Ladies BE pistols

NicverAZ · Post by **NicverAZ** » Fri May 13, 2011 10:36 am

A lady friend of mine is petite, smaller hands, and interested in BE but we were wondering what pistols are available for someone like her, not only 22 but also in the 45 ACP category?

Are there a lot of smaller ladies competing in BE, by the way?

Thanks in advance!

Isabel1130 · Post by **Isabel1130** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:00 am

IMHO there is nothing more adaptable to a smaller person than a 1911 set up with straight grips and a short trigger. If you can't handle that gun with a light load and a spring to match, bullseye is not the sport for you. You should consider Air Pistol instead where there are jr guns available with reduced jr grips.
Judy Tant, the current women's conventional pistol champion is all of about 5'2" and not too much over 100 pounds. If she and Ed Masaki (who is tiny) can shoot a 1911 successfully than anyone can.

NicverAZ · Post by **NicverAZ** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:50 am

Isabel1130 wrote:IMHO there is nothing more adaptable to a smaller person than a 1911 set up with straight grips and a short trigger. If you can't handle that gun with a light load and a spring to match, bullseye is not the sport for you. You should consider Air Pistol instead where there are jr guns available with reduced jr grips.
Judy Tant, the current women's conventional pistol champion is all of about 5'2" and not too much over 100 pounds. If she and Ed Masaki (who is tiny) can shoot a 1911 successfully than anyone can.

At an indoor range I patronize, there is a little lady who works there who is a 1911 fanatic.

oldcaster · Post by **oldcaster** » Fri May 13, 2011 8:21 pm

I had a Japanese exchange student stay with me for a year and she shot in competition with a slab side Ruger. I didn't like it because it was heavy. She said it was easier to hold still than some of the lighter ones. There is no way she weighed 100 pounds and was I guess about 5 foot tall. She would also shoot 44 mag loads out of a Ruger Super Blackhawk letting the gun go over and behind her head when she fired it without a problem. Might I mention also that she was a typical Japanese girl that was quite feminine.

clark2245 · Post by **clark2245** » Mon May 16, 2011 10:49 am

NicverAZ wrote:A lady friend of mine is petite, smaller hands, and interested in BE but we were wondering what pistols are available for someone like her, not only 22 but also in the 45 ACP category?

Are there a lot of smaller ladies competing in BE, by the way?

Thanks in advance!

A 1911 with a Marvel conversion ( www.marvelprecision.com ) can be quite light and as mentioned if a short trigger is installed on the 1911 it will fit fairly small hands. The Marvel has an aluminum slide and the standard sight rail, either open sights or with cuts for mounting a dot, is also aluminum resulting in a gun lighter than the 1911 with the 45 slide installed. There is also a steel sight mount that will add a little weight if desired. They have just released a new model that locks back after the last round.

As to the idea of smaller ladies in bullseye it is really a mental thing more than a physical one. This is a picture of Judy Tant I took at Camp Perry last summer during the 45 competition ( https://picasaweb.google.com/clark2245/ ... 0558732594 ) and you can see she is not very large to say the least. She is an excellent BE shooter and won the High Woman trophy the past few years.

If she wants to shoot BE there is no basic physical reason a smaller person cannot enjoy the sport and be quite good.

Clark

Misny · Post by **Misny** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 10:27 am

Judy has the mental side of the game down pat! There have been a lot of petite women bullseye shooters who have excelled. Besides Judy, Ruby Fox and Kim Dyer come to mind. I think the size of the pistol and recoil is something that men worry about (for the women) more than the women. Once the seed of doubt is planted though it might be a stumbling block. As long as the 1911 dominates the game, then I'd say anyone who wants to shoot bullseye must master that pistol (duh!). Let her shoot one (or Marvel conversion) and work up to holding it, like everyone else does. Think positively! I'd start her with iron sights, due to the weight of a dot.

dam8 · Post by **dam8** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:29 am

my daughters ( and son) shoot my unique, i know, they're hard to find!, but of all my target pistols they like it best. the weight comes off and the palm shelf can be rotated to support a tiny hand

ciscovt · Post by **ciscovt** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 1:21 pm

Two weeks ago I shot two firing points down from a woman who was perhaps in her seventies, 5' tall if she was lucky an perhaps 100 lbs. She shot her .45 in the CF and .45 portion and shot quite well considering she was coming back from a 2 year layoff.
The size or gender of the shooter is not the most limiting factor.

ciscovt

oldcaster · Post by **oldcaster** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:30 pm

The size or gender of the shooter is not the most limiting factor.

This is most definitely true. The secret is knuckling down. This includes seeking out advice from people who obviously (their scores) know what they are doing, listening to them and then applying it. The better you listen and apply and the more you do it the better you are. Sounds simple but knowing what to do and then actually doing it are two different things especially when it comes to concentrating and not letting other issues or events distract like for instance thinking you know more than your tutor. If you do, you didn't pick one very well. I do not think the weight of a gun or size of the person matters much. Much more important are grip type, grip size, and rake angle all according to an individual preference followed by obeying the fundamentals to the best of that persons ability always striving to be better.

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