Need some advice for reloading/competition.

[Demitrios]

My club is having another bowling pin match however we're adding a twist, there'll be a 2x4 competition as well. I'm using a 10mm for this competition and I have a choice between two bullets, 165gr plated round nose flat points and 180 jacketed hollow points and I'm using these with Blue Dot. The bowling pin match is pretty straight-forward, knock the pins down, so using 165gr bullets with 9.5 gr of Blut Dot will keep it low recoiling, however the 2x4 stake match is another story. . .

My questions are do you think hollow points are ideal for maximum destruction of wood and how would you load them? My goal is to literally cut this plank of wood in half with bullets. Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[Canuck-IL]

Interesting ... off the top, I'd guess the HPs have a greater likelihood of taking some material with them while the RN will have a greater tendency to glance off.
/Bryan

 

[Sam1911]

We do "stake shoots" from time to time as side matches after our IDPA matches.

Everything works, and probably well enough not to be able to tell the difference. I happen to like SWCs for taking big chunks out with those cutting edges. A JHP isn't going to expand in a 2x4, so it's about as good as a FMJ.

IMHO, a POWERFUL gun isn't neccessary ... just a LARGE dia. bullet. If you've got a .45, that would be great, especially with a 200 gr. SWC. In it's place a .40/10mm will do. Take as much wood as possible with every shot.

Where you want the power is in the pin shoot. (Usually) unless you clear them off the table it doesn't count, so you want to pick them up and move them as vigorously as you can.

Careful though. I've seen full-power .357 slugs come back up range after boucing off of a bowling pin. That maple is HARD.

 

[Demitrios]

I know, that's why I stopped using my .38! I couldn't believe we were getting hit with ricochet's. Alright so .45's are most likely preffered with stake shoots, but what about using lead nose .45's? They should be soft enough that it'll make a decent enough difference when coming out of the back of the wooden stakes no? As far as the bowling pins go my 10mm was terrific.

 

[Sam1911]

Yup a 10mm or .44Mag or something else "energetic" usually does really well on pins.

I always shoot lead .45s. If you mean round-nose lead bullets, they'll probably work fine. The SWCs are just neat because they tend to puch that full-diameter .45" round hole, where as the more FMJ profile stuff can sometimes sort of wedge through the fibers, physically removing less material.

In the end, it's probably "six of one, 1/2 dozen of the other."

 

[wilkersk]

I shot pins with .44 magnum a long time ago. Out of the wheel gun, you still had to hit them pretty square to get them to move. What was fun was shooting them with a lever gun chambered the same.

As for 2X4 shooting, those SWCs are what I'd use.

 

[Black Dime]

"Accuracy levels of 1 inch or better at 25 yards. Later on it was discovered that this was the superior design and weight for bowling pin matches (being a winner at Second Chance) and thus became The Bowling Pin Bullet."

http://www.pennbullets.com/45/45230tcbb.html

 

[Sunray]

"...knock the pins down..." Usually have to be off the table, not just knocked over.
"...cut this plank of wood in half..." A cast bullet will do that. Likely better than any jacketed bullet. Cast bullets tend to expand drastically when hitting something hardish like wood. HP's out of handguns don't exactly have reliable expansion in any cartridge, anyway. Especially if you load 'em light. HP's require velocity to expand reliably. Too expensive as well.
"...thus became The Bowling Pin Bullet..." Marketing hooey. Any cast 230 grain bullet will bash a pin off the table. It's the shooter that matters, not the bullet. Most of the 2nd Chance winners were sponsored pro's. All of whom, except Massod Ayoob, ignored the rest of us completely. Still the best vacations I've ever had. Rifles and pistols and SMG's, Oh my!
There were a lot of silly ideas when pin shooting was hot. There was one JHP that had 'teeth' cut around the hollow point. Marketed as biting into the pin on a marginal shot. Nonsense, of course.
Mind you, 230 grain FP's feed like hot dam(121 grain 9mm TC's do as well) and are fabulous target shooting bullets. Not a bad price for 1,000 either.