Women 'pull' together

With her hair pulled back under a ball cap and her ear plugs pushed firmly into place, Pam Bartlett stepped to the edge of the covered shooting station at the Ancient Oak Gun Club in Lakewood Ranch. 

The East County resident slid a pair of shells into the chamber of her shotgun before setting her sights on her target. 

Bartlett nodded toward Casie Holloway, who launched a test clay pigeon from one of the traps hidden around the station. 

The clay pigeon whizzed past Bartlett in an orange blur. She quickly fired a shot, leaving numerous shards of clay in her wake. 

“It’s harder than you think,” said Bartlett, a business development manager at Parametric Technology Corporation. 

For the next 90 minutes, Bartlett moved through 14 different stations around the north course, firing anywhere between 50 and 100 shells as part of the Sure Shot Annie's group during the monthly shoot. 

“All of us dream of being Annie (Oakley),” said Sure Shot Annie’s founder Dyana Goss. “When you pulverize a target, it’s instant gratification." 

Founded in February, the Sure Shot Annie’s organization is a women’s clay shooting group housed out of the Ancient Oak Gun Club. The group, which is now home to roughly 40 members, was created to offer women an opportunity to participate in sporting clays in a safe and friendly environment while providing fellowship and offerings to the community. 

The Sure Shot Annie’s group is home to women of all ages and skill levels, from sure shots to novices, who all share a similar passion. The majority of the women reside in Manatee and Sarasota Counties, but membership stretches all the way to Lakeland and Lake Wales. 

No prior experience is necessary, as trained instructors are on hand during each shoot to offer assistance to novices. 

“We all shoot at the same targets,” Lakewood Ranch resident Cindy Rhategan said. “There are no handicaps in this sport. The adrenaline you get from hitting that first clay, it’s like ‘Okay, I can do this.” 

A little more than a year ago, Goss and two other women attended an informational session at Ancient Oak Gun Club. 

A former hunter, Goss, who resides in Lakeland, was eager to try her hand at moving targets. 

“I always wanted to shoot a shotgun and try sporting clays,” Goss said. “It took me nine months to find a shotgun that I liked. I tested a lot of them, but now that I’ve found my baby, it’s so much fun.”

Following that first informational meeting, word began to spread about the sport and over the next few months, more women expressed an interest. At that point, Goss and the other women decided to start a shooting group strictly for women. 

Looking to become its own entity, the group voted to officially change its name to the Sure Shot Annie’s and began holding regular monthly shoots. 

During each shoot, members are divided into groups of three to four shooters and spend roughly 90 minutes shooting a wide range of clay flights, which are launched from a variety of strategically placed traps along the course. Each station offers a combination of at least three traps, which are rotated on a weekly basis. 

In addition to being able to practice their shot, the shoots also offers women a chance to catch up on one another’s lives and spend time surrounded by those who share a similar passion for the group and the sport itself. 

"It's all about women supporting other women," Rhategan said.