Bowling with .45 Colt

[looseprojectile]

I am new, never shot bowling pins.
The only gun I have that seems to meet the power needs, is a Uberti 4 & 3/4" .45 Colt. SA.
In your opinion which load would be best for knocking these things off the table.

I have the original RNFP boolit and a SWC 260 grain. Might the SWC boolit grab the pins better? Is softer alloy better?
I know a quick reload is not very realistic thinking, though Thell Reid learned how.
All shooting is at twentyfive feet.
Choice is seven or eight hundred for a new gun or twenty bucks for components for a few hundred reloads.
I do like the new Taurus .45 with all the whistles and bells that my friend has, shoots great.
Life is good

[Calamity Jake]

Eather boolet will work for pins with the 45C, I don't think one will be better than the other.

I shoot a 260rnfp/4gr Red Dot in CAS, it takes 3/8 thick steel plates out with no problem.

[S.R.Custom]

I shot pins for a lot of years using downloaded 44 Mag loads... The SWC launched at about 950 fps will be more than sufficient. Accuracy is paramount; off-center hits can make a real mess of things pretty quick. And take your time-- You'll be a lot faster taking your time to get good hits, vs. spraying the place with lead and leaving pins on the table.

[warf73]

+1 what SuperMag said, nothing worse than spinning a pin(can take your concentration away) and it lays on the table. If you practice(if thats possbile) and take your time speed will come and the sub 5 sec tables will be there.

Good luck and have fun with it, some of my best times was shooting pins.

Warf

[Dave Berryhill]

Interesting post. I've shot some pins for recreation but never competitively. Does the shape of the bullet nose have any effect on marginal hits? In other words, will a round nose tend to slip off the pins as opposed to a bullet with a sharp, square nose?

I remember seeing ads in the gun magazines some years ago for special "bowling pin" bullets that had a sawtooth pattern on the nose and wondered if it would be helpful or just a solution to a problem that didn't exist.

[S.R.Custom]

Does the shape of the bullet nose have any effect on marginal hits? In other words, will a round nose tend to slip off the pins as opposed to a bullet with a sharp, square nose?

Absolutely... We did some testing with a model 25 where we all shot a few tables using plain base roundnose cowboy ammo, then shot a few tables with the bullets seated backwards. Huge difference. Speedloads with our "round base wadcutters" were problematic, tho, so we settled on SWCs as the best compromise.

A bullet with a wide meplat also helped if by some stroke of misfortune you couldn't sign up for an early round and had to shoot pins that had been softened up by previous shooters; the SWCs were less likely to 'blow through' a soft pin.

Some guys used the saw-toothed pin bullets, but we didn't see any significant difference between those and SWCs. Particularly since the special pin bullets were quite pricey...

[Lee]

I noticed that you mentioned the Taurus 1911. You might also wish to consider the Springfield Armory Govt 1911. It is less expensive than the Taurus, and IMHO, built just as well, although w/o all the claimed bells and whistles.
Don't misunderstand, I will have a Taurus 1911 in my future. I already have the SA 1911. So many toys, so little time..........Lee:wink:

[looseprojectile]

Thanks for the information.
I thought it would be cool to compete with the single action. I will practice hitting a three or four inch bull or cheap soda at twentyfive feet and see how I do with the SWC. :Fire:
Will load a hundred with six or so grains of red dot, got lots of it.
Life is good

[38 Super Auto]

In your opinion which load would be best for knocking these things off the table.

I have the original RNFP boolit and a SWC 260 grain. Might the SWC boolit grab the pins better? Is softer alloy better?

I think you should use a lead alloy that works for your 45LC pressures. Your bullet hardness and pressure combination need to allow for sufficient obturation to seal the bore in front of the expanding gas. In other words, there should be a slight deformation of the bullet base (sorta minie ball like) for optimal performance.

I'd recommend the heavier bullet. I shoot 45ACP with the RNFP Lyman 452664 and it is devastating on pins. I have shot with 40S/W 180gr truncated cone and there is a huge improvement in performance with a heavier bullet. If you nail the pin dead center, it's less critical. But there are always wounded pins that have to be cleared off the table.

You want to optimize energy transfer from boolit to pin, so I think a blunter bullet design works better than a pointed bullet. Fellow pin busters have reported good results with w/c designs and of course 12 ga rifled slugs perform very well too. :twisted: