Is there preferred training schools for females

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

AmericanGunChic

Moderator
I am considering taking some courses on firearms training with my handgun. I was curious if anyone could suggest a good firearms school for the ladies. I know everyone is going to say to get in there with the men and Im not oppose to that. I just don't want to go to some militant type training with someone screaming in my face. I want to learn to shoot, Not storm Normandy

Here is my first video I made from my first few trips to the range.

[link removed]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've been to training under 4 different instructors, one whose main assistant was a female, and I've never experienced or witnessed an instructor "screaming" in someones face.:)
 
Vicki Farnam is an instructor and has written a book about 'Teaching women to shoot '. supposed to be one of the best , her husband certainly is .
 
Last edited:
Welcome.

I hope that pax (Kathy Jackson) joins us to offer her suggestions. She is an excellent instructor and travels putting on classes around the country. Pay a visit to her site: The Cornered Cat.

If you don't mind some travel, one of the first and still one of the top schools is Gunisite near Prescott, Arizona. I think they have a three day Ladies Pistol Class coming up in March. I think Il Ling New is frequently the Range Master for that class, and she's an excellent instructor (she was one of my instructors when I took the General Rifle class at Gunsite).
 
First, Welcome to TFL!

Second, as the father of four daughters that learned to shoot, I would like to make a minor safety suggestion: Wear clothing less likely to catch hot brass in all the wrong places..... this is especially important when shooting semi-auto pistols in rapid fire. While a case would be unlikely to seriously burn you, it will hurt and might lead to a momentary loss of focus on safety...... seen it happen.

Third, that's pretty good shooting for a new shooter. Keep it up!

As for a formal school .... can't give any recommendations .... though TFL's very own Pax ( http://thefiringline.com/forums/member.php?u=5520) has a very good book and website that any beginner, but especially women, can pick up a wealth of good information from..... I highly recommend them.


http://www.corneredcat.com/
 
You do not state what state you live in but your easiest first step would be to ask at the range where you were shooting at. The local range here has women only classes so I would almost bet that that one does too.
 
Weston County Sportsman's Club, Newcastle WY had a women's only firearm safety and SD class every Wednesday Night.

I could pretty much guarantee they wont let students wear low cut clothing as shown in the OPs video.

Hot brass tends to get people dancing around and doing so with a loaded firearm does not normally coincide with safe firearm handling.
 
If you haven't already, check with all your local instructors. They will often offer classes just for women. I can certainly understand your preference for this. You might try asking at your local gun store for such a class.
 
Where you are located would help us point you in the right direction. None of the training I have ever been to involved instructors yelling at the students unless there was a safety issue, and in those cases it was more about volume and urgency then style.
 
Do a Google for "Womens firearms instruction". Several come up.
Check reviews and references, make a phone call or two---

It depends a bit on what you want. Basic instruction? More self
defense oriented? Competition instruction?
 
Might the OP tells us the preferred geographical limits acceptable?

That would help.

Or PM Pax if you don't want to share that and she could clue you in if she knows the area.

BTW, today I saw a 11 year old and 14 year old set of sisters shoot Glock 19s as well as most of the men. In fact somewhat better than some.
 
As others indicated I have only seen an instructor yell in the case of a safety violation which put others at risk. I have only seen that once and it was warranted. In the videos you seem to grasp basic firearms safety, so I doubt you will have that problem.

There are very few classes with 0 female students now. Most instructors have experience with female students and do pretty well. Not all are great though. I wouldn't ask just anyone at the local gun shop. I would try to find a local shop with a female employee and ask her who she recommends if you are concerned about it.

Hot brass can cause issues and it ends up finding a way into any clothing, but some more easily than others. It can burn you if it gets stuck in one spot for long. I had a piece of rifle brass land on my back while prone wearing a light under-armor shirt. I decided to ignore it and finish the course of fire as I didn't want to break position during a rapid fire course. It melted a spot of the shirt onto my back and caused a blister on my back. Not terrible, but I certainly noticed.
I have seen burns on the back of the neck. I have had red marks on my neck and even a burn on my nose where .22 brass somehow ended up in between my safety glasses and my face.
I've heard of, but have no first hand experience about burns on females who wore low cut shirt to the range and hot brass got stuck down their shirt.
As previously described, these hot brass situations generally result in safety violations. Wearing clothes to minimize the chances is important.
Any time I take someone new shooting I specify low cut shirts, open shoes, etc. are not appropriate.
 
Randy Cain of Cumberland Tactic teaches the women only class here in FL a few times a year, so I bet he teaches several at other locations throughout the USA as well.
 
finding a good instructor

There are many "instructors" of questionable abilities and qualifications who post some really unusual stuff on You Tube.

Some of the weirdest stuff is posted by guys who claim to have been Israeli Special Forces or Russian Spetznaz. Of course, since they claim to have served in the military in a foreign country, it's hard to verify if they served at all or in what capacity.

Quality instructors don't carry on in such a manner.
 
There are instructors who act like a dang drill sergeant. There are instructors who puff up and act all superior to the students, as if the fact that the student doesn't know they must be stupid.

They exist, they tend not to stay in business too long. Word of mouth is a huge factor in instructors.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top