Virginia Beach Rifle & Pistol Club Bowling Pin Matches

Bowling Pin Matches are fast paced, close range handgun competitions that place a premium on accuracy and reliable equipment and ammunition. We shoot the matches at used bowling pins from bowling alleys after they have reached the end of their useful life. The pins react randomly, particularly to off center hits. Thus accurate bullet placement is important. The sport originated as a demonstration of the effectiveness of Second Chance body armor. The owner of the company, Richard Davis, made a videotape where he shot himself with a handgun into the body armor. To prove that he used live ammo, he then shot some bowling pins off a table.

All shooters are welcome to the Virginia Beach Rifle & Pistol Club matches. Please check our competition calendar for upcoming match dates. Our basic rules and classifications are listed below. For specific questions, you can contact our match director, Steven Gordon. Steven shares match director duties with another long time club member and bowling pin activist, George Dagres.

Rules for the Bowling Pin Matches

Scoring
Shooters are allowed 15 seconds to knock 5 bowling pins off of an 8 foot table. The range officer begins each string of fire by starting a timer. The timer sounds a second tone after 15 seconds. If a shooter knocks a pin off the table after the cease-fire tone, it does not count. Each shooter has a scorer-timer who starts a stopwatch when the string begins and stops it when the last pin clears the table. If any pins are left at the end of 15 seconds, a 10 second penalty per pin is added to the score. Each 15-second interval is called a string. Shooters fire four strings back to back to make up a relay. We add up the time from those four strings to get the relay time. The lowest relay time wins.

Classes
We commonly shoot five classes of competition, Major, Minor, Sub, Revolver, and Carbine. The match director can, at his option, add other classes on the day of the shoot. These classes are typically Cowboy Action and Shotgun. These classes can be added if enough shooters with that type of equipment attend the match. Please note that classes are caliber and equipment specific. We do not use chronographs or power factors. For example, if you load a .40 S&W light for a low power factor, it is still major at our match.

• Major: Semiautomatic handguns chambered in .40 caliber and higher compete in this classification. The pins are set 1 foot from the front edge of the table.
• Minor: Semiautomatic centerfire handguns chambered less than .40 caliber compete in this classification. The pins are set 1 foot from the rear edge of the table.
• Sub: .17 and .22 caliber rimfire handguns (.22 LR, .22 WMR, .17 HMR, .17 HM2, etc.) compete in this classification. The pins are set 1 foot from the rear edge of the table.
• Revolver: All revolvers compete in this classification. The pins are set 1 foot from the rear edge of the table. Modern double action revolver shooters are only allowed one gun and may use speedloaders. Cowboy Action shooters may use 2 guns provided the second gun is safely holstered and does not have a round under the hammer. If enough Cowboy Action shooters participate, they will compete under these rules in their own class.
• Carbine: Any shoulder-fired arm that is not a shotgun. Pins are set 1 foot from the front of the table.
• Shotgun: We don't hold shotgun competitions very often because we use wooden tables. Shotguns tend to chew them up pretty quickly. When we do, the pins are set 1 foot from the front edge of the table. Shotgun participants must use #4 buckshot or larger.

Rules

Safety
As with all events at the Virginia Beach Rifle & Pistol Club, eye and ear protection is mandatory at all times on the range. The range safety officer calling the match will inspect the line prior to allowing anyone downrange to reset pins. All actions must be locked open and all magazines out of the guns. Once the line is called cold, no one may touch any firearm under any circumstance. The line must be called hot to remove a gun from the line. ALWAYS PRACTICE PROPER MUZZLE CONTROL. Anyone violating safety rules will be asked to leave and their money will not be refunded.

Reloading Magazines
Shooters are encouraged to reload magazines and speed loaders while the range is cold to speed the progression of the match. Obviously, you cannot handle or load firearms while the range is cold.

Capacity Restrictions
There are no capacity restrictions for semi-automatics or revolvers. Extra magazines and speedloaders are permitted.

Alibi Strings
Alibi strings are only reshot for range failures. If your table collapses during the string or there is a timer failure you may reshoot the string. Reliability of your firearm is part of the game and there are no reshoots for guns that jam or fail. You may change guns between strings as long as the gun you use conforms to the category you began the relay with.

Starting Position
Once the range is called hot, shooters may load rounds into chambers and cock hammers. Shooters start from a 45-degree angle to their body.

Fees & Prizes
The match entrance fee is $10.00 for VBR&PC members and $15.00 for the general public. Your fee covers one relay. Each additional relay is a dollar. We award small cash prizes to our winners. The amounts vary based upon how much we collect at the match and the number of classes we have to divide the money over. Rule of thumb; don't shoot this match for the money! We will not be awarding cash prizes at bowling pin matches until the club secures a new range.

Reentry for Score
The Match Director will announce at the beginning of the shoot if you can re-enter (shoot more than once) in the same classification for score. If you are not allowed to reenter for score, the first relay you shoot for each classification will be your official score and any additional relays are for practice only. We often do this in the summer as the match is more crowded and it gets awfully hot. If we do not allow reentry for score, every effort is still made to allow shooters to get in extra relays.

Last update: Monday, December 23, 2002, R. Cort Tompkins. © 2002-2006 Virginia Beach Rifle & Pistol Club