# Women and the passion for hunting



## griffman (Jan 17, 2004)

I know there are a few women die hard hunters out there. What brought out that passion in you? (attention- lvn2hnt and ranger compact!)

Or for the fathers of daughters that hunt--what were some things you did to help your daughters learn to love hunting?

My daughter is now 11 years old and kind of teetering right now. I never push hunting on her, but she's just not overly interested in it. I would love for her to get the feelings I do when out in the field! I know this may never happen, but I want to do everything I can to make it all enjoyable for her!

She decided to take hunters safety this spring (a big step!), but only because a friend of hers will be in the class. I plan on taking the two of them out hunting next fall, hopefully they'll both find the "spirit of the wild"!

She went on her first duck hunt last season and was successful having shot one green wing teal! She had fun, the hunt was fairly short (about 3 hours), she had a good amount of action- fired about 8 rounds. All this......but yet didn't really act too crazy about going out again. She said she liked duck hunting but.......it was too cold!

I asked her several times to go upland hunting, but she refused. She wanted me to get her out of school to go hunting! (the little sh##)

I can understand she wants time with friends etc. that weren't interested in hunting. Maybe I should get her out of class for a couple days next year? What do ya think?

Any advice?

Thanks


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

I agree with her, duck hunting is too cold :lol:

As the father of 4 teen age girls all I can tell you is that they are just as unpredictable as their mothers :lol:

Only one of my four is mildly interested in hunting she has been to ND with me. although the youngest claims to be so that may pan out...
Your best bet try to see if any of her friends have any interest in it and get their dad to go along too, they seem to be happier when they can have a buddy their own age along.

We are not cool enough for them, at least I'm not :wink:


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## Ranger_Compact (Nov 2, 2005)

I first became interested when a younger neighbor boy got a BB gun for his birthday. I went home the second I found out and told my dad I wanted one. Needless to say, we were on our way to Home of Economy to get that BB gun in about ten minutes!  I got the Anniversary Edition Daisy Red Ryder, this was when I was probably 11 years old, in the summer. That fall, my dad took me our dove and duck hunting, letting me use his 16 gauge single shot H & R Topper Model. I kept going duck and goose hunting with him for a few more years. Then three years ago, I didn't get to go hunting at all. Right before duck season opened, I separated my shoulder, and was in an arm sling, so I couldn't shoot. That was also the first year I got a youth deer tag, but I ended up getting mono the weekend we were going deer hunting, and was down and out for over a month. But the best two ways to get your daughter out hunting-get her out of school for a couple days, the boys do it too, it's no big deal-AND-it never hurts to go hunting with or in the same area as a bunch of good-looking young guy hunters. :wink: Another good idea is a properly fitted shotgun. I didn't have much fun when my dad would ask if I wanted to use his 20 gauge, I usually just used the single shot, because it was so small. I'm having a lot more fun going dove/duck/goose hunting now, since my dad bought me a 12 gauge Winchester 1300 Ranger Compact (the youth model) for graduation. You shouldn't have to worry about her growing out of it, because most women never do grow out of a youth model gun. I'm 5'7", and the 12 gauge youth model is even a bit big for me, the 20 gauge fit me much better and was way lighter, but I'm a stubborn norwegian who had to have a big gun like the big boys. :roll:


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## Remington 7400 (Dec 14, 2005)

R_C wrote:



> You shouldn't have to worry about her growing out of it, because most women never do grow out of a youth model gun. I'm 5'7", and the 12 gauge youth model is even a bit big for me, the 20 gauge fit me much better and was way lighter, but I'm a stubborn norwegian who had to have a big gun like the big boys.


The first time my friends wife went squirrel hunting with us she just had to carry a 12 guage, despite both me and him offering her .20 .28 and .16 guage guns from our collections. She fired 7 shots, killed 1 squirrel, and her shoulder was sore for 3 days! Needless to say that the next weekend she was carrying my Remingon 1100 .20 guage, later on she bought herself a youth model 870 .20 guage.

I've got an old Browning A-5 that she really liked, untill my buddy shot if for her, (we wouldn't let her shoot it), needless to say it rocked his world, and scared her to death. (I loaded it with 2 3/4 inch magnum turkey loads to further make my point)

The worst thing you can do is let her shoot a gun that will hurt her, that is why we refused to let her shoot my A-5, I'm 6'1, 250 pounds, and my buddy is 6'4, 260 pounds. We knew if it hurt us, that it would break her 5'6 130 pound frame in half.

Not that I'm knocking Browning, but recoil operated guns are rough, another reason we didn't let her shoot my .20 guage Franchi 48.

However, a pump or gas operated .12 guage, as demonstrated by Ranger is acceptable if your daughter is willing to accept a little more recoil.

Ranger Compact: What kind of ammo do you shoot?


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## griffman (Jan 17, 2004)

Thanks for the responses!



Bobm said:


> I agree with her, duck hunting is too cold :lol:


How did I know you were gonna say that Bob!



Bobm said:


> As the father of 4 teen age girls all I can tell you is that they are just as unpredictable as their mothers :lol:


I was afraid somone was gonna say this!



Bobm said:


> Your best bet try to see if any of her friends have any interest in it and get their dad to go along too, they seem to be happier when they can have a buddy their own age along.


I plan on doing just that. Also plan on some range time this spring. My daughters friend that is taking hunters safety has yet to fire a gun. I've got some plans to change that! The shooting/recoil issue worked out pretty well with my daughter. She (like ranger compact, and most of us) started on the bb gun. Progressed to .22, then I borrowed a buddies youth remington pump 20 ga.. I bought the lightest loads I could find and an expensive (useless) recoil pad. Turned out the little pump with the light loads were not too much for her to handle so I bought her a little Mossberg bantam 20 ga. instead of a gas recoil auto. Spent a few rounds on the paper, some cans, and then some balloons. The balloon thing worked real well. For once the wind in ND was finally good for something!(other than wind mills) I sailed the balloons into the wind and she'd shoot them like clay pigeons. They flew slow and were big targets. Success and confidence were instantly found! She never did want to shoot clays, so we didn't. When duck season came around, I wasn't sure if she could find the proper swing, but she did! Oh yea...that's another trick I slipped in...switching loads only when shooting at the ducks! With her adrenaline rolling, she didn't even notice she was shooting a much heavier load than she had practiced with!



Bobm said:


> We are not cool enough for them, at least I'm not :wink:


Me neither!

Ranger Compact- I think you're right....if it's good enough for the boys to take a day or two off school, it's good enough for my daughter! That's gonna happen next fall. If you weren't so old, she might enjoy hunting with you! HA HA!

The upland hunting thing is a little tricky for me to approach. What do you all think of this idea....I carry her gun for her until the dog goes on point then hand it to her for some shooting? I think this may help take the "work" out of the hunt thus making it more fun. She's 5'1" and about 95 lbs., she's pretty strong, in good shape (avid, aggressive bball player), but it takes a lot of arm strength to lug a gun around for a few hours! The walking shouldn't be too big an issue though.

RC- "a bunch of good looking young guy hunters".....wait a minute here missy...I know what those guys are like. I used to be one....well at least a young guy hunter anyway. I know, I know....it couldn't hurt right? Actually that was part of the plan last season but the young lad couldn't make it. My daughter actually wasn't comfortable with it anyway. She wasn't confident enough with her skills, felt like he'd "laugh" at her and such.

Keep the ideas coming please!

Thanks


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## indsport (Aug 29, 2003)

My wife, all 5'3" and 105 pounds, learned to shoot during her Masters degree in wildlife biology. Fraid I didn't help much, but have taught her to shoot well. We hunted upland birds at least once every weekend of the season. She shoots a Remington youth wingmaster 20, my grandfathers cut down pump 12 for geese, and a Rem 700 mountain rifle in .243 for deer. She has failed to get her deer only once in the last 18 years. She cleans her own game and last year, while we already had taken two deer on Friday afternoon and I had another tag, she took both our deer home,
hung them, finished cleaning them and skinned them. We both help out with our wildlife club youth pheasant hunt and between the two of us, have taken out and introduced over 30 girls to hunting. Contact me off list if you would like some help or have any youth that would like to go hunting or fishing. If not us, one of our club members may help out.


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## Goldy's Pal (Jan 6, 2004)

Our daughter will be 2 next Sept. already  and I spend a lot of my early saturday/sunday mornings at home with her except Oct.-Nov. While letting her mother sleep in, together we watch a lot of the outdoorsy programs and she gets pretty excited. Granted she is pretty young and all kids probably are interested at this point, but I think it is important to do this with her to atleast open the door for her now. I can only hope she continues to follow the path, but heck I know guys I work with who can't even get their boys out for the youth hunts so it isn't just girls who can loose interest at any age. I guess my plan is to get her out to the farms as much as possible and around animals up close to really stimulate. When I come home from a hunt and she isn't along, I talk about the deer, ducks or whatever that I saw up close and what the animals did and what not. I figure a good hunting story always kept my wife interested in my hobby so it might work with the little one as well.  Good luck with it, I think it's a great thing to pass along, especially these days.
:beer:


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## griffman (Jan 17, 2004)

Goldy's Pal said:


> Our daughter will be 2 next Sept. already  and I spend a lot of my early saturday/sunday mornings at home with her except Oct.-Nov. While letting her mother sleep in, together we watch a lot of the outdoorsy programs and she gets pretty excited. Granted she is pretty young and all kids probably are interested at this point, but I think it is important to do this with her to atleast open the door for her now. I can only hope she continues to follow the path, but heck I know guys I work with who can't even get their boys out for the youth hunts so it isn't just girls who can loose interest at any age. I guess my plan is to get her out to the farms as much as possible and around animals up close to really stimulate. When I come home from a hunt and she isn't along, I talk about the deer, ducks or whatever that I saw up close and what the animals did and what not. I figure a good hunting story always kept my wife interested in my hobby so it might work with the little one as well.  Good luck with it, I think it's a great thing to pass along, especially these days.
> :beer:


Ummmm.....Goldy's Pal.....I don't know how to explain this to you....but....in the next 10 years....ummmmm.......nevermind......I'm not gonna wreck your hopes and dreams :lol: :beer:

Your hearts in the right place GP :beer: Gotta love them 2 year olds!


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## ND decoy (Feb 1, 2003)

I have a 3 year old little girl and she got out for a couple of pheasant hunts this year with me also.

The first one this year was a really nice afternoon hunt out at our farm. It was njust the two of us. I told my wife to go and have and afternoon to herself while we went and had so "guy time". She was a little general out there giving her dogs commands. After about 5 minutes the dogs didn't know which way was up. She managed to throw every command she could think of in the first 50 yards. All I can say is that those dogs are lucky she didn't have the remote for the shock collar or the whistle. She even got ****** when we flushed a hen and didn't shoot it. I think her favorite part is sitting on my lap and driving my truck in the farm yard.

When my wife and I started dating I bought her an over and under 12 ga. and had the stock cut to fit her I sure hope one day that our daughter will want ot use it. I have feeling as long as the dogs are there she will go any where they do.

The biggest challenge that I had that was watching my mouth with her around. I had to go from @#$% to bad dog.


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## Lvn2Hnt (Feb 22, 2005)

Sorry I didn't see this post earlier.... and to be honest, I haven't read all the other replys yet, but will when I'm done writing this.

I have to give credit to my mom for getting me into it. When I was really young, about 4-7, BOTH my parents hunted and BOTH my parents would take me out. If we were out deer hunting, they'd let me go kick through some brush patches or dry sloughs, obviously without being armed and only on our posted land. I was already hooked. It was a family thing, a holiday I guess, that opening weekend.

When I was 10, I got right in to hunters saftey, scoring a near perfect score and beating all of the guys in my class, I was the only girl and the youngest student at that time. Immediately afterwards, my parents bought me a used .410 and a few months later a brand spanking new Winnchester 20 gauge youth. After that there was no looking back.

Without going through the whole history I guess my interest came from a desire that I was born with and raised on. If you want to get a kid into hunting, especially a girl you've got to start young. But here are a few givens that I've found through the years:
- It has to be fun, missed shots are no big deal, a trophy is not required and at the end of the day, you have to be able to laugh off mistakes
- It has to be warm - never ever skimp on the quality of equipment for your kids. If it means that you'll be wearing something that isn't the warmest or the top of the line, that should be fine with you. A kid getting cold or wet will certainly deter them from ever going out again.
- Teach them things, don't just assume that they'll pick it up and don't shove it down their throat. Let them ask questions and offer your advice.
- If you're taking out a girl, don't take her out with a bunch of your buddies. We can get easily intimidated especially if we think the other guys are going to laugh. Make a special occasion the first few times when it's just you and her.
- His/her "own something" can make all the difference in the world. Yes, I loved having that gun passed down from generation to generation sort of thing, but nothing will compare to when we went out and bought me my first, my very own, shotgun. With all honesty, I was real close to giving up deer hunting when my parents insisted on me using an old 22-250. Finally I saved up the money to buy a Tikka T3 25-06, I'll take anyone on now. he he he
- Finally, as others have said, the fit of the equipment can make all the difference. I'm 5' 2". Of course I started out with the youth guns, but I started to associate Winchester and "youth and women" guns with being inferior. When I got my 12guage, I couldn't hit anything with it cause my arms just weren't long enough. Thank goodness my ex cared enough that he took me to a gun smith and had my stock cut down and ordered a shorter barrel, very few guys can swing it and hit anything, but I can. Same thing with my rifle, the barrel is the shortest you can get and my stock was carved to my standards - also had a little work done on the trigger, I like to just barely have to skim across it.

Bobm, for most, I agree that waterfowling can be too cold for most teens...but that's what kept me going in hunting. I love it with all my heart and I would rather lay in a frozen field or sit in a wet marsh on a cold wet day than anything. I just wish I had more opportunities to go. I have a little equipment (only 2doz. water deeks and 1 doz. field deeks - couple calls that I need more practice on - an amazing dog that'll do anything for me - and the proper clothes) but I never have anyone to go with. My husband is strictly upland and big game. Get a girl hooked on ducks and geese, you'll wish she would've stuck with ballet or tap :lol:


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## farmerj (Jun 19, 2004)

I started with a wife that would not even allow us to have a gun in the house.

It has changed to the point that on Friday this last week, the wife said she was having problems getting a good sight picture. I took her to a gun shop and she picked out a Youth sized Savage Model 10 package.

Our oldest (12) daughter is the same way. We got her a gun her size and she loves it.

The best times we have had was taking the three of us out deer and squirrel hunting.

But it really depended on finding them guns to fit them, not me.


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## yellar (Nov 26, 2004)

When i started hunting it was with my dad, I started out with a .410 and after that went to went to 20 gauge youth model and then graduated onto 12 gauge with a youth stock put on it, as for rifles 30-30 which i hated and 30-06 now got a 300 wsm. My daughter is 9 and my husband and i have started her out with a .410 and she has her bb gun and 22. Early goose season is pretty warm out, take kids out then or duck hunting in beginning of season in the evening if the weather is right. We don't take her out when its cold out because don't want her hating the cold. Worst part of hunting is when the toes get cold. We go scouting as a family and she feels involved. She drew a turkey tag last year so she got to go out with my old 20 gauge and she really enjoyed it, except the wood ticks, and didn't get her turkey, but she learned alot. With our daughter she is girly girl mixed with a bit of tomboy, so she likes to shop, so we've let her do her own hunting accesory shopping and then she is also involved in her choices, from apparel to duck calls, binoculars. The youth hunting selections have increased from when i was little. When i was young the selection was limited and had to wear a lot of things that were way to big. 
But before taking the kids make darn sure they know how serious handling a gun is! Took my two cousins out pheasant hunting and had to get after the older one because he was walking with the safety OFF. I asked him why he was doing this and he said his dad told him it takes to long to take the safety off and the bird would be out of range. So i went on to tell him that if he was to trip he could shoot me or himself. Kept close eye on him after that! One thing that i do preach is the safety issue, make sure the kids know how to handle the guns and use the equipment properly before throwing them into the sport of hunting. I've been around to many kids and adults that want to hunt and they think that since they have taken hunter safety or own a gun they can hunt, theres more to it than that. Sometimes common sense is left out on the parents part and kids part.


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## Lvn2Hnt (Feb 22, 2005)

yellar> sounds as though she's growing up in the same atmosphere I grew up in. I too was the girl that was a slight mix of a girly girl and tomboy. Sounds like you've done great!


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## Ranger_Compact (Nov 2, 2005)

I know this here suggestion may ruffle some feathers, and you don't have to freak out about it, but I'm just giving it. My dad too used to carry my shotgun when I got tired of walking. (Probably because he thought I would get tired and careless with it and shoot him.) Anyways, after wearing heavy boots walking through fields to go hunting by a slough for ducks or geese, my legs were just dead tired. Some boots can be really heavy to small people, so I went out hunting in a pair of Adidas Superstars. There was frost on the ground and it was a little chilly, but nothing like those heavy boots. I guess you can take or leave this suggestion, because I know it is coming from the girl who wrote a thread about frostbite on her feet. (Which is still extremely painful, I can barely put shoes on or walk steadily anymore, it will be a relief when summer comes, so I can just go barefoot all the time.) I was wearing steel-toed boots when I got the frostbite, just didn't bother putting footwarmers in them before sitting in the tree stand for three and a half hours with melted snow in my boots. Anyways, when I just wore basketball shoes to go walk some sloughs, my feet felt so light, I was out walking everybody. It felt more like I was walking on concrete than through a clumpy dirt field.


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## gooseboy (Sep 13, 2005)

Yea you could just where tennis shoes with wool socks or a polyester under layer sock.


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