Post Comment Gun sports drawing more women
BY LAUREN O. KIDD
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
JACKSON — Each had her own reason for pulling the trigger.
For Gabriel Hrysenko, it was the hope of a scholarship. Caron Brooks was
searching for a sport that did not aggravate her back. Meryl Boyd wanted to
spend time with her husband. Lori Cullen was looking for camaraderie. And three
generations of women were continuing a family tradition.
Now they are all hooked on target shooting. "You can't walk away. . . .
It's like a passion," said Cullen, 43, a single mother from Freehold.
The Shore area residents shoot at the Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club
in Jackson and are part of a growing number of women across the nation
infiltrating a sport long dominated by men.
"It's a trend," said National Rifle Association spokeswoman Mary
Sue Faulkner.
"If women are asked to shoot, they want to shoot," said Faulkner.
She said that in the past there has been a "lack of mentors and
opportunities."
But the NRA's Women on Target program is changing that, Faulkner said. The
program, designed for women who may have never picked up a firearm, allows them
to try shooting "in a comfortable, supportive environment, then go out on
their own," Faulkner said.
At the clinics, certified volunteer instructors teach women about shotguns,
pistols and rifles. Firearms and one-on-one instruction are provided at
participating gun clubs.
"We encourage women to come out here," said Walter Bachmann of
Hazlet, chairman of the Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol Club's Women on Target
and Youth Day programs. The club held its fourth Women on Target event in
September.
Competition winner
On a recent Sunday morning at the range, Bachmann watched Meryl Boyd, 43, of
Freehold, dressed in jeans, a pink shirt and cap, shoot skeet with her pink
shotgun. "Pull!" she yelled, before an orange clay pigeon flew across
the field in front of her.
She traced the pigeon through the sky with her gun, then pulled the trigger.
The disk-shaped object shattered in the sky. Orange pieces fell to the grass.
"No one has ever said, "You are a woman — get off the field,'
" Boyd said later. She got involved in the sport to spend time with her
husband, Kevin, a skeet-shooting instructor, and has since won a number of
competitions.
Kevin Boyd, 40, who had hearts engraved into Meryl's custom-made gun, likes
that his wife has taken up the sport. "It's much easier for me to get out
and shoot," he said.
For the past six months, Caron Brooks, 42, of Berkeley's Bayville section
has spent time at the range with her husband, Ron, 52. "I don't think they
know what they are missing," Caron ooks said of women who have never fired
a gun.
She won a Glock 9 mm pistol at her first competition, earning her the
nickname "Glock girl."
"It's very empowering," she said. The former competitive bowler
uses a cane or a walker to get around because she injured a disk in her back.
She said she was surprised to be able to participate in a physical sport again.
Caron was competing in a field of all men that Sunday. She lifted her pistol
from her holster, aimed at a metal target and pulled the trigger. Ping! The
bullet struck the target.
She and her husband contend against each other for home-cooked meals.
"I haven't cooked since" the contests began, she joked.
"It's a family thing"
Phyllis Amico, a grandmother from New Egypt in Plumsted, likes shooting
"black powder," or Civil War-style guns. She said her husband,
Michael, "converted everybody" in the family into shooters.
"If you get the women involved, you can get the children," said
Amico's daughter, Monica Wright of Upper Freehold. "And if you don't get
the children, the sport will die out."
Monica's daughter, Nicole, 11, is an avid shooter. She said her favorite
part of the sport is getting to spend time with her grandfather.
"It's a family thing," Amico said.
In the summer, Gabriel Hrysenko, 14, of Jackson — a Junior Olympic champion
and a freshman at the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science in
Stafford's Manahawkin section — is at the range three times a week. She is
there about once a week during the school year.
"It's fun. It's something to go out and look forward to," said
Hrysenko, wearing a camouflage cap over her pigtails. She said shooting gives
her "a sense of accomplishment," and she wants to earn a scholarship,
either "for shooting or academics."
A bit of a shooting rivalry exists between Hrysenko and her brother Joseph,
13. "It keeps us going," she said.
"One day I'll catch up," Joseph countered.
Lauren O. Kidd: lkidd@app.com or (732)
557-5737