Written by Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
Women who love to hunt or target shoot with shotguns finally have what they’ve always wanted — a gun made to fit them. After all, they are the fastest growing shooting group in the country.
Syren, a division of fine Italian gunmakers Caesar Guerini and Fabarm, has designed a complete line of shotguns for women and offered the line for sale earlier this year.
Alexis Martinez, a shooter on the Texas A&M University team who currently shoots a modified man’s shotgun, was one of several women who tried out the new guns at Capitol City Trap and Skeet Club in Austin on October 31.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It was a total fit from the minute I picked it up.”
Syren’s Vice President Anne Mauro, who has been involved since the division’s beginning, including the design of the shotguns, said the shotguns are made for the woman shooter from the ground up.
“It’s not just a man’s gun with the stock cut off,” she said.
The look and feel of the gun shows the differences.
The stock is redesigned — the pitch (angle) of the buttstock is moved forward at the toe to better fit the woman’s chest and shoulder and the Monte Carlo stock’s elevated comb keeps the cheek higher while keeping the heel of the stock low, accommodating a woman’s longer neck and sloped shoulder and helping keep the stock from hitting their cheek when shooting.
“And finally, the stock is toed out,” Mauro said. “With the bottom of the stock farther away from the shoulder, it accounts for the difference in the woman’s unique anatomy.”
Possibly the most noticeable changes are in the grip.
“The grip is smaller to fit the woman’s hand,” Mauro said. “And the grip is moved forward so the woman’s shorter fingers can easily reach the trigger.”
Rodriguez loved the changes when she shot the guns.
“The smaller grip felt nice in my hand and the pitch of the stock felt so easy on the shoulder,” she said.
Mauro said Rodriguez’ response is similar to what she is hearing as she travels across the country.
“We’ve had a tremendous response,” she said. “Women put it to their shoulder and it is instantly more comfortable.”
August Crocker of August M. Crocker Fine Guns in Austin, a Syren dealer, has fit guns for male and female shooters for years, and said fitting a woman with a man’s gun is difficult at best, not to mention costly.
“The first shooting experience for women is usually a painful one,” he said of women shooting a gun built for a man. “The stock pitch is off and it’s not high enough so their cheek ends up black and blue, and when they put their hand on the pistol grip, they can’t reach the trigger, so the fit is uncomfortable from the beginning.”
With the Syren line, Crocker said fitting the gun is a breeze.
“It’s easy to fit women with this line,” he said. “You don’t have to change the primary dimensions of the gun.”
Syren offers its Tempio Sporting Guns in 12-, 20- and 28-gauge over-and-under and semi-autos in 12 gauge. Field Guns include 20- and 28- gauge, as well as combo models.
“It’s a complete line for women hunters and target shooters,” Mauro said. “That’s why Syren is its own brand — our aim is to design the world’s greatest shotguns for women.”
