In America, the number of women who target shoot has shot up (…excuse the pun!) by nearly 70 percent in the last decade. This equates to nearly 6 million! This theme is reflected in the UK also, with more and more women taking to the range to get involved with different target shooting disciplines.

Outdated preconceptions are being cast aside as women’s participation in target shooting sports continues to grow. This, coupled with campaigns such as ‘This Girl Can’, is only elevating and empowering females in sport, making them quite possibly one of the fastest growing demographics.

One club that is proud of its gender balance is the University of Aberdeen Rifle Club. They are hoping to increase the number of female members within the shooting fraternity.

We spoke to Mhairi Bruce, Vice President for the club:

“The rifle committee at Aberdeen is mostly women. Our President Mercedes has recently been elected for the second year in a row. I myself have taken over as Vice President and also the Public Relations officer for the club. And last but certainly not least, Morag is the Ordinary Member.

The club also has one fresher as Ladies captain. She is responsible for looking after all of the women members in the Aberdeen and Robert Gordon Universities Rifle Club.

Our female members have also enjoyed shooting success. The Aberdeen University ladies team took home the trophy after winning the uni leagues 2018/2019 term. Out of ten females who took part in the BUCS final, Aberdeen held two of those positions. One being our very own Vikki Walls who shoots both air rifle and 3P rifle and holds several medals in the sport.

In addition to this, our President Mercedes also made it to the BUCS finals. We are all so proud of both of these girls doing Aberdeen proud and representing us on a national level.

Coming second overall was our President Mercedes at the Scottish Universities Final in March, being beaten by a narrow 0.3 points. She also qualified first A class to achieve the highest qualifying score.

Member Vikki Walls gained two golds, one silver and a bronze at the Scottish Championships in 2019.

We hope that by raising the profile and highlighting the successes of our female members, more will be encouraged to join and help grow the sport. It is a fantastic sport to get involved with and can help teach discipline, stamina, focus amongst other things.”

Do you fancy trying your hand at target shooting? Find a local club near you using British Shooting’s club finder tool.