Odd News

Women go wild for hunting

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-11-25 11:06

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.

woman carries a turkey on a hunting expedition in an undated file photo. An increasing number of women are heading into the woods, becoming one of the most enthusiastic segments of the hunting world. [Reuters]

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.

Fowler is not alone. The number of women hunters in the United States is on the rise.

"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."