This demographic is firmly in our sights

I have the exciting but challenging role of heading up the education and outreach department at BASC. My main aims are to increase the number of people who actively participate in shooting sports and to engage with audiences completely new to shooting, in the hope of increasing public acceptance and strengthening social licence. 

Each year the Home Office releases its annual statistics on shotgun (SGC) and firearm (FAC) certification. which is an annual indication of participation. Notably, this data collates statistics on firearm and shotgun certificates in England and Wales only. Between April 2023 and March 2024, of the 510,717 people who held a SGC or FAC at that time, only 6% were female. A priority for BASC is to encourage more women to take up shooting and to support them along their journey of progression. This is a vastly under-represented demographic within the shooting community and the strategic directive sits within my department’s remit. 

If you can look past the irony that I tick many of the stereotypical boxes of which the shooting community is representative — Male? Tick. White? Tick. Come from a shooting family? Tick. Aged between 40 to 60? Not quite — I hope my words offer a genuine demonstration of BASC’s steadfast commitment to growing the number of women taking up shooting sports, no matter what level, no matter what discipline. 

Men genuinely want more women involved in shooting and we’re doing everything we can to make it happen. It goes without saying that I have a brilliant team around me who lead on this topic. Our vice-chair Claire Sadler and a whole host of staff at BASC all support BASC’s Women in Shooting initiative. 

Although it is thankfully rare, I do hear the odd sarcastic comment from people — both men and women, I must add — such as: “Why don’t you do men-only days like you do for women?” From an outsider’s perspective, their initial perception of shooting could be of an activity visually dominated by men. I think Amber Rutter’s achievements at the Paris Olympic Games epitomise the power of having visible role models who both normalise shooting and inspire people to get involved. The level of skill and determination required to be an elite athlete and achieve what she did was fantastic. 

Macnab 

We’ve had a run of phenomenally successful BASC Women in Shooting events, exclusive for our members. They included a simulated Macnab held at the beautiful Gleneagles Shooting School, which provided an opportunity to fly-fish on the loch, clay shoot and use rifles on the range (see p36). Another event was held at Bisley, where we had people shooting rimfire and centrefire rifles at both static and running targets. 

Last, but no means least, was our Ultimate Women’s Day, kindly hosted by Paul at Childerley Sporting. The inaugural event was held over two days. We crammed a lot in and it made for a very enjoyable and action-packed couple of days. Demand is extremely high to repeat these events and to run them in additional locations, so that’s something we are exploring for 2025. 

My hope is that by the time my four-year-old daughter gets to an age where she can go shooting, she will look around and see an even split of women and men enjoying their day.