This last weekend, I was outside of Burnett TX at Reveille Peak Ranch for what might be the largest women’s shooting event in the world. The A Girl And A Gun National Conference. 350+ women working with instructors for 3-5 days.
The facility is amazing…during the conference, shooters were doing pistol, carbine, shotgun, long range precision rifle, aerial gunnery from a helicopter, and more on 30+ ranges.
The event was put on by Julianna Crowder, Robyn Sandoval, and several dozen volunteers. We were a sponsor for the event and I flew down to teach 10 short-form-sessions on tactical vision training and fighting to your gun.
We donated training materials and I had the pleasure of getting to meet and teach roughly 100 incredible women, including several who shared stories about how much our training had helped them improve before coming to the conference.
Here’s a quick one from Reba:
If you’re a woman, I want to strongly encourage you to get to an event like this (click HERE for more info). It’s great for women to shoot with men, but it’s especially valuable for women to spend time shooting with other women. The dynamic can be a huge help for many female shooters. Not watered down…just different.
In fact, one of the biggest reasons why woman only shooting events are so valuable is because there are no men around to coddle them. (The male instructors were all on board with this) At a woman’s only event, the women load their own mags, rack their own slides, haul their own gear, etc. When things don’t work, there are other women to share solutions that worked for them, but the goal is to help every woman be safe, competent, and capable with the guns they own or carry.
Why’s this so important and why am I such a strong supporter of women’s shooting?
Because to a large extent, our future ability to own, shoot, and carry guns depends on getting women involved with shooting.
And not just “involved”…we want them to be safe, responsible, and effective shooters. Shooting is an activity where there are VERY few differences in the expectation we should have of a woman’s ability to perform vs. a man’s. Size and strength differences sometimes mean that techniques/equipment need to be adjusted, but with the right gear and technique, the targets end up looking VERY similar and the differences have more to do with the number of years of experience vs. whether the shooter is male or female.
People (women and men) who don’t know or understand guns tend to be intimidated by them and don’t understand why anyone would “need” to own a gun or be able to carry one.
This lack of knowledge and understanding makes people very susceptible to deceptive storylines spewed out by the media and lies told by politicians. Just last night we watched S.W.A.T. from while I was gone. They spouted complete and total lies about bump stocks, “ghost” guns, and more that a gullible and uneducated public believes.
You see, I know that the more women are educated about guns and shooting, the more likely they’ll be to vote for politicians who will support our right to own and carry firearms.
The more educated and experienced they are with shooting, the easier it will be for them to be good ambassadors for the firearms industry…especially in all-woman conversations where men are not welcome.
The more educated women are about guns, the more they’ll support family activities that revolve around guns…including training and educating the next generation of shooters.
You know by now that our training works for and is used by tip-of-the-spear guys, but amazingly enough, the same training is incredibly effective for non-tactical women shooters too. In fact, it’s probably even more valuable for women shooters.
Why?
Well, in addition to helping you maximize your skill level with the minimum time and money cost, at-home training takes care of one of the biggest thorns in the side of female shooters: “helpful” men at the range.
Yes, it was a shock to me to find out that one of the things that’s most frustrating to female shooters is men trying to help them. Ironically, I tried to help women a lot more at the range when I didn’t know as much. Unfortunately, that’s pretty normal.
Unsolicited advice, patronizing comments, and unnecessary attention can all create a bad environment for training…especially in the early stages of shooting when so much is new. Women just want to be left alone to practice. And they ARE left alone when they do dry fire practice at home.
So, if you’re a woman and want to supplement the live fire practice you’re already doing or you’re a man who wants to help the woman in your life become a more effective shooter, I want you to find a local woman’s shooting group and I want you to check out and sign up for the 21 Day Alpha Shooter Program like Reba did by clicking >HERE<. You’ll thank me for it.
by Mike Ox
Mike Ox is an avid defensive and competitive shooter who has co-created several firearms training products, including Dry Fire Training Cards, https://se965.infusionsoft.com/go/dftcmedia/loadout
Dry Fire Fit, 21 Day Alpha Shooter, and See Faster, Shoot Faster. His brain based training focuses on accelerated learning techniques for shooting as well as controlling brain state and brain chemistry for optimal performance in extreme stress situations. Learn more about dynamic dry fire training for defense and competition at www.DryFireTrainingCards.com/blog
Photos and video by author
