Do shootresses really learn faster than shooters?

[Manco]

Mainly what needs to change is how both men and women far too often view women & shooting, and all the related stereotypes. After reading this thread, however, it seems that once we've gotten past that, we then have to learn how to stop discriminating against men, too. Fairness to individuals is not a pendulum based on gender, race, or whatever.

 

[Dnaltrop]

My wife, (who grew up in deep NE Portland during some of the worst of the '80s) used to startle violently at the sound of gunshots, fireworks, etc. While not Anti, she had spent most of her life developing a very healthy fear.

She was ok with my guns as long as I didnt fiddle with them when we started dating.

She eventually was ok Sitting in the car Reading whilst I wreaked terrible destruction upon soda cans in the woods.

10 years into it, I got her to pick up a .22 rifle, which she instantly hated from having something on her shoulder, but I forced her to at least try the Model 10.

She emptied the model 10, paused... then had me reload over and over for her. shooting a 6" grouping at 10 yards consistently dead center, and making it look easy.

took 5 more years but she's got her own Sigma love affair going now.

 

[labhound]

My wife shoots slower and has a steadier trigger pull than I do and as a result gets better accuracy. I have to really concentrate on the basics to equal or pass her (mostly equaling, not much passing )!

 

[Sky]

OK that does it!!!!! I am gonna fire my entire squad of hairy legged Zombie Killers and get me some female shooters!! Volunteers???

 

[9mmepiphany]

Wait a minute. Did Mas actually use the word "shootresses"?????????

It isn't that uncommon a word, is it?

It is from the same age as the word hostess and saves the use of two words female and shooters when one will suffice

 

[Shadow 7D]

It's not a sex thing

It's a learning/willingness to learn.

My DS said in basic, it you are a country boy who grew up with gun and pick a gnat off a bulls butt at 300M, you show me and I'll let you sleep for the next 3 days, if you don't know jack, I'll teach you how to pick a gnat off at 300M.

For the rest of you who THINK you can shoot, this is going to be a long and painful week.

If you think you know it all, then you don't have/ are able to learn.

 

[oldfool]

well, call it whatever you want, but yeah, girl people do it better
and I never had even one of 'em ever say to me, "here, hold my beer and watch this !"
(which might have a little to do with it)

PS
but forget trying on dresses fellas, never helped me a bit
(and I ain't shaving my legs, either, not even if it helped me swim faster)

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

"Women have fewer perceived ideas of how to shoot and have less investing in being right,

Uhhhhh Whoever said this has never lived with a woman. At least not a southern woman. I have yet to ever meet one that did not have to always be "right".

That being said, women do have a better ability to learn new things because they are, quite simply, smarter than males. They are easier to teach because they do not have the pre-conceived notion that they already know it. And it is a proven fact that females do in fact have better dexterity than males on average.

 

[M2 Carbine]

What's fun is teaching a wife or girlfriend of someone how to shoot and in a day or two she out-shoots the man that's been shooting for a good while.



Many years ago a man I worked with (Policemen) and I were shooting a little on weekends at a gravel pit.
One weekend our girlfriends were going with us and I was going to teach the friend's girl to shoot.
I told my buddy (he had a little bit of an Ego), "Now don't get upset when my girlfriend out-shoots you".
His answer was, "Ain't no girl out-shooting me".
I said, "I can out-shoot you, right?"
He said, "Well, Yes"
I said, "Well, I taught her to shoot and on her good days she can out-shoot me".

Through the day I taught the girl to shoot and she was a quick learner.

At the end of the day we usually had some kind of shooting match.
That my girlfriend out-shot him didn't bother my buddy too much, but his girlfriend out-shooting him got him a little upset.

 

[9mmepiphany]

Uhhhhh Whoever said this has never lived with a woman

OK, I'll bite. How is what I wrote:

Women have fewer perceived ideas of how to shoot and have less investing in being right,

different, in meaning, then what you wrote:

They are easier to teach because they do not have the pre-conceived notion that they already know it.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

Women are ALWAYS right!!! There is a huge difference between knowing that they are right and knowing that they do not know how to do something. I know it is a hard logic to follow. After 22 years of living with one I still can not always follow it myself

 

[9mmepiphany]

You're right, it must be a southern belle thing

 

[Old krow]

What's fun is teaching a wife or girlfriend of someone how to shoot and in a day or two she out-shoots the man that's been shooting for a good while

The first day at our range with my girlfriend, after about 10 minutes of coaching she outshot me with my own gun. I am admittedly not a great pistol shot though. After 45 minutes I gave her the gun and told her to keep it because someone broke into our house we'd be better off with her at the trigger.

I work very hard to remain even somewhat accurate on pistols and she's hitting clay pigeons (stationary of course) at 40 yards with a Glock 19 on her third trip to the range. The last time that we shot we were both hitting the clay pigeons at 40 yards, but I have to work harder to do it.

 

[longhair75]

My wife hit a quarter at fifty feet with her BHP one night at the range.

 

[jaholder1971]

Will my scores go up if I put on a dress?

Maybe at a pride march, on the range not so much...

 

[hso]

"shootress" is an uncommon word in any era after 1880.

BTW, I'm in TN and the women I train are almost always better at learning to shoot than the men I train. Of course, they're coming to learn to shoot instead of having someone force them to so they're open minded, receptive to doing something new and different, and motivated. They've also been from all over the US and the world (Oak Ridge draws people from all over the planet).

 

[hardluk1]

And the Lady's muti-task better than any of us. Boy if the women in our lives read this tread they would just glow. Be so proud of us being so inferior in so many ways.

 

[Sky]

Not inferior just different. Used to tell my wife to read something and give me a briefing...Pictures are for men, words are for women....hahaheheheh Joke or should I just hang myself!

 

[Cap'n Jack Burntbeard]

Any women who I have introduced to shooting, have adapted rather quickly and do quite well.

 

[Manco]

That being said, women do have a better ability to learn new things because they are, quite simply, smarter than males.

Hogwash! Some men are smarter than most women, and some women are smarter than most men. Although there are some general gender-related differences in how our brains function, overall intelligence is not related to gender. If women are truly smarter than men on the average in the context of shooting, then I guess it only applies to male gun enthusiasts, and little I've read in this thread so far proves otherwise. Either that or you're all whipped!

 

[labhound]

Manco, don't know if we're all "whipped" or not, but remember, there's two types of husbands...henpecked and liars!

 

[TexasGunbie]

It depends on the chick. My ex been to the shooting range about 4 times and rarely hits the target.
But I had a friend that went the first time and pretty much mastered the firearm.
Then I had another girl that went with me and she pointed the gun to everyone and got people very angry. (I did explain the safety rules to her many times too).

So it depends on the person.

 

[mustang_steve]

Absolutely.

Women in general are better listeners than we men are.

I work in a line of work that requires extreme attention to words, as well as instructing others over the phone. I find the men in general require more detailed insteruction than women. Women will do exactly what you ask them to do, while men will in general do the "cliff's notes" of what you told them to do, unless you stress the details. Even with the extreme attention my job requires, I find myself summarizing things regularly as it's how I do everything.

I suspect it's this greater attention to words that make women in general faster learners. I do see some people who are not used to recoil having issues if they started out with a firearm with significant muzzle flip, however that's a realtively small group.

 

[springmom]

"shootress" is an uncommon word in any era after 1880.

Right. And I'm sorry, there is no such word as "lawyeress". Women really don't need the suffix. It's not in use in print or in conversation.

No huge deal, but it sort of makes us seem like we're something unusual, and we're really not. I see LOTS of women at the range here, from young women there with a date or a dad, to a VERY old lady there the other day, with the owner of the range teaching her to shoot a deer rifle. THAT was cool.

We're just shooters. Period.

Jan

 

[Beetle Bailey]

I once read that a profession driving instructor (teaches driving on a racetrack) talked about something similiar and made this statement:

There are two things a man doesn't like to be told how to do by another man:

1. Make love to a woman
2. Drive a car

I think in the example here "Drive a car" can be substituted with "Shoot a gun." I am not a certified instructor or anything, but I've given tips to a couple dozen people over the years. It's not that men are stupid, it's just that as the coach, you have to find a way to say things to them that will get them to respond to your coaching. I've had males that listened well and caught on quick and I've had males that seem to unconciously resist what I say, and everything in between.

The three adult women and two girls I've coached all did great and it was a lot easier to get them to follow exactly what I asked. I taught a woman how to shoot just last weekend (she's shot handguns a total of six times and also had a little bit of backyard experience with a BB gun). Started her off with a CZ 452 with iron sights and then a scoped Marlin 795. She did great at 50 yards so we went to my AR15 National Match. She shot a five shot group on paper at 50 yards and then we went hunting for steel targets.

She repeatedly hit the steel pig at 200 yards rather easily so I adjusted the sights and had her try the same size pig at 300 yards. That was easy as well so again I adjusted the sights and had her go for the 400 yard square. It took a few rounds to settle in but in no time she's hammering away at that one as well. So I said "Do you want to go to 500 yards?" So once again I adjusted the sights and she nailed a 500 yard square on her second shot! Then she hit it again on the next shot to prove it wasn't a fluke. With iron sights even! (okay they were match sights, but still. . . )

I didn't notice while she was shooting but a small crowd had gathered to watch. Some of the comments were:

"I didn't know it was even possible to hit something that far away with iron sights!"

"500 yards? How do you even see that far? And it's her first time?"

"That was awesome! Is that a National Match rifle?"

I asked if she felt like trying 600 yards, but she said she was having trouble seeing the targets clearly at that distance so my buddy gave her a Remington 700 Police in .308 with a NF 5.5-22 power scope on it. She never missed any of the 600 yard steel and afterwards told me she wishes she had tried the 600 yard targets with the AR15 because better to have tried and failed. . .

Anywho, she did everything I asked her to so we made a lot of progress in a short amount of time but the guys I have taught to shoot do well too, it's just that it usually take a little longer.