Cathy and David are happily married, and enjoy participating in outdoor sports together. But Cathy decided to start hunting last year, and David tried to teach her what to do. They almost drove each crazy before they figured out that the two of them learn shooting skills very differently.

"I want to know why to do something," Cathy says. "David says 'Don't worry about why, just do it!'"

It's an anecdote that doesn't surprise Mary Beverly. As a shotgun instructor with more than 10 years' experience, Mary has taught both men and women. She knows a lot about how both men and women learn to shoot, how they're alike, and how they're different. Mary is a member of both the National Skeet Hall of Fame and the Florida Skeet Hall of Fame, and has been shooting competitively since 1974. Where she lives in Tallahassee, Florida, she didn't have anyone to help her learn good shotgun techniques, and struggled for a long time until she figured out how to solve a lot of her own problems.

"When I first started shooting it took me about five years to figure out why my gun hurt me," she says. "I finally learned the best way to fit a gun."

Her desire to teach other women what she had learned came about because she has had to strive so hard. She saw other, younger women making some of the same mistakes she had made, and wanted to help them.

"I thought, 'Maybe I can just help get them started,'" she says. "Later, as an instructor, that got to be my specialty. I don't mind teaching someone who's shot before if they really want to change and to learn, but I really prefer to have someone who's never shot before."

In her decade as a shotgun instructor, Mary has taught both men and women. She's found that the two sexes learn differently, and sometimes need different equipment. Some of these contrasts have to do with dissimilar experience in the shooting sports.

Sometimes, especially where equipment is concerned, men and women have disparate physical characteristics (besides the obvious ones) that cause equipment to "fit" differently. And some of the things she's noticed may simply be hardwired in how we learn.

1. Men want to do, women want to know why.

"Women want to know why they're supposed to do something," Mary says. "Men don't really care that much. They just want to do it."

While on the surface this seems like a broad generalization, it may have some basis in our evolutionary history. Males were out hunting and gathering, where the survival imperative may have been "just do it!" Taking care of small children, females may have had more opportunity to ponder the whys and wherefores and to suggest the solutions to problems, thereby conferring some evolutionary advantage to the two different behaviors.

Whether that's really the case or just conjecture, Mary has found this learning difference consistent in her students.

"I think understanding 'why' helps women remember what they're doing," she says. That understanding seems to help women reason through the mechanics of a given shot, analyze what they need to do, and then change whatever they're doing wrong.

2. Sometimes women need a different gun.

"I'd never say that women can't shoot a 12-gauge," Mary says. "But I think that the beginning gun you give a woman should be less than that. There are so many things to learn that you need to focus on something besides recoil. Besides, when you're shooting targets you really don't need a shell as big as a 12-gauge shell. For years, I've been shooting a 20-gauge in 12- gauge competitions, and I've found that I do better with the 20- gauge because I'm not conscious of any recoil."

She says many of her female students have started out on 20-gauge guns and after about a year graduated to 12-gauges. That year has given them time to learn the basics of shotgunning on a firearm that didn't hurt, and get ready to handle a bigger gun.

"A man will go on shooting even if it hurts," she says. "A woman won't shoot a gun that hurts."

And that leads us to the next difference. If a gun hurts, it may not be entirely because of the gauge. Sometimes it indicates that the gunstock is the wrong size or shape for the shooter.

3. Men and women need to "fit" their guns differently.

"A lot of shooters don't understand that when guns are made, they're kind of like men's pants," Mary says. "Slacks are unhemmed, because the manufacturer didn't know who was going to buy them, and couldn't pre-fit them. Guns are the same way. The stocks are made a traditional size and shape, and they don't fit everyone. If you don't alter the stock to fit you, you're missing an important step."

One thing Mary looks at with her students is the angle of the buttplate of the shotgun. She says it should be a mirror image of the shooter's shoulder.

"So many guns come with a horrible curved buttplate, and no one is built that way," she says. "If a shooter puts that gun to his shoulder, it causes him to put the gun over to the edge of the shoulder on the joint rather than where the 'pocket' is."

Then the shooter winds up holding the shotgun like it's a rifle, across the body, instead of the way a shotgun should be held, at a right angle to the body. The shooter swings the gun away from his or her face, the pellets miss the target and the apparent recoil is more than if the gun were held properly.

"A shotgun will not kick you hard if it fits you," Mary says.

Altering the buttplate is a job best left to a gunsmith. This also may mean cutting off the stock to the proper length, another measurement your gunsmith can take care of. But "fit" also is measured in terms of the height of the comb.

"Women have higher cheekbones, so the comb needs to be higher," Mary says. "If the comb is high enough it stops your face so your eye is in the proper position."

This makes an old-fashioned English stock, which many men shoot quite well, terrifically hard for a woman to shoot. If she gets all the way down on the stock, all she can see is the back part of the action.

A trap or sporting clays stock with its higher comb, is much better for a woman to shoot. Even then, a woman may need to raise the height of the comb. The comb should be high enough so that the pupil of the eye acts as the back sight of the gun. It should be in line with the rib and the front bead.

"I have a piece of leather on mine," Mary says. "I took a piece of old leather belt and cut it and shaped it and put it on the stock with contact cement. But there are commercial products you can buy now that are real easy to put on."

4. Many women have eyes that are cross-dominant.

Though Mary doesn't have any hard data to back this up, her experience has made her think that many more women than men--at least shooters--are right handed but have a left dominant eye (or the reverse). The solutions to this problem are the same for both men and women.

With a beginning shooter, Mary encourages the student to switch to the dominant side, if she can.

"But some people don't find it comfortable, because your whole stance is different," she says.

One technique Mary uses with a student is to have her keep both eyes open until she tracks the bird and the gun touches her cheek. Then the student closes the dominant eye. Though it takes time to learn the technique, it helps a lot of shooters learn to hit targets.

If both of those things fail, Mary goes back to the tried and true method of using Scotch brand tape on a pair of shooting glasses or eyeglasses. She puts a little piece of tape on the lens over the dominant eye so it blocks out the end of the barrel when the student is in shooting position.

5. Women often are easier to teach than men.

"Women tend to follow what you're explaining better," she says. "But I don't really think this is gender. I think I've had a lot more women who were absolute beginners than I have men. As experienced shooters, the men are more set in their ways. Their habits are so well established that they're hard to break; I think it's harder to change bad habits than it is to learn good ones from scratch."

Mary says a man has a hard time changing where he puts the gun. If he mounts the gun out on his arm, it's very hard for him to learn anything else, despite bruises and sore muscles. It may take a long time, and a lot of gentle correcting on Mary's part, to alter bad habits such as these.

Other than these differences, Mary says teaching men and women to shoot is much the same. She feels, though, that both instructors and students need to understand the contrasts between male and female shooters. A basic knowledge of these few differences can reduce frustration, increase how well students learn, and ultimately lead to better, more competitive shooters on the trap, skeet, and sporting clays circuits.

Mary Beverly charges $65 for a two-hour lesson excluding shells, targets, and club rates. For more information, or to contact her regarding lessons, call her at 904-893-6279.