Australian Women’s Shooter

Laetisha Scanlan provides a personal insight to the year gone by and what lies ahead, including Aussie success at the World Championships and Shooting being reinstated into the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Gemma Dunn supports SMART goal-setting for your shooting to help track and achieve realistic goals, with a QR code to access an easy-to-use worksheet. Our fascinating tale of a cherished side-by-side shotgun traverses Europe to incorporate a baroness, a castle, hide and seek, happy hunting and a fond legacy. We look at canvas art as a stunning alternative for your hunting trophy. And there’s plenty of feral pigs out there to hunt, so follow our guide to get started and make a positive difference for our fragile ecosystems.

Laetisha Scanlan covers the technique where Trap shooters count the clays when competing. A loving mum discusses life after giving birth and how getting back to nature and the management of feral pests reinvigorated her. We hit the open road on a father and daughter trip like no other to remote Coober Pedy where exciting comps at SSAA ranges provide outstanding results and ever-lasting memories. Gemma Dunn delves into performance plateaus in shooting and offers guidance for this natural occurrence that can be overcome with practice and persistence. And we feature a long-time married couple who love nothing more than hunting and fishing together, which has proven a real treat when the adventure includes the whole family.

Laetisha Scanlan discusses her European tour with the Australian National shooting team, where she, Catherine Skinner and Penny Smith secured World Cup Gold in Lonato, Italy. Purchasing your rifle is no simple task, so we weigh up the pros and cons with centrefire versus rimfire. Ann Brummell has dedicated her life to sports shooting and we speak with her about being an inspiration to newcomers. In the field, the bond between hunters is special and a proud father reflects on treasured moments spent with his daughter, a keen hunter shares her recent experience procuring impressive stags in South Australia with a crew from ZeroTech and we review a helpful Allen rifle sling for hunting.

Our finished AWS Tikka .243 WIN rifle handmade by Beretta Australia shoots as good as it looks as we brilliantly showcase their firearm customisation service available to all shooters. We review an Aussie Outback Supplies rifle bag that’s exactly what a father and daughter wanted in her first cover. The highest sporting honour has been awarded to Paralympic shooter Libby Kosmala OAM so we touch base with her, while Laetisha Scanlan discusses whether shooting is a dying sport at international level. We also attend a successful SSAA South Australia Girls with Guns – Try Shooting Day and feature the 2022 schedule for Victoria’s fantastic Women on Target events.

We showcase Part 1 of our custom-built AWS Tikka .243 WIN rifle with Beretta Australia, designed from the ground up to suit an intermediate level female shooter for the range and hunting. Join us on different experiences that make up a memorable hunt, whether it’s for a trophy, meat, the testing pursuit itself or a mix of each. The spotlight is shone on a regional Victorian high school where studies are complemented by the sports shooting program. And we extend handy advice from one novice shooter to another, while Olympian Laetisha Scanlan covers training and her advancement over time.

Gemma Dunn provides advice on how to best approach newcomers moving into sports shooting and deliver the right encouragement. New shooter Elise Cox covers her participation at the SSAA range after first acquiring her Firearms Licence. SSAA Academic Bursary Program recipient Emma Belgrove discusses her ‘femininity and firearms’ studies. Proud father Scott Heiman takes his excited young daughter Scout on a hunting trip to camp among the treetops. And Laetisha Scanlan shares her Tokyo Olympics experience, while Renee Barratt wraps up the 2021 Shoot for a Cure NT event.

SSAA member Lecky Mahoney has starred on television and we’ve spoken with the avid shooter about her passion for the sport and ‘golden’ work in Outback Kalgoorlie. Laetisha Scanlan and Gemma Dunn offer in-depth advice on shooting glasses with the help of a sports optometrist. Kath Heiman documents her lifelong involvement with firearms from being a kid in Scotland to hunting becoming a way of life for her family in Australia. And we profile Target Pistol shooter Janet Hoskin, who savours the camaraderie and community engagement at the South Australian SSAA Para range.

Our ‘golden’ milestone 10th edition features Suzy Balogh in honour of her dual shooting gold medal successes in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. We profile the SSAA Life Member and Order of Australia recipient while Suzy covers the ‘Fight-or-Flight’ response to help tackle nerves. Laetisha Scanlan also offers an insight into what the 2021 Tokyo Olympics are likely to look like for competitors. We find the right shooting glasses from industry-leader Wiley X and Michelle Pares’ hands-on approach to safe shooting and hunting when pregnant covers the early stages of expectancy right through to full-term.