CF>Does anybody know about the sport of shooting bowling pins.  For example
CF>size of table,number of pins, distance to shoot from, etc?
Yes.  You use 5 bowling pins. You place  a 4'x8' piece of
plywood or particle board on saw-horses.  Make sure they are
level.  Then you place 5 bowling pins on top.  The bowling pins
are in a line along the front, 12" from the front.  The pins are
spaced 12" apart, with the center pin centered left-to-right.
Make sure  you have a good backstop of course.
You set up 2 of these, and you set up heats like a soap box
derby.  Say you have 8 guys.  You start out with 4 heats of 2.
Then those 4 winners have 2 heats of 2, and those two winners
shoot off.  The way we shoot, we charge $5 per match, times 8
shooters, that's $40.  The club takes $20 (you have to replace
pins and plywood, plus a little profit for the club).  Then first
place wins $15, and 2nd place wins $5.
Another fun game is to play "king of the hill" and let the winner
stay on the shooting line, and the loser is replaced by a new
challenger.  In this game, each shooter pays $1.00 for each time
he comes to the line, but does not pay again if he wins, and the
club keeps the money.  After all guys have shot once, they buy
back in for $1.00 again.
You set up shooting tables such that the shooting line is 20 or
25 feet from the front of the 4'x8'.  I forget what we used. A
judge gives a "go" signal, and the first one to clear the table
of pins wins.  You don't just knock the pins down, you have to
knock them off.  The object is to "clear" the table, so if it's
close, the first shooter to get the last pin *off* the table, not
hit the ground, wins.
You also usually have 2 safety officers to observe the 2 shooters
to verify that they are "clear" before going down range to reset
the pins.
For semi-automatics, there is a limit of 7 rounds per magazine.
You start with any number of magazines you want, and an open
chamber. The judge gives the "load and make ready" command, and
the shooters insert magazine, and close.  So the shooters now
have 6 in the magazine plus one in the chamber.  The judge says
"shooters may take a sight picture" and shooters may do so. Then
the shooters put the bottom front of the barrel down touching the
shooting table.  Judge asks "ready on left", left shooter nods,
judge asks "ready on the right", right shooter nods.  Then the
judge waits a random amount of time and blows a whistle. When the
judge sees that one shooter has cleared his table, he blows the
whistle again and shooters stop shooting.  The shooters clear,
the safety officers verify that each shooter is clear, and the
judge says for them to reset the pins.
You should start each day with unshot pins, and keep shooting
them as long as they will stand.  The rule is that if the pin
will stand on its own, it's stays in play, no matter how "shot
up" it is.  That is what makes it interesting.  And you have to
have several spares of course.
9mm and .38 Special, even .38 Special +P are not suitable
calibers.  .357 magnum, .44 Magnum, .44 Special, .45 Long Colt,
.40 S&W, .45acp are suitable.  I don't know about .38 Super.
Momentum is what counts. So you want to go with the heavier
bullet in each caliber.  Light loads WILL bounce back to the
shooter!  One guy got hit in the shin with a ricochet, but it
didn't break the skin or hurt.  Safety glasses are a must!
Since most pin shooters are reloaders, it helps to spread out
plastic tarps to catch brass and let the shooters police their
brass after every time they shoot.
We set up our pin tables up against the 100 yard backstop, and
then brought out folding tables and chairs from the clubhouse and
put them behind our shooting tables.  That let  people put their
stuff on the table and sit down when not shooting.  Of course,
the range was closed to all but our match.
If a wheel-gunner is good, he does stand a good chance against a
semi-auto, especially with speed-loaders.
If you are a good shot and have stout loads, you can clear the
table in 5 shots. Most shooters have to reload once.  I've gone
as many as 20 shots and still won.
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