A Story About a Man and a Woman... (or some such stuff about following instructions...)

The man who taught me to shoot a gun has a story about a woman missing her shot and adjusting her stance and a man missing his shot who rips into the gun to make adjustments to the hardware.

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Out of curiosity, Who was the better shot?

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Every time I’ve taught new shooters basic pistol safety, the women have been better shots.

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I have noticed the same thing from my classes (insert lesson here about an artist blaming his/her brushes), but from years of customer service I can tell you that men and women are equally guilty of not reading signage! :joy:

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His (very experienced) opinion was that women were better shooters.

Somehow I am not surprised: If I remember right I think there is solid science behind women being able to handle certain types of stress better than men. I am not plugged into the competition world, etc., but I’d love to see stats from professional pistol/rifle orgs, assuming they collect anything like this. If I can find something meaningful and relevant, I’ll share.

Thread/comment interested me because it somewhat echoed real life: when I bought my second pistol, I spent a year trying to get good with it (even including changing my stance!) but without much success. I asked a pro at range to try it, he fired off a dozen rounds, then suggested I take it too the gunsmith a few doors down. They took it all apart, put it back together, adjusted the sights, and viola! It shoots perfect now (even if I don’t).

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My experience with this is from teaching and performing as a range safety officer for Handgun Licensing classes. Typically women are less likely to have grown up being taught bad habits (a.k.a. safety violations) and are more susceptible to being trained without having to unlearn things. The women with “experience” tended to have the same bad habits as the men.
I would also be interested in stats on stress management as it correlates to shooting ability.

Re: taking the pistol to a gunsmith, if you don’t like something, (white dot sights, a snappy trigger) it’s totally fine to alter your gun. I dislike the sights on my M&P Shield, but they’re serviceable, the trigger is a load of booty - switching that puppy out for an apex trigger kit ASAP.

Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind. As a non-competitive shooter, high levels of accuracy are not really my main goal. I have a Springfield Armory XD/M 9mm, which holds 20 rnds in the mag…so I figure whatever deficiencies I might have in the accuracy department I’ll just make up for in the volume department, should it come down to it :slight_smile:

Mostly I am a hobby shooter, as I find it something I can relax while doing and just focus on the moment/mindfulness. But also, I really really hate paper with circles on it.

I will tell you that also women tend to be better welders as well. I have discussed this before with other folks & we all seem to think it’s due to better hand eye coordination. We tend to think because of all the experience of putting makeup on helps with the skill.

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You may be surprised to learn I have a different opinion about “women being better shots than men”. In my defense I know several World Class women shooters and I love them dearly. I think that the reason women appear to be better shooters than men is because there are very few poor women shooters. If a woman isn’t successful in shooting she quits, men don’t let lack of ability stop them from shooting. Women self select for shooting skills.

That is my experience also. When working in China all the TIG welders were women: eye-hand coordination and I think better patience results in cleaner looking welds.

Interesting. Are you an instructor? Just spend a lot of time around the range?

I always chalked it up to women not coming to the table with bad habits, so they learn good ones off the bat instead of trying to forget things their fathers/uncles/whoever taught them.

Probably some of both. That is the thing with statistical observations, nothing says they result from a single cause.

I am a competitor. I have an NRA Master classification in Palma Prone Rifle, now changed to Long Range Prone Rifle. I don’t teach classes as such but I do help people learn how to safely shoot and ways of improving their skills.

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Indeed. I’ve also found (and been guilty of) that there is often a misconception that the plural of “anecdote” is data, when actually it is “anecdotes”.

My brother worked as a professional trainer for years. He has taught a few thousand people to defend themselves with a pistol. He has said almost exactly that to me.

Women come to the class as a clean slate. They follow instructions. They learn what they need to know. They pass. Of all the people he taught only one woman failed to complete the course. She could not bring herself to fire the gun. He spent about two hours coaching her through her fear but, in the end, she just could not do it.

Some men come to the class believing they know more than the instructor. They ignore instructions. They fail to learn basic safety. (One effing idiot actually pointed the weapon at my brother’s face.) When they fail they throw a temper tantrum.

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