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COMMENTARY
These ‘Annies’ get their guns,
head into the woods to shoot
They named their club after An
nie Oakley, that famous 19th and ear
ly 20th century woman-with-a-gun. In
casual conversation, these shotgun-car
rying metro Atlanta sportswomen refer
to themselves simply as “the Annies.”
Members of the Annie Oakley Shoot
ers gather the first Monday of nearly ev
ery month to shoulder shotguns and
blast clay targets that fly like game birds.
“In golf and tennis, nothing blows
up,” said Debbie Avery of Sandy Springs.
“In this sport, things blow up. It’s in
stant gratification.”
The Annies grew out of a charity
shooting tournament for women, said
Mary Huntz, one of the originators
and self-described “mother hen” of the
group. “We decided, ‘why let all these
guys have all the fun?”’ This year, their
Annie Oakley shooting tournament
reaches its 10th year. Over that period,
the club has raised $365,000 for chari
ty, she said.
The group’s mission is to encourage
women to learn the sport of shooting.
New shooters must take lessons. “Most
of our women never held a shotgun be
fore,” Huntz said. “I like to say we are
peashooters and sharpshooters.”
The club has about 150 women on
its email list. They live in communities
spread from Cobb County to Monroe.
Some months, 60 or more women join
the shoots on “Annie Mondays.” On
this season’s opening day in September,
about 40 women took part in a shoot at
the club’s home, a private hunting and
shooting club near Social Circle.
They shouldered 12-gauge or
20-gauge shotguns or packed them into
golf carts or hand-pulled carts that look
surprisingly like strollers. Then they
headed into the woods to shoot glow-
in-the-dark orange or green clay targets
that fluttered from the trees or darted
from the bushes or flew into the sky.
Dentist Laura Braswell, who prac
tices in Buckhead, joined the group six
or seven years ago. She had done some
shooting in college, she said, but had
laid aside her shotgun. She decided
to take it up again to have an outdoor
sport to share with her son. He’s in high
school now and they still go shooting to
gether.
Now she
shoots regu
larly with the
Annies. “I’m
just happy to
get out in the
woods,” she
said
She likes
being with
the other
women. “You
meet differ
ent people.
You have fun.
There’s a little bit of networking, but
mostly it’s just social,” Braswell said.
Christy Roberts learned to shoot
growing up in Texas, where she’d hunt
deer. She’s been shooting with the An
nies for about five years. “It’s obviously
fun to be with a different group of ladies
than the usual,” she said.
They shoot “sporting clays,” which
means no two shots are exactly the same.
They work a course of 15 stations, mov
ing from one to the next like golfers on a
course. Targets fly in several different di
rections and offer combinations of high
and low flights. They mimic the various
flight patterns of different birds and, in
one case, the cross-the-ground scurry of
a fleeing rabbit, shooters said.
“It’s a lot like golf to me. To me, it’s
easier than golf. Golfing is a little more
frustrating,” said Jo
hanna Tate of Dun-
woody. “ [Shooting]
is something my hus
band and I can do to
gether.”
On opening day,
Avery, her friend Car
ol Beerman of San
dy Springs, Braswell
and I set off as a four
some. We were ac
companied by in
structor Cheng Ma,
a 68-year-old com
petitive shooter and
hunting guide who
grew up hunting in
California and now teaches clients how
to properly wield a shotgun.
Avery brought her dog, a German
shepherd puppy. “I want to make sure
she’s good with gunfire,” she joked.
Avery’s husband introduced her to
shooting. Now they hunt together, even
going so far as Argentina to find birds
to hunt. Other Annies also have traveled
in pursuit of a good shoot. Tate, for in
stance, says she’s hunted in Scotland.
Avery introduced her friend Beerman
to the sport. She took right to it and she
says she was amazed at how many wom
en are active shooters. “I’ve just kind of
fallen in love with it,” Beerman said.
The attraction? “I like the challenge of
it,” she said. “And maybe it’s the pow
er of the gun.”
JOE EARLE
Annie Oakleys Shooter Debbie Avery, right, fires at
flying targets while instructor Cheng Ma looks on. At
left, Carol Beerman practices sighting the target.
AROUND
TOWN
JOE EARLE
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