Shotgun sales hinge on a good fit - selling shotguns to women

Shooting Industry, Oct, 1998 by Lisa Parsons

Shotgun sports are quickly turning into the most popular long-gun games for women. One of the reasons may be that shotgun sports are more social, or that shotguns seem to carry less of a social stigma than handguns. Perhaps women are drawn to the idea of moving targets. Whatever the reason, women are going after clays in record number.

At a recent Women's Shooting Sports Foundation (WSSF) "A Day At The Range" event held in conjunction with the Amateur Trap Association's Grand American World Trap Shooting Championships in Vandalia, Ohio, over 250 women learned shotgun basics. Sponsors like Remington, Browning and Beretta provided guns and ammunition, and champion shooters like Deena Minyard, Cynthia Meyer and Shari LeGate provided instruction.

From participant response cards, WSSF was able to determine that 60 percent of participants were non-shooters just looking for an opportunity get their hands on a shotgun. The record attendance was attributed to the fact that most of these non-shooters were brought by a friend. Talk about an untapped market!

With all of this enthusiasm building in the women's shotgun market, dealers need to hone their selling and fitting skills. Bill Kempffer of Deep River Sporting Clays & Shooting School in Sanford, N.C., has been specializing in shotguns for 10 years and he says that shotgun fit is a major factor in becoming a good shotgun shooter.

"Shotgun fit is really important. For many women, shooting a shotgun is scary. They're handed a gun, told to shoot into space and all they feel is the recoil," said Kempffer. "I don't let anyone shoot until there is a target in front of them. Once they see a target break, that's all they remember."

When selling shotguns to women, Kempffer said one of the first things he establishes is which of their eyes is dominant. He usually asks them to take a picture with an imaginary camera, if they bring the viewfinder up to their left eye, he knows they are irrevocably left eye dominant. "In my experience 70 to 80 percent of women are left eye dominant and most of them [need a stock that is] cast-on."

Once eye dominance is established, the National Sporting Clays Association Level 3 instructor said the most important thing to teach women is to bring the gun to their cheek rather than their cheek to the gun.

"Women are built differently - I'm not talking about the obvious - they're necks are longer, their shoulders are more narrow and they have a lower center of gravity," he said. "These are things they have to learn to compensate for when shooting a shotgun. When a gun is mounted up to her cheek her dominant eye should be right above the rib."

Kempffer's method of gunfitting is to have a woman stand with her toes at a 45 degree angle off target. Then, "I have them stand with their hands at their side and I hold the gun up to their cheek. I have them look at the bead with both eyes. I place the gun to their cheek and then their shoulder," he said. "Then I have them bring their right hand up to the wrist of the gun and position the left hand on the forearm with index finger in pointer position."

Balance is very important at this point, Kempffer said, and he slowly lets go of the gun, checking to see if it's too heavy. He also looks to see if he needs to adjust the arms.

"The shooter should be standing straight," he said. "They may try to compensate by sticking out a hip or arching their back. Don't let this happen. You want them to stand straight."

From here he checks to see if the master eye is right over the rib and that the length of pull is correct. "You don't want their nose to be further than 2 inches from the comb - 1 to 1 1/2 inches is ideal, but it can be up to 2 inches," Kempffer said.

Communicating with your customer and making sure she feels comfortable are keys to a good shotgun fit. He said that overall balance is very important and that dealers should be sure to ask the customer how the mounted gun feels.

Kempffer also recommends staying away from selling a woman a gun that is too light because it will increase felt recoil. "Women need a gun that has some weight - as much as they can take. A light gun will beat them to death. If they're serious, women will work at shooting. Practice will help them build muscle memory and they'll be able to handle the weight," he said.

According to Kempffer, good all-around shotguns for women are the Browning Gold Hunter and Browning Gold Sporting Clays models. "The Gold's a good weight, has a shorter length of pull, and I think the 28-inch Clays model has good balance for women," he said.

He also highly recommends the Beretta 390. "It's a great gun women shoot well," Kempffer stated, adding, "It has a slight advantage over the Browning because it comes with a shim system that can add cast-on or cast-off to the stock. It also has a shorter stock that makes it feel and fit better."

WSSF Executive Director Shari LeGate agrees with Kempffer's shotgun recommendations. She has been working with Browning to design a more female-friendly version of the Gold Hunter.