Riding Shotgun With Charlie: RSWC #146 Anne Mauro

RSWC #146 Anne Mauro

May 24, 2022

Riding Shotgun With Charlie
#146
Anne Mauro
Collegiate Shotgun Coach,
University of Maryland

At SHOT Show 2022, Cheryl Todd (RSWC #060) messaged me and said I need to have Anne Mauro on the stagecoach. After some group texts and making plans during a vacation week, I hit the road for Maryland. Anne is a shotgun coach at the University of Maryland, where she runs a top notch program that she grew from the bottom up. We met at The Point at Pintail in Queenstown, MD, where she started her shotgunning path, not knowing where it would lead her.

Anne started shotgun shooting at her husband’s suggestion and started Pintail Point renting a shotgun to use. Her instructor, Ben Wise, made it fun and enjoyable for her so she kept going. Eventually, the rental guns were up for sale and she bought the one she was renting. When she used it, she had to take off the recoil pad. After she bought the gun, she headed up to Maine to have a custom stock made to her specifications, which led to helping manufacturers design stocks for women. Let’s face it, the ‘pink it and shrink it’ didn’t really work for new female shooters. She’s designed shotguns for Blaser including the F16 Intuition design.

Anne found herself offering to teach a Lady’s Clinic at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio, TX. She had some folks that doubted her, but she proved them wrong in the first year, filling several clinics. From there, her clinics were always filled with ladies wanting to improve their skills. Eventually, the ladies got to shoot at the Nationals’ stadium where all the big dogs want to shoot! One of the most rewarding moments is when a lady who already knew how to shoot well came to the clinic and Anne asked her why she was her, she said it was just to learn from Anne. The great thing about Anne as a coach is that she realized that women needed some help with her focus, not her shooting.

The University of Maryland asked if she would work with their informal trap and skeet clubs which she did and she introduced sporting clays as well. The very first year, they won their first regional championship. They’ve won over 80 other awards over the years with everyone from beginners to experienced shooters who need some fine tuning. When she started, it was called the Shotgun Sports Team, but eventually they changed the name to the U of M Clay Target Team. She knew that this wasn’t a battle the club would win, but it paid off a few years later with some funding from the university for specialty shooting vests. She’s also got some stories about how the team got sponsored by Beretta.

There’s some great tips about coaching, shotgunning and dominant eye exercises she shares with us, we talk about practicing, the time commitment, and much more. And she’s got a great story about Ted Nugent, too!

Favorite quotes:

“My shooting instructor at the time, Ben Wise,a great individual, kept me safe and made it fun even though I was black and blue.”

“They just ‘I can’t thank you enough because I’ve got a great sport that I enjoy with my family.’”

“I’m going to take this team and I’m going to make something of them.”

“You have this imaginary bag on your side here, you get these little pieces of golden nuggets you put in that bag, you just kind of store them in there and over time you’ll learn when to pull those pieces out.”

“You had to be able to prove yourself, not only in what you do knowledge-wise, but being able to shoot, all of it.”

Timestamp

00:00 Intro

01:25 Anne Mauro

04:14 Texted at SHOT

05:08 Lessons with Ben Wise

12:16 Designing shotguns & traveling

13:54 Lady’s clinic surprise

17:17 Nationals’ stadium

19:39 Amazing moment

20:36 Chesapeake Bay Bridge

22:12 “Fun that can be had”