And then there are our eyes. We tend to see things differently. For one thing, it’s rare for us, unlike men, to have any degree of color-blindness, which will influence our choice of tinted lenses on any given day (think lighting conditions), on any given field (think background). For another, what you see as three feet in front of a bird, a woman may not. I can’t tell you why, really, but an eye doctor that shoots should be able to.
Do I need to explain how our other gender differences in posture, flexibility, strength, and endurance, and most definitely, tolerance of recoil, can also affect our shooting? Probably.
Nonetheless, I want to point out that a woman thinks differently than a man. As a result, achieving, let alone maintaining, a consistently solid mental game is a serious challenge for many of us. Ask any member of my shooting sisterhood and you’re likely to hear how our innate propensity for cerebral multitasking is a bitch to suppress in a hundred-target competition, let alone 25 practice birds.
But don’t think for a minute we aren’t as hungry or as cut-throat as the next guy (figuratively speaking) wanting to win. Mark my words: if you let down your guard and become complacent in a shoot-off because your opponent is a woman, there’s a mighty fine chance she’ll show you how good it can be to “shoot like a girl!”
I’ll leave you with this, if I didn’t already leave you behind when I mentioned boobs. Speaking as a trap and Skeet competitor, an NRA shotgun coach, and as a female, unless you really understand all that’s involved for a woman to enjoy shooting clays, you shouldn’t try to coach one. That’s not to say what you do know can’t be helpful. It’s what you don’t that can hurt her—literally—and create a bunch of bad habits she’ll have a hard time breaking.
And if you’re still thinking you’re just a soul whose intentions are good, I suggest you change your tune. Remember what the road to hell is made of?
I rest my case.
We are happy to welcome Barbara Sheldon to the Gray’s Sporting Journal website. Barbara is a writer, business woman, and serious trap shooter who has contributed several articles and columns to Gray’s over the past several years. She brings a—how should we say?—distinctive outlook on shooting. And her shooting skills are matched by her wit and wordsmithing.
