A total of 39 women raised funds to help a young journalist recover from injuries sustained in a recent bicycle accident while they had a whole lot of fun learning how to shoot a wide variety of firearms.
Event organizer Caroline Chupa said the Extreme Tactical Ladies Day Shoot last Sunday raised just over $2,000 for Goat FM’s news reporter Rebecca Dyok who is recovering from critical injuries sustained in a bicycle accident in the city July 24.
Chupa said 15 firearms experts and 10 students volunteered their time to host the event. The coaches included local sheriffs and competition shooters, including one from Vancouver. The volunteers also loaned their firearms and donated the ammunition for the fundraiser.
Caroline’s husband, Terry Chupa, who was one of the coaches, said they had been planning to hold a ladies’ shoot to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House but decided to hold it for Rebecca when they learned about her accident.
The 39 women who turned out for the shoot were divided into teams of about eight to circulate around five stations where they had the opportunity to try a wide variety of hunting and competition rifles, hand guns, skeet shooting with various shotguns (impossible), as well as target shooting with bows and arrows.
Caroline said high school students volunteered time to escort the teams from station to station and some of the shop students made some of the small metal animal targets that were used in the shoot along with balloons.
Cariboo Archers loaned their equipment and provided instructors for the event.
Like myself, many of the women participating in the event were shooting for the very first time and went home from the Williams Lake Sportsmen’s Association gun range exhilarated by the experience but with sore upper body muscles and new respect for firearms.
“I think it is a fantastic event,” said Stacy Wyssen, who shot a hand gun for the first time. “It is empowering and gives you respect for how powerful they (firearms) are.”
“It’s fun, I love it,” said Coby Bell who took the CORE and PAL firearms training courses a couple of years ago and enjoys target shooting.
“I just like playing,” said Bell, who amazed her teammates with her accuracy.
Michelle Pfieffer, who had some very accurate shots with both the bow and firearms said that growing up in Switzerland the boys and girls participate in shooting events once a year. She would sometimes also go target shooting with her father.
Pfieffer is spending this year on a work visa in Canada learning how to build log homes working with Pioneer Log Homes of B.C.
Some of the rifles and shotguns were somewhat heavy making hitting targets, especially the flying skeets difficult for beginners, but that was what the ladies shoot was all about, giving women a taste of the sport, Terry said.
My personal favourite was the little Smith and Wesson 22 hand gun with the big scope with the red dot in the middle.
I actually popped several balloons in a row with it. Bow and arrow shooting was intriguing as well once you got the hang of where everything goes.
I also found skeet shooting intriguing but it would likely take a lot of practice, and shotgun shells to hit one of the flying targets.
