F&S is currently amping up its coverage for female hunters, and I have to say, I’m so happy to be a part of it. For those of you who read the magazine, you’ve probably seen editor-in-chief Sid Evans’ calls for essays on being a female hunter, and by now you’ve likely read the July feature on outdoorswomen that resulted.

Helping to put that story together was one of my favorite parts of being an F&S editor—and it held the most surprises. While I expected that reading people’s essays and getting the results of the women hunters web poll would be fun, I never expected to find such a rich history of outdoorswomen in the pages of Field & Stream.

It turns out female hunters used to have a strong presence in the magazine. The 1890s through the turn of the century in particular saw a women’s column called The Modern Diana (named for the Roman goddess of hunting), and frequent features and columns written by the magazine’s “lady field rangers.” I spent a number of late nights in the office carefully going through those old, brittle issues, and reading 100-plus-year-old stories by women. The more I read, the more proud I felt to be a part of the continuing tradition of the American outdoorswoman.

That’s why one of my favorite features of this site are the photos, cartoons, and advertisements from the F&S archives we'll be running here. Like the two I've posted in this blog.

A few more things you can expect on this growing site: In addition to an ever-expanding list of recipes (please feel free to contribute), there are a couple of coming-soon’s that will be up by the end of the week, such as a list of women’s hunting organizations, a directory of women’s camo manufacturers, and your photos from recent hunts (I just received 2 great pictures from May bear hunts).

In terms of the blog itself, I’ll post as close to every other day as possible. And I’m looking forward to having a number of guest bloggers who will post opinions, stories, news, and even how-to pieces.

Lastly, feel free to email me! If you have any recipes to send, photos of a hunt to post, announcements, blog discussion topics to suggest—whatever—don’t hesitate to send it to [email protected], and I’ll get it on the site.

That’s it for the moment. If you have any comments on the magazine feature, ideas for the new site, or just want to put in your two cents to help kick off the new blog, feel free to comment below. I’ll sign off with a priceless piece of wisdom I picked up during my research on women hunters: While in the field always remember, “Draggy skirts are an abomination” (see photo)!.

--Kim Hiss