At the 2024 A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League’s (AGAG) Annual Conference, I signed up for a class taught by Tatiana Whitlock, a member of Walther’s Defense Division and the AGAG Director of Training.
Here’s the class description: “Increase your event attendance and keep your members engaged. Learn strategies to help your members achieve improved performance with their pistols – and unlock prizes for each level of success! Help them learn more, shoot better, return to events time after time, and get the most out of A Girl & A Gun!”
Introducing the Program
As we started the class, Tatiana apologized for being vague in the description. It turns out that the class was an introduction to the new AGAG Pistol Marksmanship Program, and they had wanted to keep it a secret until they were ready to unveil it at the conference.
I was very excited to participate in the debut of the program. It was developed to allow members the opportunity to work on a series of skill “tests” that earns them charms for bracelets that they can proudly wear to show their shooting abilities.
Pistol Marksmanship Program
A specific target is utilized and has various sizes of shapes on it that are shot according to the directions. Each course of fire increases at a more and more difficult challenge.
After completing each of the 10 courses of fire at the “standard” level, a member receives a silver charm for her bracelet. If she has an issue with wearing metal, these can also be displayed in other ways, such as on her nametag.
After completing all 10 courses of fire in the standard level, members can then choose to move on to the “Precision” level. These courses of fire are more challenging, and they are also timed. After the successful completion of each of these shooting challenges, a member receives a gold charm to place on another bracelet. Once both the standard and precision levels are completed, a member also receives a certificate.
While the class description may have seemed vague, it unfolded exactly as described. The new marksmanship program will help engagement, improve shooting skills and give members a goal to work on each time they attend.
To introduce us to this new program and give us experience in how it works, we each got to try to earn our first charms. We partnered with another member and took turns running each other through each string of the course of fire.
Using the Walther PDP F Series
To perform these drills in this class I used the Walther PDP F-Series, 3.5 inch handgun and I want to talk about the features of this gun that I really like – now that I’ve used it for a while. I’ve written previously about this pistol, specifically drills you can perform while training with this firearm
While we didn’t draw from the holster for this class, I did in my other classes. I find the 3.5-inch Walther to be more comfortable to draw than the longer 5-inch one that I used before now. I no longer need the drop holster to allow a more comfortable draw of a longer gun.
But my favorite part of the Walther PDP F-Series is the extended slide stop lever. I love, love, love it. It’s so easy to reach. I have found that utilizing the slide stop lever on most handguns is very difficult, so I don’t bother trying to use them.
However, when I started using the Walther’s slide stop lever, oh my goodness, it was so easy to reach and I was so much quicker getting back on target. I could insert the mag and hit that extended lever on my way back out to the target instead of spending those extra seconds reaching up to rack the slide closed.
Program Recap
So, now that I’ve been using the Walther for a while and am feeling very comfortable with it, I am proud to say that I earned my first charm! It was very fun and I look forward to helping my chapter members increase their shooting skills and earn their charms through the AGAG Pistol Marksmanship Program.
Only AGAG members can participate in this program. Find a chapter near you here, and click here to join.
Nancy Keaton is a retired college administrator, president of her local gun club, competitive shooter and freelance writer whose work has appeared in A Girl and A Gun Women’s Shooting League, "American Shooting Journal," "American Concealed," "Northwest Meetings + Events," and other publications. She enjoys writing about a wide variety of topics and interviewing ordinary people doing amazing things. To see a compilation of her writing, check out her website at www.nancykeaton.com. View all posts by Nancy Keaton
