Our Bowling Pin Shooting match will be next Saturday, February 27th at 1 pm. We will begin setup at 12:30 pm, and we’ll need help from volunteers. We will have a shooters’ meeting (required for new shooters) at 12:45 pm to explain the rules. At 1:00 pm sharp, we will begin shooting. We’ll be charging $3 per bracket for club members and $4 per bracket for non-members, with all money going towards the club or making the competition better. Youth (under the age of 18) shoot free with a paid adult.

Pin matches are what got me started in competitive shooting, and still hold a place of fondness in my heart.  They’re cheap to shoot, and when it’s this cold out, the pins kind of explode when they’re hit with a lot of force.  Should be AWESOME.

Contrary to popular belief, a .40 will clean the pins off the table. You just have to hit them right.

Come on out this Saturday and whack some pins! It’ll be fun, I promise.

Update From Matt in comments:

Bruce sent an email a couple days ago – they will not be shooting pins this weekend due to the temperature.

They will setup 2 or 3 groupings of steel plates – shoot each stage as much as you like, but it won’t be as involved as Friday Night Steel.

Unfortunately, this year the game doesn’t have the same lustre for Purdue fans that it’s held in previous years, simply because IU and Purdue are tied for last place in the Big 10.  That means that we’re playing for the honor of not being the worst team in the Big 10 conference.  I will say that a win would be nice, since it will be Coach Tiller’s last game as head coach – so going out with a win and reclaiming the Oaken Bucket after last year’s bullcrap loss would be pretty neat.

Like I said in “The Devil Went Down to Indy“, Pin shooting is probably my favorite handgun sport that exists; hopefully next month I’ll be able to get some shots of the centerfire action as well.

He was looking for some souls to steal

He was in a bind because he was way behind and looking to make a deal

When he came across this young man running a pistol and shooting it hot.

And the devil jumped on a shooting bench and said “boy let me tell you what

I bet you didn’t know, but I’m a bowling pin shooter too

and if you care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you.

Now you run a pretty hot pistol boy, but give the devil his due

I’ll bet a pistol of gold against your soul because I think I’m better than you”

The boy said: “Well my name’s Ahab, and it might be a sin, 

but I’ll take your bet and you’re gonna regret because I’m the best that’s ever been”.

Ahab oil up your gun and run that bastard fast

‘Cause hell’s broke loose in Indy and the Devil wants to blast

and if you win you get this shiny pistol made of gold,

but if you lose the Devil gets your soul!

The Devil opened up his case and said “I’ll start this f*cking match”

and fire flew from his fingertips as he pulled the hammer back

And slammed a mag into the grip and it made a wicked click

Then he ran his gun at the pins at the pins shooting fast and slick.

When the devil finished, Ahab said “You’re pretty good ol’ clown”

“But look at my table and you’ll see that all my pins are down”

(Bridge)

The devil hung his head because he knew that he’d been beat

and he laid that golden pistol on the ground at Ahab’s feet

Ahab said: “Devil come back if you ever want to try again

Because I told you once you son of a bitch that I’m the best that’s ever been!”

Had a great time at the pin match, even managed to come away with a round win and a couple of tight 2nd/3rd place finishes.  Plus, it gave me a chance to turn “The Devil Went down to Georgia” into a song about bowling pin shooting.  Tam, Roberta, Turk and others were at the match as well – I’ve got some video of Tam running a GSG-5, that MP5 clone in .22 LR that I’ll post once I get it all edited together.  Expect that post first thing tomorrow – I ran out of time to get the video edited this weekend.  I should also point out that the pin had one of the most hilarious head to head stages – Tam was running a 10mm wheelgun and ran out of bbs for it.  We were literally running an “ammo relay” out to her as her competitor had run out of ammo as well.  It’s stuff like that as to why I love bowling pin shooting.

The other weekend fun that I was was I went down to Broad Ripple to meet up again with an excellent cadre of Midwestern bloggers, including my buddy Thirdpower who I haven’t seen since the NRA show.  Beer was had, food was served, and we ended taking what was probably the safest walk I’ve ever had on the Monon trail – there were probably only 9 or 10 guns on the trail.

Even if the Gun Blog 9mm doesn’t come in, you can bet I’ll still be there whacking away at pins with whatever gun I do end up running.

See you tomorrow!