Pictures from the Pin Match

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Bill and Elaine sent me some of the pictures they took from yesterday’s match. I promised I’d put them up.

So, what’s a bowling pin match you ask? As CapitalistPig put it, it’s a combination of drag racing, bowling and shooting. Two people line up side-by-side to see who can shoot five bowling pins (or pin tops) off their table fastest. Here’s a table set up for shooting Minor (centerfire smaller than .40 S&W):

The table is eight feet wide, four feet deep, and about 42″ high. The pins are placed 18″ off the back edge of the table, and are spaced 16″ apart. Those people in the back there are my pin setters.

Once the tables are set, the competitors line up, and at the sound of the horn, they’re off!

This pair is shooting Major – .40 S&W and larger – with the pins set 12″ off the front edge of the table, making it harder to get them on the ground.

Then there’s the .22 Rimfire class, with five pin tops placed on the back edge of the table:

In all cases, the shooter stands at a table that is 25 feet from the front edge of the bowling pin table.  Those pin tops are pretty small 29′ away.

In all cases the shooters start with their guns in their hands in the “low-ready” position (in this case, muzzle on the surface of the table) and at the sound of the beep, they try to clear their five pins as fast as they can.

The rest of the competitors watch the matches,

or help reset the pins between matches,

or shoot the breeze.

All in all, it’s a fun way to spend the day! And since pin shooting emphasizes speed, accuracy, and power, it’s good practice, too.

Cherry-Picking

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Or just plain lying.

First, read SayUncle’s Quote of the Day.

Then, read Joe Huffman’s Quote of the Day.

Then, read the article Joe’s QotD comes from.

The specific bit I’d like to point out from an article ostensibly about the accidental death of an eight-year-old is this:

Data collected by the Centre For Disease Control And Prevention shows that on an average day, three American children die in gun accidents or suicides.

(Emphasis mine.)

Are they intimating here that young Christopher Bizilj intentionally shot himself?

I went to the CDC’s WISQARS site to check on their statistics.  Let’s stipulate that “children” are 17 years old or younger.  Accidental deaths by firearm for children up through 17 years of age for the year 2007 (latest data available):  112.  Suicide by firearm for children up through 17 years of age for the same year:  325.  Combined, 437.

Four hundred thirty-seven divided by three hundred sixty-five is (carry the one):  not quite 1.2 per day.

Not three (3).  Not two (2).  One point two.

And to get THAT number, they have to combine accidents AND SUICIDES, where suicides represent THREE QUARTERS of the total.

I have to ask again:  The real numbers are bad enough – why must they inflate them?

(Edited to add)  More of the same here:

Meanwhile, the shootings continue – more than 30,000 deaths a year, most of them individual killings that are barely reported,

That’s because more than half of them are suicides, by definition “individual killings” that don’t merit much reporting seeing that the US is firmly in the middle-of-the-road for suicide rates, and at the lower-end for high GDP nations.

Match Report: Twenty-Two Rabid Beavers

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We held the December Bowling Pin match at Tucson Rifle Club today.  Last month, fourteen people showed up, and the round count got a bit out of hand, so I decided to separate the “Major” (.40S&W and up) from the “Minor” (smaller than .40) groups in an effort to cut down the number of matches.

That laughing sound you hear is fate toying with me.

Twenty-two people showed up.  With 37 guns.  Not including me and the two guns I brought.

Twelve people shot Minor.  Thirteen people shot Major.  And fourteen people shot .22 rimfire.

Last month, we shot a total of 133 matches – 105 centerfire and  28 rimfire.  My tables looked a bit chewed-on.  Instead of building new ones, though, I re-skinned them with 1/4″ plywood.  Today’s match went on so long seven or eight people left early.

We shot (even with the DNFs) 156 matches, not including the reshoots on three (3) ties.

The tables didn’t come home with me.  What’s left of them resides in the dumpster at the range, minus what looks like the output of twenty-two rabid beavers remaining on the ground at the action range.  And we picked up the bigger pieces.  In addition, twenty perfectly harmless bowling pins gave their all for our entertainment.  About eight of them will live on as pin tops for the .22 class.

The plan had been to shoot all the minor shooters against each other, and all the major shooters against each other, then the two winners against each other for an overall victor. About 2:30PM, that idea went right out the window.  So here are your winners:

.22 rimfire:  Tie –  Travis Higgins with a Ruger MkIII and me, your humble host with a MkII; nine wins each.  Third place goes to Jim Burnett with a Browning Nomad and eight wins.

Minor:  Tie – Jim Burnett with a Beretta 92 and Larry Boykin with a Rock Island 1911 seven wins each. Third place is also a tie – Jim Walters with a EAA Witness, Ken Cabrera with a Springfield XD, and John Higgins also with a Witness – six wins each. (Sorry about missing your six wins on the first pass, John!)

Major:  Here we have a clear winner – Cliff Reed and his Norinco 1911with ten wins.  Second place  goes to Jim Burnett and his Clark Custom pin gun with six, and third place is a tie between me with my Kimber and Elaine Tab with hers and four wins each.

The lopsided win count is due to the number of shooters who left early. It’s a lot of fun, but next month we’ve GOT to cut down on the number of matches.

Elaine and Bill Tab have promised me pictures, so those will be going up when I receive them.  Thanks to everyone who came, thanks especially to everyone who again helped set up, set pins, and tear down. Oh, and John Higgins won the drawing and the $37 pot.  Again.

Next month there will hopefully be FOUR tables to help speed things along. And an air-horn as a starting signal.  Sunday, January 9. Sign-up at 8:30, first round downrange at 9:00. See you there!

UPDATE: Great Satan has a brief match report and a video clip up!

Bowling Pin Shoot – Tucson, Sunday December 12

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(Bumped)

Tucson Rifle Club action range. Registration begins at 8:30 AM (we’re starting a little later). Sign in at the range office, but if all you’re going to do is shoot the match, you don’t need to pay the daily use range fee – it’s part of the match entry fee for non-members. $10 for the first gun, $5 each for additional guns. First round downrange (hopefully) by about 9:00.

After last month’s mega-match, we’re going to shoot Major (.40 and above), Minor (9mm and below), and .22 rimfire as separate classes, but each class will be a free-for-all. Everyone in that class will shoot against everyone else in that class, regardless of pistol type.

Smallest centerfire allowed: .38 Special. Hollowpoint and flat-point bullets work better at carrying pins off the tables than round-nose or FMJ bullets do, regardless of caliber.

If you show up, you’ll be paired off against all other shooters in your class for one (1) man-on-man competition each. Bring enough ammo! We each shot in 14 centerfire matches last month, and most of us took way over five shots per table. This month should be a lower round count than that, but it’s entirely dependent on how many people show up.  And, even if you lose the match, you get to keep shooting until you’ve cleared your table if you want to. Consider it practice for the next round.

Whoever wins the most tables will be declared victor of the class. The last match of the day will be a best two-out-of-three competition between the top Major and Minor shooters. Your only prize: the accolades of your peers.

Everyone who hangs around until the end of the match will be put in for a drawing. $1 of each entry goes into a pot. A drawing from the names of those present will be taken, and the winner gets the whole pot. It’s been running a bit over $20, so you get your entry fee back, and a little gas money.

See you Sunday, December 12!

A Land Fit for Criminals

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One of the books in my queue is David Fraser’s A Land Fit for Criminals:  An Insider’s View of Crime, Punishment and Justice in the UK. The synopsis states:

In this meticulously researched study of the British criminal justice system, author David Fraser, a long-serving Senior Probation Officer, offers a clear-sighted and persuasive analysis of how and why the country faces the spiraling crime figures it does today. Fraser addresses government policy since World War II, showing how the belief that ‘prisons do not work’ became a central plank of criminal justice policy and charts the disastrous consequences that this had for the British public. He examines in detail how the workings of government, Civil Service, judiciary, police and Probation Service have all become perverted by a philosophy that seeks to uphold the ‘rights’ of the criminal rather than those of their victims. Finally, he argues that only by sending the country’s large numbers of persistent criminals to prison for increasingly long periods will we be able to head off the social, political and civic catastrophe that looms in Britain today. Accessible and lucidly written, “A Land Fit for Criminals” will appeal to both those involved in the criminal justice system and to general readers concerned about the issues affecting Britain today.

The book was published in 2006. Four years later, nothing much seems to have changed.  In a recent headline from The London Evening Standard entitled Clarke tackles record jail numbers, we get this update on the British “justice” system:

Murderers could serve less time in prison under Government plans that would see shorter sentences, fewer criminals in jail and more offenders handed fines or community sentences.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke outlined plans which would give judges more discretion over how long killers should spend behind bars.

A “simpler, more sensible” approach that “leaves the judge to do justice in the individual case” will be put in place.

Other plans include letting foreign nationals escape jail as long as they leave the UK forever, wiping the slate clean for young offenders when they reach 18 so they are not hindered by a criminal record, and halving sentences for those who plead guilty early.

As I’ve noted previously, it appears that a “life” sentence for murder in the UK is actually about 15 years.

Nope. Not much has changed at all.