Making the Transition from Pistols to Shotguns

Vera Koo is making the transition from pistols to shotguns by taking shotgun classes to help keep her body in shape and mind sharp. Continue reading this post, originally published at Women’s Outdoor News.

After I turned 70 and later retired from competitive shooting, I knew I needed to find ways to keep my body in shape and my mind sharp.

I cannot ignore the facts. I am getting old. I will turn 73 later this year. However, we all can take steps to try to stave off physical and mental deterioration. Learning something new is a great way to do this. It stimulates your brain, and, if the activity is physical, encourages you to stay in shape.

With that in mind, I decided to transition from pistols to shotguns. I started taking shotgun classes earlier this year . 

I signed up for a shotgun class at the Women’s Leadership Forum Summit in September in San Antonio, Texas, and I wanted to gain practice ahead of time. Knowing the summit class was coming up motivated me to begin building my skills.

Pistols to Shotguns

Now, you might think that because I was an 8-time Bianchi Cup women’s division champion, I would be a natural at shotgun shooting. That is not the case. Pistol shooting and shotgun shooting are apples to oranges.

I went from being an expert in one discipline to starting over as a novice in the other. 

This did not bother me. After all, my goal for shooting shotguns is not to be a world-class shooter. I left my competition days behind when I retired after the 2018 Bianchi Cup. Rather, my aim is to challenge myself, and what better way to do that than starting an activity that I was not already good at?

I am not afraid to pursue an activity that is outside of my comfort zone. Not every skill you learn is something that would be on your preference list. For example, I don’t even like being in water, but I nonetheless learned to windsurf and waterski because I received the chance to learn those sports. I value opportunities and am loath to let one pass by. I believe every skill I learned throughout life helped me become a championship pistol shooter later on. 

When I arrived at my first shotgun lesson at the Coyote Valley Sporting Clay gun range in Morgan Hill, California, I did not even know how to hold the shotgun. My instructor had me use a Browning 20-gauge over/under. It is a lighter shotgun that is good for my petite frame.

Continue reading this post at Women’s Outdoor News.