It's $40 for membership, or if you choose not to place membership it is $5 to participate in Sundays get together. As far as ammo there is not a set course just bring what you would like to put down range
So here we go, my AAR if anyone is interested.
First off, this is a GOOD thing for Baton Rouge. I believe in women's shooting events and believe women should feel comfortable visiting the range, a place typically where only men congregate. Many women only shoot with their husbands and are afraid to branch away, making their own firearms choices. This is a good platform for that to happen. The self confidence to know that they can handle a gun without someone at their shoulder.
The last count I had overheard was that there were 52 women. More came in after so it could have been a higher count. That said, you will have mass chaos at any event for the very first time which had been so successfully advertised. The good news is that there are women who are interested in shooting on a regular basis. The bad news, sixty women in Precision's classroom led to a great deal of hurry up and wait. Two hours in fact for some for in all honesty, very little range time.
I'm going to withhold my actual group assessment until later because honestly it's unfair to say much when the numbers overwhelmed the night.
That's my neutral, this could be awesome comments.
Now for my bad:
The waiting time. I hate to harp on this because it's not fair to base any new chapter on it's growing pains. But there were a couple things that I felt should be uncompromising. One was basic range safety. I arrived very shortly after 3:30, before the start time at 4PM. We were warmly welcomed and had a brief explanation of how A Girl and Gun began. From there we were told we'd be broken up into a group of ten, and rotated through the range.
I don't shoot at a range very often. Hardly at all, and very rarely with people I do not know. We have sixty acres, in a very rural area so we literally shoot in our back yard with a mile of wooded area behind us, a good two hundred yards to our property line. I say that to include myself here because even I had to stop and really think about what was poor range etiquette and what wasn't… At no point was there any mention of basic range rules BEFORE going into the range area. No basic gun rules. You know, I make my kidlet recite the four basic gun rules when he shoots his BB gun. I think it's that important.
I know this chapter is lead by NRA instructors, and to be fair I may have missed that instruction but at no time did I hear it. I also have a "thing" against shooting in flip flops. Consider it to be a hazard of working in an industrial environment that requires closed toed shoes, safety glasses and a hard hat. I'm not knocking the women who did show up wearing flip-flops but maybe next time it could be brought up.
Anyone on this board can tell you, I am usually polite in my true opinions that matter. But I don't care for the idea of hot brass hitting someone's feet and them jumping around with a chambered handgun. Especially when some of these women have never shot before, or shoot very seldom. It's not the flip-flops, it's general range attire. I saw quite a bit of skin.
The strongest opinion I have is that safety first, and we spent way too much time in the classroom NOT talking about firearms. Not necessarily being instructed, but "led" in discussion.
All in all, I did sign up to be a member at the end of the night because it is growing pains. I think it can be worked through and this can be a very positive girl's night out for many women. I had a good time, all things considered.