Guest Post: Quality Time with the Girls

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Natalie in In Words

We love it when our friends and fans take the time to chime in and share their experiences by writing a guest-post for us.  Hearing about experiences and insights from female shooters from every corner of the country is always fun and educational.  Our friend, Maggie, was kind enough to lend us her thoughts about ladies’ shooting events and the importance of shooting with the girls.

Female-only shooting events of a casual nature can be hard to come by in certain parts of the country. Notwithstanding the ever growing number of women who are becoming educated in using firearms for defense and sport (and are purchasing their own guns) – we can still be a quiet minority in the shooting world. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a woman come alone or with a female friend to the range I regularly frequent, rather than with a boyfriend, brother or husband.

Getting the word out and banding together to have a good time sends a great message that we support each other’s commitment and enjoyment in shooting sports for recreation and personal safety.

So it was with pleasure that on Superbowl Sunday I joined a group of gun toting gals who came out to play! With plenty of time to make it home for kickoff, the pregame prep involved making some serious noise. The streets were quiet Sunday morning when the ladies headed indoors for some female only fun.

Hosted by a local range, the ladies event included some coffee and donuts to get the blood moving and then the beginner shooters passed around the Ruger 10/22 rifles and various handguns. The pop pop pops of the small caliber rounds peppered the targets as the women chatted each other up about where they like to shoot, what they like to shoot and what they hope to see for women’s shooting sports in the future.

Due to a smaller number of women shooters in this area of the Northeast and the lack of a women’s shooting club (but not for long!) it is always nice to find a few women who are enthusiastic about their guns and eager to share the thrill of making big holes in the targets. The ammo and the rifles were provided by the range but several women also brought their own firearms. So it was in a friendly atmosphere that they were passed around and everyone who wanted had the chance to try something they wouldn’t have otherwise.

I couldn’t help but think how awesome it was to meet women I would otherwise not have known through a mutual enjoyment of shooting. Stories were told of boyfriends and husbands who refuse to “share” their guns but have no problem sharing their love of driving around to every gun shop in the county on a Saturday afternoon!

When a group of women get together there are no “stupid” questions and no one feels intimidated by the “experience” peering over their shoulders. Even men with the best intentions, and there are certainly plenty who strongly support a female presence in the shooting world, can make a female shooter, especially a new one, feel unconsciously uncomfortable. So every once in awhile it’s great to let your hair down and hang with the girls.

So this group of women let the men buy the beer and chips today – we were still there to watch the game, but not before shaking up the field a bit.

Tags: arizona, bloggers, exhibition shooting, female, girl, guest, guest post, handgun, importance, maggie, prescott, quality, quality time, ruger, ruger 10 / 22, ruger 10/22, shares, shooters, shooting, shooting sports, sports, sturm, the girls, william b. ruger