Women shooters

[txgunsuscg]

Noidea, you're in a great place for advice. Ask any questions you want, and the members here will be more than happy to pool their knowledge and share.

 

[Noidea5]

Well first, I would like to find out if I flinch... How can I find that out and if I do, I would really love advice on how to stop flinching.

 

[btg3]

Around here at outdoor IDPA, the ladies account for 1 out of every 10 shooters.

Last night at a rare (for me) visit to the indoor range, there was a family of 4 (dad,mom,daughter,son), another mom+2sons, and a mom just babysitting little ones in the lounge area... yeah, it's a nice, comfortable, inviting gunstore for the family.

They have a couple of lady instructors on staff. A class room. The lanes are easily oberserved from the retail area, well lit, and well ventilated. The floor for shooters is carpeted.

They have shooting events such as bowling pins, rubber ducks (.22LR), target shoots, etc.

I had an engaging conversation with an instructor about his defensive shotgun class. I'd like to sign up for that as father/son later this year. He helped me significantly with handgun about a year ago.

This range has their act together in a major way. I've seen similar examples on the internet, but as a whole, the industry seems to cater to men. To put in another way, many ranges and gun shops seem to be run as a hobby, rather than a business.

 

[btg3]

Well first, I would like to find out if I flinch... How can I find that out and if I do, I would really love advice on how to stop flinching.

Have your boyfriend load a revolver with 2 live rounds. See if you can smoothly put the trigger 6 times without knowing whether it will go bang. Of course, keeping it safely pointed. Practice this way until you no longer flinch.

 

[BluesDancer]

Have your boyfriend load a revolver with 2 live rounds. See if you can smoothly put the trigger 6 times without knowing whether it will go bang. Of course, keeping it safely pointed. Practice this way until you no longer flinch.

+1

Well first, I would like to find out if I flinch... How can I find that out and if I do, I would really love advice on how to stop flinching.

Recoil happens after the bullet is propelled out of the barrel, and is therefore independent of the ability to accurately hit your target. The best thing you can do when you are firing live ammunition is to do the following each time you pull the trigger:
1 - relax. breathe. don't hold your breath.
2 - keep the sights aligned with the target as you pull the trigger back. Keep eyes primarily on the front sight.
3 - do not anticipate the recoil. You deal with the recoil after the shot in order to get back on target for the next shot; you do not try to anticipate it beforehand. The 'boom' should be a surprise for you, not an expected response of pulling the trigger.

It also doesn't hurt to use a gun in a smaller caliber (read: .22LR firearm) to help with the flinch.

 

[oneounceload]

I am seeing women making more and more inroads in hunting, handguns and shotgun-target shooting than ever before. They still make up a small number, and considering they are 52% of the population, we DO need to get more of them into various shooting activities.

Unfortunately, what I normally see is that some yahoo brings his GF/wife to the range and gives her some small handcannon loaded with something Buffalo Bore and when it scares the crap out of her, he thinks it is funny.........THOSE types of morons do more to harm our cause than anyone else

 

[oneounceload]

dupe post...stupid internet connection

 

[txgunsuscg]

Try to find a good shooting coach in your area (the NRA runs programs throughout the US). Before you start addressing a specific problem, you need to make sure your other fundamentals are solid. The seven fundamentals as I was taught are:

1. Stance
2. Grip
3. Sight Alignment
4. Sight Picture
5. Breathing
6. Trigger Manipulation
7. Follow through

The recoil anticipation you are concerned with is part of trigger manipulation and follow through. Our coach would literally have us recite the 7 principles as we shot. As we focused on the principles, we found we weren't distracted by the thought of the recoil and our shooting improved. If you still find yourself anticipating and dropping rounds low (with all your fundamentals solid), BTG's and BluesDancer's suggestions should be very helpful to you. If you talk to an instructor, they will refer to them as ball and dummy drills.

Since I'm not a certified instructor, there is a good chance I missed something. If you want to get some basic info for free, Ruger has basic shooting skills videos at http://www.ruger.com/resources/videos.html.