Category hunting

Hunter Identity, by Katie McKalip

Katie McKalip

I was paying for my new shotgun, several years ago in a sporting good store, when it hit me.

Hunting had become part of my identity. But I wasn’t sure exactly how it happened.

Growing up, I had few opportunities to get afield, even though both my parents came from hunting and fishing families. And my upbringing in the suburbs of a city that severely restricted personal firearms ownership was hardly one that celebrated sporting pursuits.    

But then I moved out west after college and had the good fortune to fall for a man who appreciated public lands and open spaces and opening weekends of various game species. I started going hunting, with him and then with other friends, for deer and elk and waterfowl but mostly upland birds...

Wondering what to get your sportswoman this Valentine’s Day? Flowers are nice, but we bet you can be a little more original. We’ve got you covered! Check out these goodies for some ideas:

(Clockwise from top left): The Cadillac of lady waterfowl jackets from Drake Waterfowl | Earrings with a bang | The most complete modern how to cookbook (Afield by Jesse Griffiths) for wild game and fish | And last but not least, don’t forget to keep her warm with Hotties

Katniss Everdeen is inspiring young girls to try archery. (Photo from IMDB.com)

A series of news articles (such as here, here and here) report that The Hunger Games movie series, among some other popular shows, have contributed to an uptick of young girls learning archery.

John Shappel teaches at Tri-State Archery in Dubuque in Iowa was quoted in THOnline.com saying:

“Most of the new archers I’ve seen myself are young ladies,” said Shappell, who is on the Dubuque Field Archers board of directors. “Most of the younger girls, say 13 and down, are looking to get into sport. They’ve seen ‘Hunger Games,’ and say, ‘Yeah, I have to go and shoot archery.'”

As it seems we most often hear of negative effects of popular culture, we say this comes as welcome news...

Peggy Sundstrom

Seduced to Hunt

It’s true.  I was seduced to become a hunter more than 25 years ago, and not in the way you might think.  While I had fallen in love with an avid waterfowl hunter whose passion for the sport intrigued me, I was not, in fact, seduced to the hunt by him, but by my first taste of bacon-wrapped teriyaki duck.

I grew up in an urban household with a focus on outdoor activities, including camping, backpacking, fishing and other such avocations, but not hunting.  The closest I had come to game was at a restaurant that served delicious, but certainly not wild, meat (think farmed venison or boar).  I was an enthusiastic cook, but I hadn’t given much consideration to harvesting my own meat...