchell Ota, for which Davis had also written the forward.

Final Thoughts

So how did I feel it went? Great. Mike and I had a great time, and we marked this off our bucket list. This is arguably the most fun shooting event (other than maybe cowboy action) that I have shot. While I did not finish as well as I had hoped, there is only so much that you can do if you are shooting 9mm and the game requires you to blow bowling pins all the way off the table. I was happy to have a 3rd place finish in the Stock Gun event, but I missed my goal of making the Master Blaster classification. Maybe next year…

 

 

 

 

[Cruel Hand Luke]

And then Massad Ayoob's Article in The Armory Life....https://www.thearmorylife.com/pin-shoot-2024-a-radical-new-approach/

 

By Massad Ayoob

The seven June days of The Pin Shoot in Central Lake, Michigan once again saw Springfield Armory as the main sponsor. As usual, there were events for pistol and revolver, for carbines in both rifle and pistol calibers, and for shotguns with both buckshot and slugs.

 

The author uses Springfield Armory 1911 .45 pistols for both Stock Gun and Pin Gun each year. Image: Gail Pepin

Hand cannons your choice? One event is the Dennis Reichard Memorial Big Push, in which three bowling pins have to be blasted 14 feet down a steel trough. Ultra-powerful revolvers are the guns of choice there.

[Want to learn more about this fun competition? Read Ayoob’s article on the Pin Shoot.]

On the opposite end of the handgun power scale, among the many optional events was more than one tailored for double-stack 9mm pistols. This year, there were way more options for 9mm fans, and for some perspective that warrants a bit of history.

Looking Back

Founder Richard Davis began the match in the days when most cops carried revolvers and preferred magnums or .45 autos when allowed. Richard’s theme was borrowed from his friend Jeff Cooper: DVC. The motto stood for Diligence, Celeritas, Vis, which translated to “accuracy, speed, and power.”

 

Springfield Armory, which returned as a sponsor of the 2024 Pin Shoot, has sponsored the event for many years. Image: Gail Pepin

Richard’s original target array was five heavy wooden bowling pins that had to be blasted three feet back off a table and onto the ground to stop the timekeepers’ stopwatches. The game demanded accuracy to hit the pin in the center (or it would spin or just tip over, requiring more shots); speed, because whoever cleared their tables the fastest won; and power to blast them completely back with just one shot.

 

Felipe Campos and his daughter Sara with the optic-equipped Hellcats they won for second place in the two-person team event. Image: Gail Pepin

However, some of his police customers complained that they couldn’t compete with their department-issued 9mm pistols, which were becoming increasingly popular in law enforcement. For them, Richard created the Nine Pin Tip-Over side event: the shooter with the “hi-cap” nine would face nine pins, and only had to knock them over to stop the clock.

Shortly after the late, great Second Chance Shoot, that ran from the mid-1970s to the near end of the 1990’s, was re-introduced as The Pin Shoot in 2017, host Matt Davis — the founder’s son — assembled a small think tank of veteran pin-shooters as a sounding board for ideas for improvement. 

 

9mm brass flies as the shooter races the pin array 25 feet away. Note the bright-colored “hostage pins” that must be avoided. Image: Gail Pepin

One of those is Patrick Sweeney, gun writer and competitive shooter extraordinaire. In 2022, he suggested a new event. Patrick wrote to the group, “The 9mm is much more popular than .45. Most new shooters are likely to have a 9mm, but not a .45. New shooters could shoot the 9 Mil Main as their one and only Main, and then go to the optionals.”

As a test, at the 2023 Pin Shoot a Main Event category for 9mm pistols was created: eight rounds only in the gun, and five white pins on the table as targets. If one of the colorful “hostage pins” among them was tipped over, there would be a severe penalty. The target pins were set farther back on the table to make it easier for 9mm bullets to take them completely off, because that would be required in the new event to be called Stock Minor.

The experiment proved popular, and the stage was set for 2024 to become “The Year of the 9mm” at the Pin Shoot.

The Year of the Nine

The year 2024 saw five events in which a 9mm fan could successfully compete. There was Stock Minor, described above, with five target pins. The old Nine Pin Tip-Over had morphed into the “9X12” event: a dozen pins, but in 2024 they had to be knocked completely off the table, again being set a bit farther toward the back of the table to compensate for 9mm momentum — or lack thereof.

  Richard Hupp selected this Springfield Hellcat as his prize for winning the Stock Minor event. Image: Gail Pepin

PCC, or Pistol Caliber Carbine, Main had proven popular with 9mm being the all-but-unanimous choice of caliber. Here again, the 2024 rules required them to be set farther back on the table. The PCC shooter could shoot five-pin arrays in PCC Main, and could also face a similar array if he or she entered a person-on-person PCC Shootoff. 

Finally, there was a PCC Optional event, “Carbine Mayhem,” in which 13 pins had to be blown completely off the table.

Results

Most who tried 115- and 124-gr. ball found it insufficient or spotty at best for taking the pins off; momentum is the name of the pin-moving game. The 147-gr. bullet weight was recommended by the sponsors, and some had better luck with it than others. Personally, I found 127-gr. +P+ Winchester loads to be more decisive than 147-gr. subsonic.

  Gun writer Patrick Sweeney was largely responsible for the creation of the Stock Minor event. He was 2024’s overall winner in both Stock Gun and Pin Gun. Here he selects one of his prizes: a Springfield Armory 1911 DS Prodigy.

A valuable perspective comes from a master instructor and shooter trying pins for the first time in 2024. His name is Randy Harris, and he wrote of his experience on the excellent pistol-forum.com:

“I shot Minor Stock for my first event… Mike shot CCW… Unfortunately, while last year you just had to knock the pins down, this year — even in the minor caliber events — you had to knock the pins completely off the table. Uh oh …. We did not get that memo…So neither of our times, while not terrible, were not exactly spectacular since we were completely under-armed for moving bowling pins off the tables. Knock them down? No problem. Knock them off? That involved more shooting than one round per pin which in this game is what you are trying to accomplish. Oh well at least it was fun…”

  Veteran pin shooter and master gunsmith Ned Christiansen with the Springfield Armory pistol he built for his wife to shoot. Image: Gail Pepin

You can say one thing for 9mm: it can be run fast. Brandon Schwenke won Carbine Mayhem with 13 pins off the table in four seconds flat. He captured the PCC Main title as well, with 15.8 seconds to clear five five-pin tables. In pistol competition, 9X12’s winning time was Jess Christensen’s 6.20 second run.

But what of the Stock Minor event? Richard Hupp captured that with five tables cleared in 21.5 seconds. And therein lies a tale: He did it with his eight-shot revolver, loaded with full power .357 Magnum rounds. You see, while Stock Minor was created for 9x19mm Parabellum pistols, the rules didn’t say you had to shoot one. Randy Harris learned this and said that next year he’d shoot Stock Minor with the same Springfield Trophy Match 1911 .45 ACP he used in the regular events.

Conclusion

Whatever your favorite gun flavor, I hope to be there the second week in June of 2025, and hope to meet you there. And thank you again to Springfield Armory for helping make this happen.

  The Pin Shoot has always been a family-friendly event. Many contestants turn it into a family vacation. Image: Gail Pepin

Edited July 10 by Cruel Hand Luke

[22lr]

Looks like a lot of fun. Are there any pin shoots in TN? 

[10-Ring]

Bowling pins are my son's favorite thing to shoot. I picked up 50 of them recently. I never imagined how difficult it would be to store 50 bowling pins.