A real girls’ day out

“There’s something abouta woman with the gumption to pick up a gun that makes her good company,” says Elizabeth Cook, who belongs to the East of England Women’s Social Shooting, one of a seemingly small number of all-female game-shooting syndicates within the UK. Her declaration is music to the ears of those frustrated by the assumption that a ‘girls’ day out’ must involve a spa. There are plenty of ladies who would rather be in a shoot room than a steam room, plastering mud on their gumboots rather than faces and talking of ‘numbers of shots’ in terms of cartridges fired rather than lemongrass and seaweed concoctions swallowed.

While Cook’s is “a loose virtual collective – rather than a solid block where the same people shoot in the same place, we have formed into overlapping teams as time and opportunities allow” – other syndicates are more defined. India Barber established hers a couple of years ago with nine of her best girlfriends who all pay into a kitty each month. “We love to join our husbands throughout the season for