Does your gender make you a better marksman?

I would have lost any credibility for anyone that says that. Before this explodes to an assemblage of memes and posts of famous snipers I will just say this. It is an individual skill that you must work and develop with hours and hours of practice. Some may show an early heightened skill level over their novice counterparts but when they compete against a professional they will be dismissed quickly.

Of course, this is a reasonable topic.

I have trained soldiers, civilians, police officers, and youth in marksmanship. My BEST and WORST shooters were females. Virtually all instructors will tell you that shooting is mostly psychological and technique.

As a trained Lie Detector Operator, I can tell you that females process much more information emotionally. If a woman is uncomfortable or intimidated with the feel of using a firearm, then it is a high mountain to overcome this barrier. Also, because of (generally) less upper body strength, I have seen females fatigue quicker. Because of this, their previous shot consistency can deteriorate.

However, those women who do well at shooting can do exceptionally well. The German Army suffered greatly from female Russian snipers during World War 2. Our youth group participated in a national rifle competition, and one girl on our team tied for First Place, Nationally, in Air Rifle, and another took Second Place in .22 Rifle. However, out of 18 shooters, there were only 2 girls that were interested in participating.

I had another young lady, about 9 or 10 years old, who came on to shoot for her BB-Gun classification medal. The guns were set up on the line, with targets ready at 5 meters. She was at the box of safety glasses, trying one, then another, then another.

After watching this for about 5 minutes, I asked what the problem was in her finding a set of safety glasses and coming to the Firing Line. She replied, "I need to find a pair that matches my shoes."

(Never had THAT problem with boys.)

History abounds with amazing stories of deadly accuracy in battle from both sexes. From the teams of female Russian snipers to White Feather, the AT&T effect was well preserved. Zaytsez and Pavlichenko from Russian, Hayha from Finland. Kyle and Hathcock (I served with White Feather's son at Cherry Point - he went on to retire from the Corps as a Gunny and the Captain of the Marine Corps Rifle Team - Carlos Hathcock III) both represented the US with honor and skill. The fact that the Russians fielded approximately 2000 female snipers during WWII but it took the US until 2021 to graduate a female sniper from Benning makes a statement. The statement? Make better use of the assets available to you. Doesn't answer the OPs question but hopefully provides food for thought.

Semper Fi.

No, the shooter makes the better shot.

I've heard this, but slightly different. I was told they better INITIALLY because they don't have the muscle strength to manhandle the weapon. As such, they rely more on their skeletal structure to support the weapon, which makes for a steadier shot. I'd say it's plausible.

Lots of responses here, but in my experience (26 years in the Army) both genders "can" be either good or bad marksmen. Yes the more time spent training will make you a better marksman. But for those units that only get the basic amount of range time more men are better then female at the range. I don't know if that is from the initial training they received in Basic Training or if they had some training prior to the service. This is just my hands on experience.

From my personal observations competing in regional and national-level matches, women have a slight advantage firing offhand rifle and that's about it. It's not enough to make female shooters definitively better than males, and it seemed like there was a pretty even split between male and female champions given the larger number of male shooters.

Obviously there are physical things women can do that men can't. Reminds me of the lean over, put your head against the wall, grab the chair, and then stand up. Women can do it, men can't. My first thought wasn't all the controlled matches like Camp Perry wherein you see equally fabulous male and female shooters. I started thinking about the biathlon. Extreme physical stress, then calm down and shoot, repeat, repeat, repeat. Although overall greater muscle mass gives a time edge to the men, I don't recall the shooting skill being lessened with either gender. So my starting bottom line would be there's no difference so long as all the required skills, mental game, etc. are there. But then again, nobody could beat Annie Oakley!

Not sure if there is scientific standing one way or the other. However, in many of the competitive shooting disciplines I have interest in, I have seen more and more women getting into the sport with co-ed of female only and think over all the few women I have had the chance to watch, they seem to have some instinctive 3rd eye for shooting. In the long run, practice is the leveler. Comes down to training.

Finally!!! here is an issue that is easily measured with scientific accuracy, that cannot be disputed. If the sniper is shooting for me, I do not care what the physiological factors are. All I want to know is are the rounds on target? Meet that requirement, and you can be a buffalo in a union suit on roller skates.