Ivy Mike
Member
My grandfather told me this same thing about my mother when he took her shooting at one of the police ranges in Los Angeles. He gave her the S&W Model 19 he carried on duty and gave her the instruction and range rules and said that in her first day, she was a very competent shooter. 10 year old girl with bullets hanging out of her ears was drilling silhouette targets with a big heavy gun.
When my wife and I went shooting for her first time, I observed the same thing. I gave her some basic instruction and by the end of the ammo, she was very confident with my CZ-75B and even realized that she didn't like my old FN Forty-Nine. She said the FN felt better in the hand, but the trigger was too hard to pull and that her hand hurt after a magazine. She intuitively picked up on the .40S&W being a sharper, harshly recoiling cartridge.
So we bought her an FNP-9 and she shot it better than I did. Once she worked out how the sights were supposed to line up, she spent the rest of the day dinging plates at will with a big smile after each magazine.
And of course, there were lots of Russian women in The Great Patriotic War who demonstrated very deft control of their rifles while repelling fascist invaders from Germany. Perhaps not wanting to be raped and murdered if they were captured had something to do with it, but whatever it was, they took their training and put it to very good use.
It seems like they listen to instruction and figure out how to apply it pretty quickly. I don't know why that is and if it's even objectively true or because we tend to think of shooting sports as a man's sport, thus being surprised when a woman shows herself to be quite capable. And really, shooting well is far more about good technique than being able to muscle your way through it, which is very much an equalizer between the sexes. Sure a man has a considerable advantage in upper body and grip strength, but unless you're shooting magnums, it really doesn't matter; technique is more important.
You see the same thing in trying to teach a young kid how to properly swing a baseball/softball bat. They have to be shown to keep the back foot planted, the proper grip on the bat, how to use their whole core instead of just trying to shoulder/arm swing. Once they get it and make a solid hit, their whole face lights up and you see real improvement. I think a similar thing happens with female shooters. Once they figure out this odd mechanical thing, they just get it and because they absorbed the instruction you gave them, they intuit it very well.
When my wife and I went shooting for her first time, I observed the same thing. I gave her some basic instruction and by the end of the ammo, she was very confident with my CZ-75B and even realized that she didn't like my old FN Forty-Nine. She said the FN felt better in the hand, but the trigger was too hard to pull and that her hand hurt after a magazine. She intuitively picked up on the .40S&W being a sharper, harshly recoiling cartridge.
So we bought her an FNP-9 and she shot it better than I did. Once she worked out how the sights were supposed to line up, she spent the rest of the day dinging plates at will with a big smile after each magazine.
And of course, there were lots of Russian women in The Great Patriotic War who demonstrated very deft control of their rifles while repelling fascist invaders from Germany. Perhaps not wanting to be raped and murdered if they were captured had something to do with it, but whatever it was, they took their training and put it to very good use.
It seems like they listen to instruction and figure out how to apply it pretty quickly. I don't know why that is and if it's even objectively true or because we tend to think of shooting sports as a man's sport, thus being surprised when a woman shows herself to be quite capable. And really, shooting well is far more about good technique than being able to muscle your way through it, which is very much an equalizer between the sexes. Sure a man has a considerable advantage in upper body and grip strength, but unless you're shooting magnums, it really doesn't matter; technique is more important.
You see the same thing in trying to teach a young kid how to properly swing a baseball/softball bat. They have to be shown to keep the back foot planted, the proper grip on the bat, how to use their whole core instead of just trying to shoulder/arm swing. Once they get it and make a solid hit, their whole face lights up and you see real improvement. I think a similar thing happens with female shooters. Once they figure out this odd mechanical thing, they just get it and because they absorbed the instruction you gave them, they intuit it very well.
