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Old February 27, 2014, 10:00 AM   #1
kraigwy
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 16, 2008
Location: Wyoming
Posts: 11,061
Women & Long Guns (SD)

I teach a women's firearm safety and self defense class in a small town in a rural county.

As with any time SD firearms comes up so does the subject of long guns (shotguns and rifle). I don't recommend any one gun for any one person. I supply as many guns as I can get my hands on, and encourage the ladies to try all of them choosing what fits THEM, not me, no their husbands, boyfriends or local friendly LE officer.

So as I say, long guns come up, and of course shot guns come up. I answer their questions of which is best, rifle or shotgun buy providing rifles and shotguns and let them see for them selves.

My students vary from 18 to 80 (I have one lady that is 82), its split between those who live in town and those who live in the country.

To keep the class of reasonable size I spit them into two classes, for example last night I had 4 for my 5-7 PM class and 5 for my 7-9 PM class (this is a weekly class).

Anyway I thought I'd throw in some observations from last night. None of the girls like shotguns, 20-12 gage, it don't matter, after a couple rounds these ladies don't like shot guns.

I use an indoor range which doesn't allow rifles, (HP Rifles), so to compare a rifle with a shotgun I brought a Marlin 94 in 38/357. In my late class, I had two ladies who have never shot a rifle, none had fired or used a lever action rifle.

These girls loved the rifle, all but one got small groups, so the class went totally off topic, all they wanted to do is shoot the rifle. They started to get cocky calling each other Annie Oakley and such. The club president who helps me with the class brings out a deck of card to make it more challenging.

Only I decided shooting a playing card wasn't that big of a deal so I stuck the cards in the target frames so they had only the edge of the card as an aiming point. None of the girls thought they would be able to hit the cards, this was something you see on the Outdoor Channel's IMPOSSABLE SHOTS.

Results, One girl couldn't come close to hitting the card (you always have those who wont listen), One hit the card the third shot, One the second, and two, the first shot. (I forgot the results of the early class but it was close to the second).

I realizes this means nothing as to choice of rifles, as the weather warms up and we get more (outside) daylight I'll move the girls outside so they can try a variety of rifles. But we are limited on what we can shoot in our indoor range. Therefore I'm not saying the Marlin M94 38/357 is the best rifle, but its the only one we had available we could shoot in our indoor range.

Rifles, have their place in SD, especially for rural areas where you may have to protect your live stock or pets from critters. Maybe in the house also, but I push the idea that any SD firearm is useless if its not available. Its not easy to carry a long gun on your person 24/7, especially away from home. But long guns do have their place.

But few women want a shotgun, ALL I've seen in my classes feel safer with a handgun then shotgun.

I'm not going to say this or that rifle is the best. I'll leave that to the individual who is going to use the gun. The girls like the Marlin 38/357, but in rural areas it may not have the range to protect your horses for wild dogs.

All get back to this topic after the weather warms up and we're allowed to work with other rifle.

In short before you insist that Shotguns are the way to go for SD, let the students try them and let THEM decide.

Just a Note about Women's only classes, I don't charge for my classes, most of the women wouldn't be able to afford to attend. But I do keep well supplied in Cookies and other goodies.
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Kraig Stuart
CPT USAR Ret
USAMU Sniper School
Distinguished Rifle Badge 1071
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