What's with you girls?

[Yoda]

This is crazy.

My best gun buddy assembles an FN-FAL from parts, and he goes to the range with me and his wonderfully Brit about-to-be wife to try it out. He fires a few shots at nothing in particular to see if it works, then hands it to his future bride, just to let her see what a real gun feels like. He explains how to hold and aim the gun, and she fires one shot at a target 75 yards away. Dead center x-ring. She had never fired a rifle before.

My son buys an AK to complement his AR, and when they get to the range to see how it shoots, his wife asks to take the first shot. All the guys at the range crowd around her to "help." (She's VERY smart, but some idiot guys might assume she's a dumb but beautiful blonde.) She squeezes off one round. 100 yards, x-ring.

What's going on?

(Actually, I think I know... It's an international conspiracy.)

- - - Yoda

===================

 

[pak29]

My wife- same thing. I explain how Dad's old .22 rifle works, how to lign up the sites. BAM! Bullseye. First shot with a firearm ever.

Later, with the new air pistol in the basement, I explain how to charge and load, sites are the same, just watch that sensitive trigg... SWOP! Another bullseye. First shot with the air pistol.

It's just creepy.

 

[kurt1305]

It's a conspiracy between wives everywhere. Tiger Woods has doomed us all.

 

[bdickens]

It's because women don't have the testosterone-driven idea that they know how to shoot already. They pay attention to the instruction given and follow all of the fundamentals precisely without having an emotional attachment to being able to shoot.

 

[Norinco982lover]

My wife outshoots me all of the time

Her sister can shoot too (former archery champion).

 

[ADKWOODSMAN]

I've wondered ever since I took my young wife to the range then my daughters, all excellent shots.

I believe it's because they don't have the BB gun jerk.

They never had to deal with a 10 pound trigger of the old BB gun.IMHO

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

They arn't overthinking it! ?

but try a few follow up shots

 

[The Bushmaster]

You guys have it all wrong.

In this world of sick-os women tend to not like to be harrassed by those that would do them harm.

My wife put it this way..."Rape me my a$$!! BLAM, BLAM!!

It's called self preservation and given the tools to accomplish this "self preservation" they learn fast...

 

[HoosierQ]

My mom was always the best shot of us all...due in no small part to the fact that she grew up on a farm in Indiana and my dad grew up a full-fledged city-boy.

I am going to throw this out there...at my own peril...but here goes. I cannot provide citation and don't know if any is available. Years ago I read that women have three physiological advantage over men, theoretically, in shooting. 1) their center of gravity is lower and thus in a standing position they are more stable...true or not...God only knows for sure. 2) Because of nature and nurture, women in general have better control over fine motor skills and thus pull a trigger rather differently than men...again, God only knows. 3) Finally, women, due to evolution or as an act of God (pick the one that works for you) are better suited to picking out fine detail...presumably from eons ago searching for edible plants and whatnot (the gatherer side of hunter/gatherer)...and thus may focus their eyes a little bit differently on the front sight.

This of course could all be bunk but some of it probably contributes a little bit...seams halfway reasonable anyway. Not wishing to offend anyone of course...just saying.

At any rate, when there was a precision shot to be made when I was a kid, it was my mom who always got the job. I had a frisbee or a boomerang or something stuck up in a tree and she shot a twig that was about 4mm in diameter with a 22 and down came the frisbee...neither my dad nor I could have done that in fewer than 20 shots...she did it in two I think.

 

[Ed4032]

I finally had to ban my wife from the gun range. She hardly ever shoots but when she does she is a crack shot. I try to tell her how to hold the gun and take carefull aim, but she just will not listen.

 

[throdgrain]

It's because women don't have the testosterone-driven idea that they know how to shoot already. They pay attention to the instruction given and follow all of the fundamentals precisely without having an emotional attachment to being able to shoot.

True enough. My mate is a clay pigeon shooting coach, and always says women often learn quicker than men, for that very reason.

 

[DocCas]

Women have better fine motor control than men. They can hold the sights on target better than we can. We may be stronger but they are more precise.

 

[USSR]

What's going on?

Women are used to calling the shots.

Don

 

[cambeul41]

My mother worked her way through college during the Great Depression. The only recreation I ever heard her mention was participating on the rifle team. I never saw her shoot.

 

[SSN Vet]

imho...

Guys think they already know everything there is to know about firearms because they've played a plethora of first person shooter video games (or for us older types GI Joe). So when a guy receives firearms instruction, his ears are disconnected from his brain, which is chanting "ya, ya, I know I know.... just let me pull the trigger". Furthermore, a guy will not ask a question about some detail he's unclear of, for fear of looking like he's not a "real man" who is born with an innate knowledge of all such manly topics.

Gals don't start with this mental handicap and actually listen to what is being taught to them... then they ask straight forward questions about any points of which they are unclear. Then they simply pick up the gun and do what they were instructed to do.

 

[Shung]

It's because women don't have the testosterone-driven idea that they know how to shoot already. They pay attention to the instruction given and follow all of the fundamentals precisely without having an emotional attachment to being able to shoot.

exactly this !

 

[SSN Vet]

then again....

there may be a real biological difference....

I heard an extremely interesting interview on he radio where some research doctor talked about reflexes and how quick we respond to certain stimuli ... Apparently, our response time is faster than the time it take the nervous system (synapses and all that stuff I forgot from anatomy class) to transmit the visual stimulus to the brain and then the messages to your muscles to respond. They theorize that our brain is actually running a few milliseconds ahead, and that you are actually seeing a anticipated image (generated within your brain) that is then continually corrected with the actual image from the eyes. Apparently, men and women do this to different degrees and have different response times.

Perhaps one gender pulls the trigger to an actual "from the eyeballs" image while the other pulls the trigger to an anticipated image.

Remember that Olympic marksman on the U.S. team who lost his gold medal with a crazy flier. In his technique he lowers the rifle from top to bottom and squeezes the trigger on the fly, rather than attempting to hold steady.... which I suspect has something to do with this anticipated, projected image.

I thought this was very interesting as it certainly helps to explain certain optical illusions as well as contradictions in eyewitness testimony.

 

[Venado]

I have always said that women are better shots than men. When I was young, my dad would take his fellow LEO to the range with my mother, and let her outshoot them with his model 29 44 mag. That is when a .44 mag. had some power to it, unlike today. Many of the men would not even shoot the thing.

Since then I have taught many female family members how to shoot. They take to it like ducks to water. Good going all you female shooters, keep us men on our toes.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Generally the females I've taught to shoot, in a few days, can out shoot many men that have been shooting for a couple years.

Just last week, within about 60 rounds in an hour, a girl that had never touched a gun in her life was accurately shooting silhouette targets while she moved back, right and left. And she was shooting a 3 inch S&W J Frame with full loads, not light target loads.

She is exceptionally good but most of the females I've taught to shoot have quickly become good shots with revolvers, semi autos and rifles.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=492331

I like teaching females to shoot.

My girlfriends could always out-shoot my buddies.

What was really funny was when a male friend, that had been shooting for a while, would bring a wife or new girlfriend shooting for the first time and inside a day or two of "on the fly" instruction the girl would beat the man shooting.


The first time a fellow Policeman and I brought our ladies shooting I told him, Now don't get all upset when my girlfriend beats you shooting (he had a little ego).
He said, "No girl is going to beat me shooting".
I said, "I can out shoot you, right?".
He said, "Well yeah".
I said, "I taught the girl to shoot and on a good day she can beat me".

What was hilarious was, his girlfriend had never shot a gun before, but all through the day I was giving her shooting instructions.
Usually at the end of the day we would make up a final shooting contest. Usually it was sudden death, you miss and you are out. As I recall that day we were shooting at Christmas tree light bulbs.
At the end of the contest the standing was,
me, my girlfriend, HIS GIRLFRIEND and my buddy.

You know I didn't rub that in for a while.

 

[Schofield3]

Women are used to calling the shots.

Hahaha very true

 

[hso]

bdickens and others have hit the bullseye on this.

Women don't have the years of building bad habits pretending to shoot.

They actually listen because they don't have the little boy ego tied up in knowing how to shoot.

They may actually have better fine motor skills developed over years of using fine motor skills.

Therefore when coupled with the absence of little boy ego and years of bad habits and the willingness to actually listen they very often make great beginning shooters. That's been my experience over the past few years teaching new shooters.

 

[jfrey]

My wife is a good shot, my son is good, his new wife is surprising good. Can any of them beat me? No!,but they can all hit what they shoot at and isn't that the whole idea?

 

[devildog4329]

My wife was a city girl. Grew up between Seattle and Tacoma. I took her to the range when we were dating and gave her some simple instructions. With dads old 22 revolver she can out shoot me any day. I then gave her the old bolt 22 rifle and with a peep sight which IMHO is a little bit more tricky to learn on, again she was dead on. After that first range trip she now always wants to go with me. For our anniversary last year she wanted a pistol. Took her a couple shops and she picked out a 2 tone Sig Mosquito. She loves it.

We just moved to WV and i plan on getting my CCW and now she says she wants to go through the class and get hers.

I feel blessed to have a wife who loves shooting almost as much as me. Makes life a good deal easier.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Can any of them beat me? No!,but they can all hit what they shoot at and isn't that the whole idea?

When my (future) Wife started shooting I told Her, "If you ever beat me in a shooting contest I will give you the gun you used and I'll have a shooting trophy made for you".

It was one of the proudest days of my life the day I gave Her that gun and trophy.

 

[skwab]

When my wife and I took our exam for our CHLs - it was only the third time she had ever fired a gun. Out of a class of 24 shooters (of which more than half were taking the exam for security guard licensing) she was easily in the top 5. I did out-shoot her but barely - give her some more range time and I'm sure she'll show me up - But I was very proud!