In 1975 a guy named Richard Davis invited some friends – including some cops whose lives had been saved by Davis’ Second Chance brand body armor – to a pistol match at his place in Central Lake, Michigan. The targets were bowling pins. His concept caught on and, by golly, he had created a new handgun sport. J. D. Jones wrote about it in a gun magazine and after reading the article, I decided to shoot in the next one. It was for cops only, but I was one, so I went in 1976 – and got hooked.
And I shot every damned one of them there after that, including the very last one, in June of 2026.
After a couple of years, Davis opened the match to armed citizens. Soon the event numbered 500 or so participants. The prize pot got proportionally deeper as the depth of contestants grew.
I went every time, sometimes alone, and sometimes with my late first wife and my kids, and sometimes with just one or more of the kids. I won a bunch of guns. I gave some to Dorothy, some to the kids. My older daughter Cat won her own weapon shooting there in ’96, and my younger daughter Justine and I won her age division in Parent/Child Team competition in ’98 when John Matthews convinced Davis to hold the National Junior Championship there in conjunction with the Second Chance Shoot. June of ’98 saw two high points in my life, being voted Outstanding American Handgunner of the Year and winning that national championship title with my daughter and if allowed to keep only one of those two moments, it would be the one with my child.
What was known as the Second Chance Shoot ended in 1998, and thereafter wherever I was in the second week in June my subconscious said “What are we doing here? Aren’t we supposed to be in Central Lake, Michigan this week?!?”
In 2017, Richard’s son Matt Davis reconstituted this wonderful fun event as The Pin Shoot, and I went to all of those until the final one in June of this year. It was a bittersweet thing, the hundreds of us there knowing that this would be the last one.
Just before the 2026 awards ceremony, Matt Davis announced that the last shots of The Last Pin Shoot would be fired by the OGs, the Original Gunners from the Old Days. At the signal to fire I raised the Springfield Armory Range Officer 1911 .45 I was carrying and fired five careful shots.
This (BANG) was (BANG) my (BANG) favorite (BANG) match (BANG)!
The end of an era…..
Bittersweet….
If you want to continue with the match let me know. On more than one occasion we’ve talked about pin shoots at our range. In new Smyrna Beach
Strong finish Mas!
Our club has been shooting pins for years. We have our own version and it is a lot of fun. Two 4’X8′ tables perpendicular to the range with the front edge 35′ form the firing line and set at a 1 degree rearward tilt. Start off with five pins on each table, evenly spaced, 8″ from the back edge. This is the rimfire match. The first person to knock all five pins OFF the table wins. The event is run as a round-robin if eight or fewer shooters, double elimination if more than eight. After the rimfire match the same pins are moved to the center of the table and the mid-range round commences. This round is for .25ACP to .40S&W. Note the same pins, as they are getting lumpy and don’t roll so well. Now we move the SAME pins to the front edge of the table and bring out the big-bore stuff; 10mm and up, including my BFR .45-70!! Now the pins are REALLY lumpy. Just knocking them over and expecting them to roll off the table doesn’t work. You have to hit them well enough to drive them off the table. great fun!!
The tables are steel frames with a piece of 3/8″X2″ angle iron across the front for a deflector and 1/2″ OSB tops. The table tops are usually good for eight to ten matches before they need to be replaced. Bowling alleys change out their pins about once a year. Catch them when they’re changing and you can buy the old ones for a buck apiece. We only replace pins during a match if the top is shot off or they are wounded to the point that they won’t stand up.
Give it a try!!