Reader Amanda Krupp sent me this story of her first hunting experience. I thought it was a nice tale of rookie triumph, and figured I’d share it on the blog. Here’s Amanda! –K.H.

      I was raised in a family that never invited the females to hunt, so I was excited when my new boyfriend invited me up to his cottage for his friends' annual grouse hunt. I had always been friends with guys and had never gone hunting before, so I never thought twice about attending (or in the friends' mind, invading) a traditionally all-male hunting/bonding weekend. I'm sure most of you can guess that I wasn't warmly welcomed. I walked in first to the cabin and none of the guys even raised their head fully to acknowledge me, let alone to greet me. That first night was filled with drinking and games, none of which I was invited to participate in.
      The next morning we headed out for our first hunt. Everyone hunted in groups of 4-5 people and walked in a line through the woods. As I had only shot a shotgun once, and was trying to figure everything out, I found the safety concerns and trying to stay in the appropriate line very distracting. No one shot a thing. So when we returned for lunch I grabbed a sandwich and said I was heading out on my own for a while and would meet them at the trailhead when they arrived. No one even bothered to look my way.
      I grabbed the shotgun and the pickup and headed to the trail. I wasn't sure exactly what to do, but I found that being alone allowed me to really get connected with my surroundings. Three times I could actually sense where the grouse was before it took off, but of course, the first two times (being a novice shooter) I tried to fire without taking the safety off. The third time the bird flew up, I shot it, and it fell. Looking back later, I'm lucky it died instantly because I would have had no idea what to do if it were still alive!
      No one expected me to hit anything, so I wasn't given any carrying device, so I shoved it in the large side pocket of my army pants. As I didn't know how long meat could last outside of the refrigerator, I took of at a run down the trail. Of course I had to stop and walk slowly (a.k.a. coolly) when I saw all the guys loading their guns at the trailhead. Only one guy was nice enough to lift his head and ask the requisite question "Did ya get anything?" All heads popped up in surprise when I said "yeah," as no one had shot anything all day. Another guy, speaking for the rest, who didn't really believe me, said "Show me!" I proceeded to pull out of my pocket what was apparently a very large grouse.
      From that moment on, my status turned 180 degrees from a nuisance female to "one of the guys."  That night I enjoyed being offered beers and was honored every time as the first person picked for games. I'm in!! –Amanda Krupp

     Paula Smith of Hop Bottom, PA! Paula has been posting more and more thoughtful comments over the past few weeks, and brought a lot to our discussions (as have many people!). Paula will be receiving a FatBoy Lite cushion, courtesy of Hunt Comfort to enjoy on her upcoming turkey adventures.

     The giveaway goes on (although, with so many thoughtful discussions, the gear-getters are becoming impossible to single out!), so look for another winner next Friday. –K.H.

      One of our recent gear winners, Tracy, just emailed me a discussion topic idea. She said:

      Darn it! I'm already addicted to hunting, do I really need to become addicted to blogging about hunting?

      Then she suggested we talk about:

      Bad habits. For example, I have been repeatedly accused of violating all sacred scent control laws. I try, I really do, but I'm guilty of cross-hunting my wardrobe and have gotten lectured for wearing my “deer bibs” on a very cold rabbit hunt (or worse - a pheasant hunt with the dogs!). Tips? Experiences? Ideas? Anyone tried the at-home scent control pointers in F&S (was it October or September maybe?)

      I'm going to expand Tracy’s topic by talking about hunting habits in general — good, bad, whatever. We’ve been touching on the subject a little lately anyway. Dana mentioned reading a romance novel in her ground blind, and ANewMe2B said she’s been known to listen to audio books and work on her grocery list. 
      For myself, I’ll admit to the habit of eating all my food way too early. It’s a silly weakness, but if there’s a snack close at hand — from an apple to a fun-size Snickers — half of my brain is always on the food. Little tricks like hiding it in an unlikely pocket so I don’t find it until later, or packing more food than I need so it will last longer just don’t work. My stomach is onto all my ploys, and no matter what, at some point way too early in the day, I’ll look in my bag and not believe that every single wrapper is already empty. Pathetic.
      As long as I’m at it, I’ll admit to another one. I pack too much. Way, way too much. I’ve attempted to scale back, but it’s not easy, considering my un-killable impulse to prepare for every possible scenario — even if it would take a rift in the very fabric of reality to occur. I’m better than I used to be, though. On my first hunt, for whatever reason, I put two brand new boxes of ammo in my day pack. I have no idea what I thought I was going to do with 40 some rounds in a 9-hour period, but I didn’t know what a day in the field would be like, and wanted to be prepared. I chalk that one up to a rookie mistake. 
      Good habits include my self discipline. I was raised Roman Catholic, and thanks to a particular Sunday school teacher who shall remain nameless, I’m very good at sitting still when I need to. Aches, stiffness, cold — I manage to suffer through it all without incident.
      So what’s the good, bad, or just plain ordinary of your hunting behavior? And I’m not just talking about habits in camp or in the blind. Off the field, do you buy more gear than you necessarily need? Or maybe find yourself telling the same hunting stories a hundred times (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
     It would be great to hear there are other scent-control violators out there like Tracy, or over-packers like me (maybe together we can convince ourselves that those three extra pairs of socks can stay home).—K.H.   

     There are plenty of villains in the sporting world. Anti-hunting activists, wrong-headed policy-makers, PETA members, poachers - it's easy to find people who give other hunters grief or hunting itself a bad name. Think about those negative influences too much, and it's hard not to worry about the future of the sport.
     So in the spirit of focusing on the positives, who are the heroes in your hunting life? Specifically the women you've met who have had a positive impact on your field career. Maybe a female guide taught you a great deal. Or a fellow sportswoman turned into the world's best hunting partner. Or perhaps a mother, friend, or workshop leader got you into hunting in the first place?
     I know I've grown from the experience and plain old enthusiasm of plenty of females I've met along the way. I can think of women in the outdoors industry and female guides whose knowledge and passion definitely helped me grow as a hunter. Although I personally don't know any one woman who's had an overwhelming impact on my own hunting life, I've spoken to other people who credit mothers, friends, and even daughters with having a great influence on theirs.
     So, from public figures to hunting mentors to your best friend in the field - who's your hunting hero? -K.H.

      Two winners again! Both of these women are long-time contributors to the blog, who have added even more in the last two weeks. I’ve been meaning to name one of them as a winner for awhile, and when I couldn’t decide—once again—which to choose, I figured I’d spread the wealth and announce both today. (Okay, okay, I’ll come clean and admit I’m clinically indecisive—it’s one of my worst faults. You should see me scrutinizing blog comments every week to pick a gear recipient—it takes forever for me to decide!)
      So first is Lou Alexander of Wichita, Kansas. Yes, today turned out to be Lou Alexander Day. She’s been reading the blog from the beginning—providing recipes, commenting, and before the blog was located on the F&S home page, she wrote letting us know it was too hard to find. Lou will be getting a Big Foot camo bag courtesy of Big Foot (it’s a great, tough cargo bag. I have one too).
      Second is Dana Von Haden from Wisconsin! We know her as Wild WoodsWoman, and she too has been contributing a lot to the blog, including that great recent discussion topic on hunting in the work place. Conveniently enough, Dana also chose the Big Foot camo bag.
      The giveaway goes on, so look for another winner next week. –K. H.

Reader Lou Alexander and her husband just returned from a Wyoming elk hunt, and she sent me the update below. The photo she included of this uncooperative pack horse is pretty great! –K. H.
      
      It was a great trip, but the weather was horrible. The elk weren't moving all week. The wind started to blow the first morning of the hunt, it snowed, the wind then really blew, it rained, did I mention the wind blew, and it snowed some more. We were in beautiful country. I got to ride horses five out of eight days. How can you feel discouraged when sitting on a beautiful mountain meadow, looking at a high country lake with bald eagles flying around you?! We'll get one next time.
      We met some characters in camp, and there was another female hunter. She was with her husband who was hunting elk. She had taken her first antelope earlier in the week and came to enjoy the hunt with him, so she went out just for fun. I enjoyed a camp with other women in it—usually I'm the only one.
      The picture if of our guide/outfitter the morning we were riding out (in a foot a fresh snow). The pack horse didn't want to cross the stream, as you can see. -Lou

     Back in the summer of 2005, I met a woman from Keg River, Alberta. She said the upcoming season would be challenging because she’d be hunting while 4 months pregnant. I said, wow, that’s really interesting.
      I was still relatively new to the field and had never heard of a woman hunting while expecting. But I figured with the number of sportswomen out there (the National Sporting Goods Association was counting 2.5 million at the time) the issue had to come up on occasion.
      Curious, I called Karen Lee of Women in the Outdoors (I know, I mention Karen all the time), who offered to forward an email to her network of outdoorswomen, asking if anyone was hunting while pregnant that year. I wasn’t sure if I’d hear anything back.
      Long story short, by October I’d talked with 20 moms-to-be who were taking their rifles into the woods that season. They ranged in age from 22 to 39, in profession from attorney to game warden, and in stage of pregnancy from first to third trimester. Their stories — which included that of an 8-month-pregnant Idaho woman hunting elk with a muzzleloader — had a lot of similarities. They were all passionate hunters, who weren’t going to let a pregnancy keep them home for an entire season. They were also responsible moms, who’d talked with their doctors about the advisability of hunting while pregnant, and the measures they should take to do so safely. A number of them expressed their belief that the fresh air and exercise they got through hunting was of great benefit to their babies, and many reported feeling the fetus move more when they were sitting quietly in a tree stand than at any other time.
      I’ve kept in touch with a number of those women, and just last week followed up with 3 of them so I could share their updated stories on the blog.

      Amy Tucker is a pharmaceutical sales rep from Greenwood, South Carolina, and she was one of the  first and most enthusiastic pregnant hunters I found (that's her with the binoculars). Back in November 2005, she was 30 years old and expecting her first son that February (she got a kick out of telling people the due date was perfectly timed between winter deer season and spring turkey season). She invited me to come on a weekend whitetail hunt with her and a friend who was also hunting while pregnant. Amy had talked to her doctor beforehand, and made safety the first priority by shortening the times she spent in the field and taking extra care when walking rough terrain or climbing into a box blind. No deer that weekend, but the energy and relaxation Amy gained from her hunt made it more than worthwhile.
      Now her son Trent Laylon is 20 months old, and he’s sure to learn from his mom’s hunting career, which has recently involved working with JAKES and getting a nice Rio last spring.

     Michelle Schaefers is a district conservationist from Lone Rock, Iowa. In December 2005 she was 4 1/2 months along, and didn’t know if she felt up to hiking the rough terrain in her area. But Michelle’s uncertainty vanished when she heard that a pregnant friend would be deer hunting a week before her own December due date. Encouraged, Michelle headed out on a 15-degree day and killed an 8-point buck — the largest she’d ever taken.
      A healthy Clayton Patrick was born that Feb., and Michelle reports that these days he and his older brother love the outdoors. One of Clay's first sentences was “Daddy outside!”

      In November 2005, Florida hunter Amanda Pippin was six months pregnant with her third child during her family’s annual hunt on their Georgia deer lease. Amanda is part-owner of High Maintenance Camo, a women’s gear company that she co-founded in 2004. That fall was her first experience hunting while pregnant, and a day in the field wasn’t what she was used to. She only got decaf at 5:00 a.m., depended on her sons to tie her boots (she couldn't reach them otherwise), and wore her husband’s XXL hunting clothes. Wyatt Earl is now 19 months old and a natural in the outdoors.

      These stories held an interest for me that went well beyond the shock value of picturing a pregnant woman with a gun. Not to get too lofty, but my fascination involved a kind of poetic element — the duality of taking life through hunting while giving life through pregnancy.
      Always one to go overboard on matters that interest me, I started researching any historical mentions of women hunting while pregnant. I ended up finding the strongest ties in the tales of the goddess of hunting. Called Artemis by the Greeks and Diana by the Romans, she carried a quiver and bow, and was a skillful administer of death. But she was also the patroness of child birth, and by helping her mother deliver her brother Apollo, became associated with the nurturing of new life.
      Artemis was accompanied in the wood by a band of nymphs, all of whom had taken a vow of chastity. But one poor nymph, Callisto, was seduced by Zeus in disguise and became pregnant by him. The young huntress tried to conceal her swelling abdomen, but Artemis angrily discovered her condition. Callisto gave birth to a boy, and — though versions of the story vary — the tale ends with her being sent to the sky as the constellation Ursa Major, with her son following as Ursa Minor.
      Considering these stories — from arguably the first pregnant hunter on record, to the experiences of Amy, Michelle, and Amanda — the notion of hunting while expecting doesn’t sound as surprising as it did a few years ago. In fact, in the 2007 F&S Women Hunters Poll, 25% of respondents said they had hunted during a pregnancy — a higher number than I'd expected.
      So what’s your take? Have you hunted during a pregnancy, or know anyone else who has? If so, what were your experiences? If not, what do make of the whole thing? –K.H. 

Tracy Kidd of Toledo, Ohio! Tracy (known to us as, well, Tracy), has been adding long, thoughtful comments to just about every recent post. She’ll be receiving a pair of Realtree Girl cargo pants from Realtree (I was actually tempted to keep them myself, but then I guess it wouldn’t be much of a giveaway). Anyway, congrats, Tracy! 

The giveaway goes on, so look for another winner next week –K.H. 

I admit, I don’t watch a whole lot of hunting shows on TV. (Actually, apart from recently re-discovering Northern Exposure on DVD, I’ve been watching less TV of late in general.) But I seem to be in the minority. In the 2007 Field & Stream Women Hunters Poll I keep referencing, 80% of respondents said they watched hunting shows on television.
      Well, F&S recently got a press release on a new program. It’s called The Girls Outdoors, it premiered in August, and it’s scheduled for Saturdays at 6:30 a.m. EST on the Great American Country network. The creator/producer/host is Jennifer Wysocki, an all-around outdoorswoman who lives in Midway, Ga (talk about hunting and the workplace!).
      I was curious, and emailed Jennifer to find out more about the show. Episodes feature professional guides, provide wild game recipes, give GPS coordinates for recommended hunting spots, and include excursions like dove hunting along the Rio Grande and bow fishing in the Louisiana Bayous. Here’s some of what Jennifer emailed back for the blog.
      “It is time to get back outside! It is time for us to show our families how to enjoy nature. It is time to turn off our blackberry and excuse ourselves from our hectic schedules for one morning each Spring as we listen to nature wake up bird by bird—first the morning birds, then the owls cooing from the trees, followed by the crashing down of the turkeys as they leave their nest to come find us calling them from our blind. Then we can invite our family to join us for a turkey fry in our backyard!
      We are women filled with beauty and grace and we love to smile! So ladies, let’s reinvent “bringing home the bacon.” Let’s get outside, get dirty, be beautiful, and have fun!”
      So how about this show, if any of you have happened to catch it? Or, more to the point, how about hunting shows in general? Which ones do you like, and which are so obnoxious they make you fear for the future of the sport? And what do you think of the women out there hosting some of them? (Again, I’m not a frequent viewer, but names like Tiffany Lakosky of Scent-Lok’s Gettin’ Close come to mind.) I have to admit, the short segments of the few shows I’ve caught have been a bit of a turnoff—maybe I just haven’t sat down to the right programs yet? –K.H.

First of all, those are some great comments on pink guns-and on Karen Lee's Support System post. I got back from being away and couldn't believe how much the blog was buzzing!
So here's another topic. Awhile back, reader Dana (known to us and her own blog regulars as The Wild Woodswoman), wrote and suggested a blog topic on hunting in the work place. It's a great idea, and I'm only sorry it took me so long to get around to posting it.
Of course, working at Field & Stream, hunting is part of the job description, not just some extracurricular bonus. Editors are expected to get out in the field as much as possible, and if they're not, something's wrong. When I first started my job there as a new hunter, there were a number of days when mornings were spent at a local club working on my shooting with deputy editor David E. Petzal, and afternoons were spent in the office. Nice. And of course, all off-site meetings have a huge fishing or shooting (or both!) component.
But, obviously, not all bosses expect their employees to hit the woods on a regular basis. It seems we all know women who find it very hard to get away for a hunt, and fight prejudice from co-workers and the limits of vacation time to get out there.
This topic goes for everyone-whether your job is field-related, or you're stuck at a cubicle in a center city high rise all day, or your work place is at home. Is it a shock for co-workers to find out that you hunt? Or maybe it was a co-worker who got you into hunting in the first place? Does your work schedule make it hard to hunt? Or are you one of those lucky people who can fit a few field hours in before even starting your day? Whatever the case, how well do your hunting and your work lives mesh? -K.H.