Action Shooting

The Massachusetts Rifle Association periodically hosts action style shooting events.

Rifle on bowling pins, static steel, and a pin shoot are the most common, check the events calendar for schedules.

Bowling Pins Shoot (rifle)

Short form: 10 bowling pins on a rack, knock them off with any centerfire rifle as fast as you can. There is no magazine capacity limit, but as with any sport, you can't miss fast enough to be effective.

The score is the sum of three runs, timed to the last shot, with a five second penalty added for each pin left on the rack.

Shooting the rack deliberately is strictly against the rules.

Any rifle will do, so long as it can hold enough rounds to knock 10 pins off the rack. ARs are popular, as are AKs, and any of a variety of pistol caliber carbines.

Static Steel

There are two regular static steel event types; centerfire and rimfire. They're both run by the same rules.

In each, there are four "target" plates, and one "stop" plate, differentiated from the targets by color on the plate or its mounting. The targets are not reactive (aside from noise) they don't fall down or move, so there's less feedback than with 25 steel.

Each run is timed from the timer's beep until the stop plate is hit, with a penalty for missed targets. If you shoot the stop plate first, all other hits afterward are forfeit, *shoot the stop plate last!*

Bowling Pin Shoot (pistol)

This is sometimes referred to as "Second Chance Main Event", because it follows the format of the original game played at the gatherings held by the president of Second Chance, the company that makes bulletproof vests for the police and military. The format is fairly simple: 5 bowling pins on a fairly deep, two tiered steel table. The object is to knock the pins *off* the table, (not just knock them over) in less than 15 seconds. Any time longer than 15 seconds result in a score of 15. The total score is the sum of three runs.

This is a fairly challenging sport, since it requires a relatively large round (high power factor, high power, etc) to move the pins enough to knock them off the table, which means getting back on target between shots is harder. The magazine capacity limit is eight rounds, so each shot has to matter.

.45 ACP loaded to factory specs (not lightweight target loads) are very popular, as are .357 Magnum, and other "full power" combat/defensive loads.

Lightweight rounds like 9mm and .38 Spl. are prohibited, they tend to bounce off the pins, which is dangerous.

Advice for beginners: Don't worry about going fast. Only the experienced shooters will be fast, that takes a lot of practice. Instead, focus on being *accurate*. With accuracy comes speed. You can't do it the other way. Don't wait for a target to fall before going to the next one; it'll fall, or it won't, you can always come back to it.