Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 1925 Drexel Women's Rifle Team

I was surfing around this morning & a picture popped up that piqued my interest. I still shoot B&W film and do a lot of old photo restorations, so I always like a good historical photo.

The photo below is of the 1925 Drexel Women's Rifle Team in Philadelphia. The program started in 1919 as part of the ROTC (which women were not allowed to join) but included women in competitions shortly thereafter. It appears from this picture that the Winchester 52 was a popular choice if I'm not mistaken. I think I could have survived the impending Great Depression knocking over banks in the midwest with the chick on the right.



Apparently they developed a pretty good reputation over the next ~75 years and won some championships.





I saw an online comment from a foreign student who thought someone was pranking him when he was told one of the university buildings had a "Rifle Room" as part of the 3rd & 4th floors.



That's a pretty good crowd in the background. For many years & into the 1990's, the university had a Turkey Shoot to raise money for the club. You could compete as an individual, a department, a dorm floor, etc. Your best five shots determined the winner of a frozen turkey. You could pay extra money for additional rounds as part of the fundraiser in order to improve your score. Department heads and the university president would sometimes show up to shoot.



Eventually the university pulled the plug on the program in 2003 "... due to public safety concerns, a lack of leadership and the need for expensive renovations to the rifle range, as the same one had been in use since 1928". We all know how dangerous target shooters with rimfires and iron sights can be to society so yea, let's improve "public safety" by eliminating formal training. The rifle room was turned into a research computing lab.