#GirlsWithGuns is now a thing! If you’re passionate about shooting, you can’t have failed to notice that it’s often a man dominated hobby and sport. From hunting, to sport to pest control, it’s usually guys who are wielding the shotgun or airgun. But things are changing. With female shooting clubs and female shooters popping up in the media and all around the country, women’s participation in shooting has increased massively. Here we take a look at 5 of the biggest and best female shooters and clubs around.
- Amber Hill
The 18 year old British Skeet Shooting representative at this year’s Rio Olympics isn’t just a pretty face. She’s now seen doing glamorous photoshoots in tabloids and has 39k Instagram followers. But to passionate shooters like ourselves she’s better known as the girl who won Gold at her first Senior Olympic Skeet World Cup in 2013. Two years later she repeated the feat at ISSF World Cup Final in Cyprus. She capped it off by winning BBC Young Sports Personality that year, a major accolade.
Unfortunately she wasn’t able to hit her usual standards at Rio earlier this year in the Olympics, but she has time on her side, and will now be targeting silverware at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
- Femme Fatale Airsoft
Midlands Airsofter Kelly Louise Hardwick is a passionate shooter and blogger who has built up a huge online following for this underground sport. Almost 29k Instagram followers keep up to date with her exploits in the world of MilSim, at airsoft get togethers around the country. She also does regular Youtube Q & As, like this one here.
If you want to learn about the hyper realistic world of airsoft combat, it’s worth looking out for her content. Her blog is here.
- Shotgun And Chelsea Bun Club
This pioneering ladies shooting club recently celebrated its 5 year anniversary:
Set up by Victoria Knowles Lacks in 2011, the club has risen to success, providing a welcoming and inclusive place where women can experience up to 50 clay pigeon shooting events a year, hosted up and down the country.
With a strong social media presence, the club has made huge strides in encouraging ladies into the sport. They’ve even branched out into fly fishing events and have their own annual awards ceremony. You can learn more at their official site.
- Jodie Marsh
Infamous glamour model, body builder, and TV personality Jodie Marsh recently took her hand to hunting, in a recent documentary for TLC, ‘Jodie Goes Hunting’. An unlikely advocate for the sport, Jodie is a fierce vegetarian who met famous game hunter Rachel Carrie (who co-founded Femme Fatales, see below) for the show, going on hunts, meeting people from her family and learning more about humane culling of animals. The show certainly raised the profile for hunting, reaching her 606k Twitter followers and opening up viewers unfamiliar with it.
- Femme Fatales
Going by the handle @shewolfshoot on Twitter, like SCBC, Femme Fatales is another UK female-online shooting community. Their website states that they wish to ‘challenge the misconception that shooting is a man’s sport’ and challengers them to ‘‘not use being a girl as an excuse – use it as ammunition! – or more accurately: glammunition!”
With regular events up and down the country, as far apart as Northumberland and Somerset, the club provides an excellent method of entry for women looking for an exciting outdoor hobby into the world of clay shooting. You can learn more by heading to their official site, here.