Here's Wednesday's Shooting Wire feature from our regular contributor and completely crazed friend Laurel Yoshimoto. She is, as Paul would say, "wicked funny." It warms my heart to talk to other women who feel the same way I do about shooting. Just yesterday, I talked with Mrs. Maddy Folk about shooting her first 3-gun match. Maddy, in the true spirit of her pioneer ancestors, not to mention her competition trap-shooting mother, decided to add to her repertoire the joys of shooting a trifecta of guns in one competition. This life altering event sparked a conversation about how shooting, especially shooting multiple guns, raises certain needs for a female. Here are a few of them. I know you men have tactical pants, slacks, James Bond tuxedos, and even kilts to choose from. Unfortunately, very few companies make good tactical pants for females. First off, we have hips, and when shooting 3-gun, we actually need pants that go above our hips to hold the weight up. Jeans are all well and good, but they don't have enough pockets, and generally have flimsy belt loops that are too small to pass a shooting belt through. Secondly, we need pants that are tight enough so that our gear stays on, but flexible enough to allow movements like kneeling, ducking, going prone, and running. There are a few, and a slim few, companies that make female tactical pants. I have enjoyed slipping on Vertx now and then. Kitanica makes wonderful tactical pants, but standby for some work in finding the right size and then tailoring it down to your height from there. 5.11 has come out with tactical pants for women, too, that are even under the $100 mark. It is too bad that female tactical pants are so expensive. That's money I need to be spending on ammo. The last thing about pants, and this is pure female, we still need to look good. If we are going to have a great time kicking butt and taking names, we want to look like the movie stars that each of us is in our dreams. That means legs and derriere need to be hot and haute. Belts are incredibly important, too. They hold up our gear, but the spacing is tricky. Females generally have smaller waists than you men. And in 3-gun, we need the belts up above the hips, on the smaller part of our waist, so that the hips can take the weight. That further shrinks down space for gear. If we ladies somehow manage to slide all the needed gear onto our belts, the Velcro that holds the inner and outer belt together doesn't stick because it's covered by the mag pouches and shell carriers. So we use belt keepers, or we would, if we had space for belt keepers. This is where Maddy found zip-ties are the way to go. Slim and strong, they can help keep the overloaded belt somewhat connected to the inner belt. Now the problem with zip-ties, and belts in general, is that they hinder us ladies from using the lovely facilities at the range. For all that you men claim to be target shooters, you seem to have trouble finding the mark when it comes to your aim in the outhouse. It's not too much of an issue for you though. You men come tactically equipped to not get caught with your pants around your ankles. But us females have to get up close and personal with the areas that you just left your mark on. We also have to literally take our belts off to find relief, which is time consuming and a hassle. I have come to find that, unless I am willing to unzip and strip, there is nothing like a Go Girl for quickly and cleanly getting things accomplished in the head. There are various shapes and colors and they work varyingly well. Just like all personal products, you may need to try a few before you find a good fit. Amazon is a good place to hunt. My advice? Practice at home before you try it at the match! I have heard no end of grief about being the girl that rips a nail, but female nails do seem to rip a little more often than those of our male counterparts. I usually keep mine blunt and undecorated, but Maddy said getting a good coat of gel polish on your nails actually strengthens them so they withstand loading and unloading pressure. Always up for something new, I got my nails done and headed to the fields in a dress, shouldering my grandpa's Winchester. The gel helped my nails hold up better than ever, and the flash of pretty color while hitting targets was a plus. Speaking of color, let's discuss this pink thing. Ladies are ladies no matter where we are, but few ladies define themselves with a single color. Do men all shoot blue guns? Preposterous! It's the same with female gear. My dearly beloved CR Speed gear is all red. Maddy likes to color co-ordinate her gear in purple. Yes, we like to look good, but we are not five-year-olds with My Little Pony and Disney Princess backpacks. We are gorgeous, playful, accomplished women who successfully run our careers, carry college degrees, work time and overtime, and yet find time to shoot. We are the perfect companions to cheer up any match and we deserve more than to be stereotyped. Just because your favorite female parts are pink, doesn't mean that we need to be constantly offered shooting gear in that mono-colored stereotype. Now, some women do like pink, but there are as many of us who like blue, green, purple, orange, red, and any other color you could name. Knock it off with the pink already. Lastly, at least lastly for this article, remember that our culture teaches females to be gentle. Gentle does not work so well with recoil, shotguns, or even field stripping a gun for cleaning. So if at first we females try what we have been taught to do our whole lives and fail at shooting when we limp wrist, encourage us to get a grip. Don't take away the nice big guns. To quote Maddy, "Women can shoot anything. It's all a matter of learning to control the recoil." So sure, start us out on a .22 pea shooter like you would any newbie, but do not leave us there. After being nearly knocked on my rear the first time I felt the kick from a shotgun, I felt so accomplished when I hunkered down and pulled that trigger a second time, this time, staying on my feet. We will never feel the joy and excitement that a big caliber brings if we are only handed wimpy guns to try out. Let us try your .308 and .45. We women truly do love shooting next to you men. It's one of the few sports we can share. Maddy and I are both happy we have husbands who love getting us guns and gear. Just realize, you dear men, shooting is still a male-dominated sport, so if you would, please have a care for us females. Design and market products that fit us. Help us get our belts on and off. Encourage us when our muscles fatigue faster than yours. Tell us to suck it up if we give in to whining. And remember, we women will appreciate your consideration greatly and work to make your lives better in return. As the saying goes, "happy wife, happy life." - Laurel Yoshimoto Laurel is an average shooter who fell in love with shooting sports eight years ago. She resides happily with her loving husband and young son in Southern California and is proud to serve in Law Enforcement.