Just when I thought our days of enjoying shooting sports as a couple were over, a woman heading up a local team in the women's sporting clays league called Karen and informed her she'd been drafted.

The Sidney Shooting Park sporting clays league has, according to one National Rifle Association representative, the highest level of female participation of any similar club in the nation. Last summer, roughly a third of those who took part in the shotgun sport were ladies. My wife saw joining the league of women shooters as a way of making new friends in our small Nebraska town, so she accepted the offer to take part and went out the first week with my Turkish 20-gauge over/under shotgun. By that evening, her shoulder was sore and bruised. She enjoyed the fellowship, but she didn't enjoy the shooting and she performed poorly. Last weekend she spoke the words every sportsman longs to hear his wife say: "Honey, let's go to the store and look for a shotgun that will work for me."

One doesn't just go into a gun store, buy a nice-looking shotgun, walk onto a clay-target venue and start smashing clay pigeons. The single most important factor to consider in a shotgun is how it feels and fits. Weight, balance and instinctive dead-on pointing ability are primary considerations.

In Karen's case we wanted a gun that, if possible, we both could use. Though I'm much larger than my wife, our arm length is similar. Nonetheless, fitting her first was my primary consideration. I had her begin by shouldering a number of different double-barreled shotguns. We concentrated on doubles because Karen is left-handed, and the number of guns suitable for "lefties" was limited.

Karen would start in the ready position with one hand on the forestock and the other on the grip of the shotgun. Then she'd quickly bring the gun up to shooting position. If the butt of the gun snagged the underarm of her shooting shoulder, the length-of-pull (distance from curve in the trigger to the end of the stock's butt) was too long. If it came up and hit her high in the shoulder or missed the shoulder completely and hit her cheek, the length of pull was too short.

Once we narrowed the choices down to three that she could bring up into position naturally, we evaluated the feel of the shotgun. I would ask if she felt strain in her right arm trying to hold the gun up and keep it steady. If she did, the gun's balance was weighted too far forward for her. Next we did a version of the mirror test.

The Cabela's store we frequent has a mirror on the wall behind the counter just for this purpose. From the ready position, the tester brings the shotgun up and aims at his or her dominant eye in the reflection in the mirror. If the bead on the front of the barrel is perfectly aligned with the pupil of the aiming eye, the gun is a good fit. If the reflection shows the bead positioned below the eye, the gun is too barrel-heavy or is a poor design for accurate shooting for that individual. If the barrel obscures the dominant eye, the shotgun instinctively points too high. CAUTION: Do not attempt this test unless you are certain your shotgun is unloaded, with the safety on, and there is adequate distance between you and the mirror. For extra safety I suggest having a trigger lock in place, as we did. The Mrs. won't take kindly to you putting the barrel of a gun through the bathroom mirror tonight or blowing a hole through the wall.

In the end, we walked out of the store with a new gun that fit Karen and we went straight to the women's league shoot. She tied the team captain with her first round of clays, and beat her on the second trip around the course. That evening there was no evidence on her shoulder that she'd shot at all. Mrs. Carlson was happy, and she was so enthused she shot another round of clays for fun the next day. Now she's looking forward to this weekend's shooting; the right shotgun makes all the difference.