Posted on 06/24/2007 4:22:36 PM PDT by concentric circles
If you're already wondering what you might get your favorite gal for her birthday, perhaps you should turn your attention to one of the fastest growing recreational activities for women - shooting sports. Hunting and target shooting, often assumed to be the exclusive province of men, are growing in popularity with women.
A new survey by the National Sporting Goods Association shows that women are participating in hunting and shooting in ever-greater numbers. According to the survey, 72 percent more women are hunting with firearms today than five years ago and 50 percent more are target shooting. Women are using rifles, handguns and airguns. The numbers further show that approximately three million women now hunt and over five million women shoot as a hobby, making up about 15 percent of the shooting, hunting and firearms community.
Some reasons include programs specifically designed to introduce women and girls to the traditionally male sports, as well as manufacturers waking up to a new market and designing products especially for women. For instance, a women's gun usually has a 28-inch barrel, whereas a men's gun will typically have a barrel of 30 inches.
Barbara Garrett, of Newhall, passed her one-year shooting anniversary in January. She started shooting after receiving a shotgun as a Christmas present.
"I had asked for a shotgun or a tractor," said Garrett, who owns a house in Castaic where the tractor would have come in handy.
Garrett loves the sport, and especially appreciates its fostering of excellent hand-eye coordination. Her event of choice is trap shooting - where a machine shoots a clay pigeon from a "trap house" into the air as a moving target. The participants shoot five rounds at each different station - for 25 rounds total.
"We just keep shooting at those targets," she said.
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better
According to Teri Brower, of Canyon Country, a fellow club member, each club that holds events gives special recognition to the female trap shooter, with a trophy for the highest scoring lady for that event. Of course, sometimes a women shooter may "class" for other awards, bumping the men out of a trophy.
"It's actually a co-ed league, but there are about three or four of us (women). There are so many great people. I'm learning so much," said Garrett.
Garrett also takes part in the sporting clay shoot sponsored by various gun manufacturers that happens once a year in the fall. This is an event where there are different stations available to the shooters, each with a different brand of gun - Browning, Ruger, etc. Garrett's own gun is an Italian Benelli shotgun.
The first thing Garrett did when she decided to take up shooting was to take a one-hour lesson in gun safety and etiquette with Warren Fine, of Valley Village, a shooting instructor who has been teaching at Oak Tree Gun Club since 1993, and who is also a certified shooting instructor through the National Rifle Association and a USA Shooting Coach.
"For instance, they teach you to hold a gun differently depending on whether it's loaded or unloaded, so people will know," said Garrett.
In addition, shooters at public ranges must wear ear and eye protection. Garrett loves trap shooting, and is proud to say she's getting better every time.
"It's a great sport," said Garrett. "It's something to do outside, and there's great competition."
Garrett describes herself as "low on the totem pole" in terms of her accuracy, but notes that the more she shoots the better she gets. Right now she's competing with her partner, Pete Felix, of Newhall, whom she described as getting much better himself.
"He shot with me with the new gun, and liked it so much that he went and got his own Benelli," said Garrett.
Garrett currently shoots in two leagues a week - the Tuesday Night Trap League, and the Thursday Night Trap League, both of which meet at 7 p.m. She also practices on Saturday mornings.
Equal Opportunity
Fine, who is president of the California Clay Busters Trap Club and League, is thrilled with the increase in women and girls participating in the shooting sports. Brower is Treasurer of the Club.
"I have students as young as 13 or 14," said Fine. "They can absolutely shoot on the same level as boys and men."
Fine is head coach of the Scholastic Clay Target Shooting Program in the Santa Clarita Valley, which is run by Steve Johnson, of Castaic, as part of a nationwide program. Fine took two of his local student teams, which are co-ed, to the 1994 National Championship in Vandalia, Ohio, where they captured first place. The program is open to girls and boys ages 10-18.
Lydia Parsons, 17, a home-schooled 11th grader from Northridge, is one of Fine's prize pupils. Just last week she took the "High Ladies" trophy at the Scholastic Invitational at Oak Tree. Parsons shoots with a Beretta 391 semi-automatic shotgun and a steady hand. She's been shooting for three years now, having been introduced to the sport by her father, Larry Parsons, who used to shoot competitively in Detroit.
"What I enjoy, in addition to the whole competitive thing," said Lydia Parsons, "is being able to compete on a level, broad playing field with boys and girls where physical strength doesn't matter - something I couldn't get with soccer."
Lydia Parsons said her mother Marci Parsons is "very encouraging," to her in her pursuit, which she hopes to continue after she goes to college.
"She thinks it's great," said Lydia Parsons. "She displays my trophies around the house."
"Young girls have all the opportunities to excel in shooting sports as boys do. They can be state and national champions," said Fine.
The earlier in life children begin to shoot the better, according to Fine. Shooting fosters good hand-eye coordination and concentration, he said. "Ninety percent of shooting is focus," said Fine. "The rest is fundamentals."
All In the Family
Brower, who shoots with a Browning 12-gauge shotgun and has been part of the trap shooting club for six and half years, calls her fellow club members "a fascinating group," who, notwithstanding coming from different professions and backgrounds, all love the sport.
"It is a great sport and the people are very nice," said Brower. "I have found that a lot of men wish their wives or girlfriends enjoyed the sport like the women who shoot in the Thursday night league do."
Brower has expanded her repertoire from trap shooting, with which she started, to include skeet and sporting clays events. She also shoots pistols and hunts - hobbies that grew naturally from being around the people in the trap-shooting clubs and leagues. In addition, her husband John and her children from her first marriage all enjoy shooting and hunting.
"The kids have been hunting for five years and shooting targets for two," she said.
One impetus for her shooting hobby was seeing an article in The Signal about the sale of the Oak Tree Gun Club. Having learned that the club gave lessons, Brower checked it out, and ordered her first shotgun. But shooting sports were not unknown to her - she grew up back East in Pittsburgh, where her entire family were hunters.
"They let some of the kids back then do target practice with pistols," she said. "But only boys got to do it - not girls."
Ironically, of her three children, Joshua, 16, in the 11th grade at Saugus High, Zachary, 15, in the 10th grade and Eva, 13, in the 7th grade at Arroyo Seco Junior High School, only the boys shoot.
"We do hunt together occasionally, as a family thing, though" said Brower. "And Eva comes. She's the retriever."
Kill It And Grill It
The Brower family doesn't hunt for trophies - they eat everything they shoot. Targets include chuckers (a game hen), quail, pheasants, which they travel to Lone Pine for, and deer and bear, which they've hunted at Ojai.
"Last year we almost had a bear," said Brower. "Joshua and I had just decided to take a break - and we missed it by two minutes!"
The Browers have never caught a bear, so Teri Brower has never cooked one. But she knows that it's not a good stew meat.
"Due to the fact that it's very greasy, most people grind it up and use it in place of hamburger" she said.
Though her grandmother could clean and dress "anything," Brower said, she takes her deer to a meat processor. Still, getting from the hunting ground to the car is no small feat, since the family doesn't have an all-terrain-vehicle. "We had to hike out about four miles with a buck that weighed between 85 and 90 pounds gutted," she said.
Teri Brower said her son Joshua is the best shot in the family, but the jury is out between herself and her husband.
"It depends on the night," she said. "But John says I'm better."
I posted this primarily because the newspaper that ran the story serves north suburban Los Angeles. The writer treated the subject matter the same as if it were about the Quilting Guild or the PTA. There is no controversy injected into the story by unnecessarily quoting anti-gun advocates; there are no fears expressed by the writer; no attempts to portray the individuals as unusual or as existing at the margin of society. It's straight journalism about people in the community enjoying an activity, with a small dose of gender irony for human interest.
Several of the shooting ranges and gun clubs mentioned in the story and sidebar are in Los Angeles or within a stone's throw. This is one small part of California that is seldom portrayed in the popular media for public consumption. It is the California inhabited by folks who believe in traditional values.
Some of the nicest women I’ve met, have been at the 3-4 local shooting ranges, here abouts.
“Oh honey, it’s a Smith & Wesson .38 special Plus-P revolver, model 642 with an internal hammer, and a box of hollow point Gold Dots! It’s just what I wanted!”
(kisses)
Does it have an infra-red scope?
When I get my CCW....I’m stealing my husband’s gun with the infared scope....IT IS COOL!
Something about prying a gun from...... maybe it doesn’t apply here? :^)
That is just about the COOLEST picture I have seen in a long time
I want one... the gun I mean.
Lorena Bobbit autograph knives are out now???
ping
I went to the range today to shoot my new .380 for the first time. Hubby and some of his buddies were there to coach me (first semi for me!). By the end of the lesson, they were all joking about calling before they show up at the door.
Good day.
Hehehe
oh yeah! :-)
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