At SHOT Show this year, I heard the craziest idea I’d ever heard in my life: someone was going to host a women’s only 3-gun match, and they fully expected to sell out the 200 slots to the match. I laughed because at the time, I could name literally less than 20 women who shoot 3-gun. The concept sounded nice to me, but I never believed they’d get 200 women to sign up. Well, match director Lisa Marie Judy and co-director Kay Miculek have gone and proved me wrong – and I’m thrilled about it! Next weekend is the Brownell’s Lady 3-Gun ProAm in Covington, GA, where a sold-out match will be the first-ever women’s only event in the history of 3-gun . . .
Women from all over the country are coming to this thing. New shooters. Experienced shooters. Mothers, daughters, sisters – the whole deal. Like the baseball players came out of the cornfields in Field of Dreams, the match has been built and the ladies are coming out of the woodwork.
It’s going to be like nothing I’ve ever shot before, much more than just a match. It’s going to be an experience. The weekend opens with pre-match clinics taught by Kay Miculek to provide as many brand new shooters as possible an opportunity to learn a bit about the game before diving right in. There’ll be a wine and cheese social at registration on Thursday. There’s a party Friday night, and there are reports of Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating for the kids who came along. There’s an awards banquet on Saturday night. Oh, right, and in the middle of all of this there’s actual shooting that will take place too.
Judging by the volume of Facebook posts I’m seeing, anticipation for this event is high and the ladies are super excited. There will be tons of smiles, and (hopefully!) no tears.
I’m mostly thrilled at the amount of sponsor support that the match was able to garner. From title sponsors Brownell’s, Benelli, STI, Carbon Arms, Magpul, MGM Targets, ar15goa.com, and ESS – all the way down the various sponsorship levels, I can’t think of a major manufacturer that isn’t on the list. I’m told there are over $300,000 worth of prizes up for grabs at this match, which is more than any match I’ve been to in recent memory. What this says to me is that the industry realizes that women are the future of the sport and are an important growing market segment. I look forward to the demand signal that’s going to come out of these new converts to the sport and how that will drive production to build new products designed by women, and for women…not just colored pink and marketed for the ladies.
Stay tuned for a full report following the match next week!