Are ladies by their nature instinctively better shooters?

Perhaps a lower metabolism helps women hold still slightly better; this is probably more than offset by lower upper body strength.

What make women better new shooters is their minds: they listen to what you tell them, and they don't have the latest Bourne movie running in the back of their heads.

These effects diminish with training, but there's no denying the average American female is a better new shooter than the average American male, ceteris paribus.

It has been my experience that women absorb instruction better, and then apply it faster, on average.

Some of that is in not having as many preconceived notions (nor preconceived illusions of competence).

Which lets them apply knowledge to a learned skill, which generally results in good feedback.

it does help to have solid fundamentals firmly in mind to teach, too. How to perceive the sights, how best to focus the front sight, good bone-bone support and the like. Also being sure to show manipulations which are not muscle dependent. Like using a low 11 o'clock hip pivot to pull back a slide, instead of just muscling the thing back.

Maybe women are better shooters, on average.

Last summer I was shooting at trap league and a 15 year old young lady joined us, shot back to back 25’s and then left to go Tik Tok or something. It was practice for high school league and no big deal to her.

Her Dad said she picked up her first gun when she was 14. I was awestruck because I’ve never shot back to back 25’s!

I think women are perhaps naturally superior in terms of dexterity than men. I think to overcome being physically weaker, they learn how to use their bodies more efficiently. When men also learn to do this, physical strength then swings the difference in their favor.

Rock climbing is a great example. When it comes to beginner climbers, woman learn far quicker to use their legs, to balance, and to use oppositional forces. Men just pull harder and have the muscle to do it. But that can only get a person so far.

Not so much that they are better shooters, then they don’t feel the need to to show others that they already know how to shoot.
Kind of like when you take your buddy and his wife to the range to learn how to shoot. Most often your buddy’s wife will shoot better.
Where you see this become more even is when people are paying for a training class. Most all the students will pay attention and shoot better because the money is coming out of their pockets.

My experience as an instructor was that the women listened better and had few preconceived notions,(based on movies,etc..) about how to shoot. Also, I would separate couples while at the shooting line.

As previously stated, women have a more even mindset and are less likely to become rattled if a shot goes errant.....whereas men tend to be over achievers and more competitive, if they miss a shot they'll often loose focus on the next round because they're still thinking about the last one.

wiscoaster said:

Please vote. There are seven posts and only three votes.

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I'm not in the habit of objectively assessing other shooters. And I don't feel qualified to do so. Which means to vote on it would just be my opinion, and based solely on my feelings. That's not going to provide useful data.

As stated several places above, women are better at paying attention without having preconceived notions of how to shoot. I've coached both, and they can both achieve equally high levels of ability, but the women get to the 90-95% level faster . The last 3-4% is equally difficult for both, and is highly dependent on their own goals.

By their nature they can Learn to be better shooters....

I voted yes. My wife for one, can have little to no practice, and go ahead and get tighter groups with my revolver than I can!
With rifles, she doesn’t practice hardly at all, but can pick it up and make very serviceable shots.

if I may digress a little; the topic may be “off” but a similar skill set and principle readily applies...
With billiards I’ve seen the same thing. A young lady just hangin out with friends, hardly knew how to hold the cue. I gave her just a couple of tips, and she was making these extremely tough shots... she just didn’t know they were tough, and was doing it over and over. (No, I wasn’t being sharked)
Best team I ever saw was comprised of 3 older white ladies and two Asian chicks. They were consistently unstoppable.

In my experience women do pick up shooting better groups faster than men. Not so much transitioning or shooting fast though.

My wife is a great point shooter. Swear to God she doesn't aim. At twelve to fifteen yards she'll make a four inch circle in a heart zone. Her firearm is a Ruger Security Six. At one time we had a Taurus 605 steel snub. I had a handful of magnums left. Didn't phase her and asked if I had more.

My sister in law grew up hunting. She's devastating with anything. And makes it look easy.

Prior to the covid thing, more women were showing at the private club I shoot at. Many of them were very good.

Personally, I think us guys overthink too much. Women just step and do it.

BTW, started my eight and ten year old on bb and pellet guns. Yeah, they're going to be awesome! I chose a CO2 1911 blowback to almost simulate my Hi Power and Astra A70. They're going to inherit those anyway.

I think women, on average, can shoot more accurately initially than can men because 1) they have better eye/hand coordination and better balance, 2) do not have as many ingrained, preconceived ideas that get in the way while learning as do men and 3) can handle multiple stimuli concurrently better than men.

I came to these same conclusions while teaching martial arts many years ago.

wiscoaster said:

Please vote. There are seven posts and only three votes.

Click to expand...

I voted no because the question is flawed. There is no such thing as instinctive shooting - we haven't, as a species, been shooting for more than a few hundred years - not long enough to develop instincts. It's a learned skill. In my opinion, women do take instruction better than men.

My experience is that the ladies don't come with macho and a know it all attitude, and thus are better equipped to listen to instruction. Not beginning with bad habits is a big plus.

wiscoaster said:

Oh c'mon, it's an opinion poll. There's no definitive data being generated. It's just for fun.

Click to expand...

If you insist. I vote yes.

Definitely easier to teach. They LISTEN and don't carry the attitude that a lot of men do that they know all about guns because, well, they're MEN.

Women are more teachable, ie more likely to learn from coaching. But they have higher base heart rates, so...

As an NRA Certified Pistol Instructor, I've taught so many students, I have no clear record of how many. Well into the thousands. Best guess, in excess of 7500. They were all live-fire instructed in SAFETY and BASIC MARKSMANSHIP.

To the poll, I answered NO. Women, females are not better shooters by their "nature". I can find little in female
"nature" that would make them better or worse than men or males. On the other hand, and physical limitations considered, women tended to be BETTER STUDENTS. They, for the most part, had fewer preconceptions, and actually hung onto every word spoken, sometimes to a fault. With a few exceptions, for ether gender, the students did learn, and were able to demonstrate safety, live fire, and the basics of marksmanship.

There are physical limitations for the "average" female body that preclude some forms of shooting. For the most part females lack hand strength and upper body strength. They have trouble with some forms of mechanical dexterity at first, but unless strength is a limitation, quickly adapt.

Notice how many gals hold a long gun. They're leaning back. They don't have the strength to lean into the firearm and hold it upright. They're compensating, and that is a limitation. But with practice and the right long gun, they can eventually lean into the gun, be better shooters. Same applies with heavier handguns.

I see nothing that precludes Jane average, aside from physical strength in some scenarios, that puts her at a disadvantage to Dick average.

This is something I spoke to Rob Pincus about one of the times I ran into him. He pointed out that women are less likely to be shooters or into firearms in general. A woman who wants to learn will listen better, most of the time. The same when training military recruits how to shoot. A recruit who grew up around firearms their whole life may have bad habits that need to be corrected in order to shoot better, to military standard. Instructors usually have an easier time training a student with no firearm experience.