The hunting camp is no longer just for the guys. It seems each fall as the leaves begin changing and the temperatures begin to cool that more and more ladies are making their way into the great outdoors. These ladies are climbing their way into deer stands with gun or bow in hand and are being very successful in their efforts.  Past history would find males gathering the food while females found themselves occupied with domestic chores; however, this social schematic is changing rapidly. Women are the fastest growing population of hunters with their participation in the hunting world advancing by leaps and bounds. 

I’ve had the opportunity to discuss with several ladies exactly what got them interested in hunting. The two reasons that are repeated time and time again are that they “grew up in a hunting family” or that their boyfriend or husband hunted and they “started getting involved to spend more time with their significant other.”  In many instances it was either learn to hunt in order to spend time with their hunting spouse or be left at home. Combine those answers to the fact that the hunting camp is becoming a “social gathering place” after the hunt is over and it comes to no surprise that more women are donning camouflage.
 

The Face of a Huntress

Shirby Evans of Jonesville, LA with her Adams County, MS 9-point killed during muzzleloader season.

My Mother-in-law, Shirby Evans, is as die-hard of a hunter as anyone I can think of.  Shirby grew up in a hunting family with both her brothers and her sister sharing a love for the outdoors. For the most part, she only hunted small game such as squirrels and an occasional raccoon in the darkness of the night. That all changed in 1995 when she and her husband Davey joined a hunting lease in Mississippi. Wanting to spend time with her husband, Shirby took to the woods in search of her first whitetail and was successful in killing a very nice nine point and a doe that season. The following year found her in the stand in early October with a bow in her hand. The very first hunt that she made with her compound bow ended with her arrowing a six point. It didn’t take long for “whitetail fever” to consume Shirby, and a deer hunter was born. Since those first hunts in the mid ‘90s Shirby’s been on several “Ladies Only” bow hunts to Giles Island and Tara Wildlife in Mississippi. This 2009 hunting season will find her and a group of ladies hunting in Kentucky in early October and chasing bucks in the Midwest state of Illinois during the November rut.