New Women's Outdoor News writer attends her first Women On Target clinic

Last month new Women's Outdoor News columnist Annette Doerr attended a Women On Target clinic and wrote a great piece about her experience.

How I Survived My First Ladies-Only Shooting Clinic

Have you been considering hosting an NRA Women on Target Instructional Shooting Clinic at your range? If you are interested in getting more women involved in the shooting sports, read on, and consider hosting your own clinic sometime soon. I recently held my first, a pistol clinic. What a fun and rewarding experience it was for everyone involved.

The NRA website is a great resource for information in general. This also holds true when it comes to hosting Women on Target instruction. Clinic choices include rifle, pistol, shotgun or any combination of the 3, depending on what your range can handle and the experience of your volunteers. The clinic itself is very basic, with an emphasis on safety. Each one starts off with a classroom/educational portion covering firearm safety, proper firearm storage, and much more essential information. The second half of the clinic consists of one-on-one live-fire exercises with an instructor.

Here is a brief summary of what you will need to do in order to get your clinic registered:

• Check out the NRA Women on Target Instructional Shooting Clinic website.
• Carefully read the section “Host a Clinic.”
• Choose a date that works for you, your range, and your volunteers. Keep in mind you will need a 1:1 student-to-instructor ratio for the live-fire portion of the class. The more volunteer instructors you have, the less downtime for the participants between shooting stages.
• Register your clinic with the NRA via the website. You must do this at least 45 days prior to your clinic date. This allows the NRA to post your information on the website and gather and mail you the program material and souvenir bags.
• Start enrolling your students. If you keep up with the paperwork and stay organized, it will make your life so much easier on the day of the clinic. Keep a waiting list if necessary.
• As the date gets closer, communicate with your students and volunteers to make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and that they are still available. You don’t want to find out on the day of the clinic that 2 of your instructors can’t make it.

Read the rest of the piece here on Women's Outdoor News.