In U.S., Women go Wild for Hunting

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FREEPORT, Maine (Reuters) - It's deer season in Maine and although the hunting department of outdoor retail specialist L.L. Bean is packed, this is no old-boy's club.

Among the aisles of aerosol deer urine and digital duck calls, there are racks of women's clothing in mossy-oak camouflage, as well as plenty of fluorescent hunter orange.

Lined up behind the counter are dozens of guns, many available with a "short-stock" designed to fit more comfortably into women's shorter arms.

That's because an increasing number of women are heading into the woods, becoming one of the most enthusiastic segments of the hunting world.

Take Laura Beth Fowler, an 18-year-old from McKenzie, Tennessee, who took up shooting three years ago and is now a member of one of the few all-girl trap-shooting teams in the country.

With her coach and girls from the team, Fowler loves heading into the wild to shoot birds -- right down to getting out of bed at 4 a.m. and huddling in chilly duck-blinds.

"It's a bunch of fun. And it's just so beautiful, being in the woods," she said.

"During the 1980s, we saw a pretty good increase in women hunting, which flattened out in the 1990s," said Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, a research firm specializing in outdoor recreation trends. "And now there seems to be an increase in the past three or four years."

One recent study by the National Sporting Goods Association estimates more than 3 million women now hunt, accounting for about 16 percent of the nearly 21 million active hunters in the United States.

That translates into big money. The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that Americans spend $2.1 billion on firearms and ammunition each year.

The study, which covered 2001 to 2005, found that 2.4 million women hunted with firearms in 2005, up 72 percent from 2001. Fifty percent more are target shooting, while the number of women bow-hunters has grown 176 percent to 786,000.


The fastest-growing age groups are women aged 18 to 24, followed by those aged 35 to 44.

HUNTING TO RELAX

For some, the appeal is strictly social since hunting offers a woman a way to spend time with a husband, boyfriend or brother who already hunts.

For others, including Fowler, who doesn't come from a family of hunters and doesn't particularly like hunting with her boyfriend, it's a way to relax with friends, get closer to nature and develop a new skill.

Driving the trend, Duda said, are programs like those organized by the National Rifle Association that make it easier for women to get involved. The NRA's Women on Target division offers such events as a $500 two-day deer hunt in Texas.

The National Wild Turkey Federation, through its Women in the Outdoors group, organizes local one- and two-day hunting expeditions, and skeet shooting events geared just for women.

Freeport, Maine-based L.L. Bean and Manchester, Vermont-based retailer Orvis also put on women-only introductory shooting programs, and both report fast-growing demand.

Another factor is a rise in the number of women involved in all-outdoor recreation -- from camping to kayaking.

But the trend surprises many, since women are more likely than men to find sport hunting cruel.

"Women have long formed the backbone of the humane movement," said Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the United States, adding that women account for 70 percent of his group's 10 million members.

While the Humane Society (cj's note - it's NOT the HS!) does not campaign against all forms of hunting, it does focus on practices it considers particularly unethical, such as "canned hunting," where hunters pay to shoot animals that have been confined, bear-baiting or use of steel-jawed traps.

Many women hunters seem as enamored with the scenery as they are with the hunt.

"I just love anything that gives me the chance to be outdoors," said Stephanie Mallory, who works in marketing and public relations for several hunting manufacturers, and lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

"This weekend, I was up in a deer stand and I got to watch three otter playing in a pond right next to me. I feel very lucky. Not many people get to experience wildlife so close."

Helga Cotta, 57, from South China, Maine, said: "Hunting season is like my vacation. It's so solitary, you can leave all your problems at home and just go out and watch the woods come alive around you in the morning."

While Cotta has been hunting for decades, she said it's a sport that guarantees constant new challenges.

And of course, unlike other outdoor sports, hunting can resolve the occasional "what's-for-supper" dilemma.

Said Peggy Long, a die-hard hunter and general manager of Orvis' Sandanona, New York, Wingshooting School: "It's just so rewarding to be able to go to your freezer and have stuff you shot on hand for dinner."