Bella Zimmer began shooting at age 9 under the guidance of famed Windsor Gun Club instructor and former Austrian champion Nicky Szápáry. Now 14, she advises women who are thinking of taking up shooting to get good instruction from the start. “It’s not like golf where you constantly need lessons,” she says. “Within a year you can have fun competing with almost anyone.”
Jo Hanley was only 11 years old when it was discovered she had a special talent with a shotgun. She was living on her family’s Pennsylvania farm when, at the age of 9, her father taught her to shoot a .22 caliber rifle. Two years later she had just moved up to a single-shot .410 gauge shotgun (.410 is the smallest gauge of available shotguns), when her father and their family physician took her into the field for opening day of the pheasant season.
It was expected that she would watch and learn from the experienced hunters. Up went a pheasant! Her father took a shot and missed, the doctor took a shot and missed, and, as it continued to fly away (now at a fairly long range), Jo transitioned from observer to shooter and downed the bird with one shot. Recognizing that she had a special talent, her proud father started her on the road to becoming the champion clay target shooter and instructor that she is today. In addition to being a Level III certified shooting instructor, Jo has been the Florida State Ladies Champion in sporting clays, trap and skeet. On two occasions, she was a member of the National Sporting Clays Association Ladies All-American team.
Read the entire article in the November 2009 issue
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