One of the many opportunities offered to attendees at the National Sporting Clays Association's National Championship is the Ladies Discover Sporting Clays Experience, a specially tailored clinic designed to help new female shooters become familiar with the basics of firearm safety, shotgun-handling and sporting-clays shooting.
"Years ago, I noticed that there were a lot of ladies. They would come up to me, and they would tell me that they admired me being out on the grounds here shooting, and that they would love to do it, but they were too afraid," said Anne Mauro, founder and lead instructor of Ladies Discover Sporting Clays. "And that gave me the idea to start a beginner clinic and class experience, to let them really see what it was about in a very friendly environment."
The Ladies Discover Sporting Clays Experience started small, according to Mauro, but it grew quickly, filling two classes in its second year, then maxing out at four classes in its third year. The free experience is designed to make it easy for women who are looking for an introduction to the shooting sports, with shotguns, ammunition, lunch and more provided.
"So these ladies are taught obviously safety is priority and they are taught gun safety, but they are also taught very friendly targets," Mauro said. "We want them to be very successful when they're pulling the trigger for the first time. So I work with the really great grounds crew here, and we set up some very nice targets to make them, you know, succeed in what they're shooting."
Mauro noted that having women instructors teaching women proper shotgun handling and stance makes a difference, since women interact with a firearm differently than men. The all-women experience also helps to build relationships between like-minded attendees and instructors who share an interest in sporting clays.
"The camaraderie here is just outstanding. I've never seen anything like it. There's nobody a stranger," NRA-certified Instructor Melanie Sturgis said. "If you see somebody sitting alone, you go over to them and say, 'Hey, what are you shooting? Who's on your squad? Do you want to go to lunch with us? What would you like to do?” Trade technical tips on gear. We share each other's guns with each other. We talk about shell velocity and why it matters and shot size and things like that. We love this so much, we want to share what we know with everybody."
At this year's NSCA National Championship, attendees will once again have the opportunity to get introduced to the sport or even just have a quick refresher on proper shooting techniques, all free of charge. Four time slots are available, and space is limited.
"It's very exciting, the range of women that attend this program, and we have them that are young from very early, early teens, right on through the women who are, you know, in their 80s, which is very exciting, and women from all different backgrounds that come out here that really are excited to learn and are thrilled that we are offering this experience for everyone," Mauro said. "We're all on different paths, different journeys, and we just need to understand that. And don't be hard on yourself over that."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/videos/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
