IT WAS once a mark of masculinity, a fine art perfected by strong men while their wives looked on meekly. Now shooting, both in the field and at the firing range, is being enjoyed by a generation of women keen to prove that their hands are steadier and their nerves steelier than those of their male counterparts.

For the first time in its 95-year history, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has appointed a woman, Liz Lamb, to promote the sport.

It is estimated that there are now 40,000 women shooters and even Britain’s most traditional grounds have introduced courses for women, employed women instructors and are selling accessories designed to cater for the female presence.

Women, who in some cases are beating men at competition level, are in such demand that the Great Britain Target Shooting Federation is to set up a squad to find new female talent. Jonathan Young, editor of The Field magazine, said: “I started shooting in 1973 and you’d never see a girl shooting. There may have been a few fiancées out with their chaps but they never reappeared after marriage. In the last five years it’s completely changed.”

Madonna ran pheasant shoots at her estate after she took up the sport two years ago. Another pop singer, Suzi Quatro, is a keen clay pigeon shooter, as is the soprano Kiri Te Kanawa. The actress Elizabeth Hurley hosted her first game shooting party last autumn.

Clay pigeon shooting is the most popular form of the sport among women, with female membership of the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association increasing by more than 500 to about 2,150 after Charlotte Kerwood, 15, a Sussex schoolgirl, won gold in the double trap event in the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

Women such as Sherri Gallagher, 19, an American student nurse who won the individual world long-range rifle championship title last year, and Louise Minett, who last year beat the men’s 10 metre air rifle record at the British Airgun Championships, have also attracted a new generation of women competitors. In last year’s world long-range championships, half of the Great Britain under-25 team were women. In the over-60s category all team members were men.

“One of the joys of shooting is that men and women can compete on an equal basis,” Wes Stanton, publisher of Gun Trade News, said.

Mike Barnes, the editor of Shooting Gazette, said: “Guys automatically assume they’ve got a God-given talent for shooting. Women are less confident and so put more effort into practising and technique. Girls tend to learn much more quickly than guys do. We’ve profiled several women over the past three years who have followed their husbands into clay pigeon shooting and ended up much better shots.”

Many of the grandest shooting grounds have modified their premises or introduced courses specifically for women. The Holland & Holland club now employs women trainers. Clothing companies such as Shoot the Moon and Landgirl Clothing have appeared.

Ms Lamb, a former Great Britain clay pigeon shooting champion, is convinced that women are easier to teach. She said: “Most coaches, male and female, prefer to teach novice women rather than men. Men think they should be good and nearly always say they don’t need much coaching.”

But for women such as Ms Minett, 28, her achievements are still a source of discomfort for some men. “When I first started shooting there were a couple of male coaches who, the minute I started getting better than them, didn’t know how to handle it. They stopped talking to me and stopped giving me advice. I think men get embarrassed — it’s convenient to have separate men’s and women’s events because that doesn’t show them up.”

Ms Lamb believes that there are hundreds of girls and women who would like to try the sport but are held back by their own inhibitions. She said: “Lots of women are involved in game shooting but they are always on the sidelines. They train the gundogs and will be out retrieving birds or acting as beaters. But few ever pick up a shotgun.”

She thinks some women have been put off by using a man’s gun on a shoot. “You have to have a fitting gun. Most women need a higher stock because they have longer necks and higher cheekbones. The wrong gun will be unmanageable. At a club it takes about half an hour to kit someone out with the right gun.”

It may take some time, however, before mixed-sex shoots are the norm. Mr Young suggested that women had some catching up to do. “There are some women who shoot very well. But women are definitely kinder and they are not hard. They don’t poach each other’s birds as we boys tend to do.”

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