There is a new trend among women and it has nothing to do with high heels or hemlines. Conversations about caliber and kick back are swirling as across the country, the number of female shooters is on the rise.

"More and more women are coming into gun ownership and the number of women participating in recreational shooting has risen exponentially," said Rachel Parsons of the National Rifle Association, which will hold its annual national convention April 29-May 1 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown. Included on the schedule is a women-only NRA Pistol Instructor Training class. (Registration ended Friday.)

The National Shooting Sports Foundation confirms the trend. In 2009, the last year for which the foundation has statistics, gun store owners reported a 73 percent increase in female customers. And while many of the women were using the guns for hunting -- there was a 28.5 percent increase in firearms bought for that purpose -- the number of women buying guns for personal defense increased 83 percent.

"Women are interested in learning how to use a gun," said Parsons, "not just frivolously going out and buying a firearm without being educated."

Men often tend to come into firearm ownership at a young age from the sporting side and later develop an interest in self-defense, but Parsons said women typically have an opposite introduction to guns, driven by feelings of vulnerability.

"Women tend to come in from the self-defense side and then realize this is really fun," she said.

In Wilkinsburg, Buddy Savage, owner of Braverman Arms, said training is imperative for women.

"They need it more," he said. "The average guy will grow up and slowly learn it from his dad because of some interest in hunting, but a lot of women didn't partake in that."

Responding to calls from women wanting to learn how to hunt and shoot in the company of other women, the NRA developed Women on Target in 1999 for women-only instructional shooting and hunting excursions. Parsons attributes the program's popularity to camaraderie among the women and a less intimidating environment in the absence of men.