Girls, Guns & Game

Shoot Like A Girl and Beretta Create a Hunting Experience Like No Other, and How to Do the Same for Your Friend or Family Member.

Waterfowl hunters will tell you there’s nothing like the peacefulness of sitting in a blind, waiting for first light. There’s a hush as the world inhales and holds its breath after the mad dash out of camp and the rush to set decoys before the calling starts and the hunting begins. It’s a time full of potential, of hope. You might snap a quick photo of the sun beginning to rise, or murmur to your neighbor sitting next to you, but there will be a moment where you can do nothing but watch the lightening of the landscape surrounding you and feel your soul lighten with it.

Last November, all this was only theory to me. While I’ve always known hunters, my own outdoors experience was limited. I learned to use guns in my adult life for self-defense and competition, not hunting. Shoot Like A Girl and Beretta changed that, and me, when they invited me to the 2022 Hunt Like A Girl Waterfowl Hunt at Rocky Creek Retrievers – Team Waterfowl near El Campo, Texas. In less than a week, I was transformed from someone who had a vague idea of what went into hunting game to a woman who had gone into the field, shot wild ducks, processed the meat, took it home, and cooked it herself. You can apply the lessons I learned to introduce newbies to hunting as well.

This was my journey, but I had a lot of help along the way, starting with the team at Shoot Like A Girl. Shoot Like A Girl was created by Karen Butler “to grow the number of women who participate in the shooting sports by empowering them with confidence.” They’re perhaps most well-known for their semi-tractor trailer that travels the country and have given tens of thousands of women the opportunity to try their first bows, pistols, and rifles in a safe, low pressure, and supportive environment. In 2021, after a dozen years of teaching women how to shoot, the Hunt Like A Girl program was launched as a next step, to empower women through hunting trips. The Waterfowl Hunt closed out a successful first year, creating a diverse group of women now excited and prepared to go out on their own hunts. I was fortunate to be one of them.

The key to Hunt Like A Girl is that it’s an all-female, all-inclusive experience that guides participants along every step of the way. As a non-hunter, the amount of gear and knowledge that seems to be required to get into the sport is intimidating. No matter how many articles I read, podcasts I listened to, videos I watched, or people I talked to, there was still mystery on how to acquire everything I needed for a successful hunt. Part of it was that there are some things that are just learned best in person, like the mystical process of actually locating game animals. Another part of it was that many lifelong hunters were well meaning but forgot what it was like to be absolutely new, so they assumed a certain level of background knowledge. With the help of their own staff and corporate partners like Beretta, Shoot Like A Girl was able to set up each woman on the hunts with absolutely everything they needed. All we had to do was show up with a willingness to learn. What they provided was a checklist of how to make a first hunt successful and inspiring for anyone.

Logistics

Hunt Like A Girl took care of everything for us, from travel arrangements to arranging educational opportunities. Because we didn’t have to worry so much about the details, we could focus on our part: soaking up everything we could learn about the core activities of waterfowl hunting. Next time, we’ll have to fill in those gaps, but having already been exposed to all of the key parts of the process, from transportation to working with guides to the actual acts of successfully shooting game, retrieving it, and preparing it to be eaten. They made sure we were included in everything we wanted to be, and that we didn’t miss important bits for this trip and our next. Doing the same for the new hunter you’d like to support can help them be a little less nervous, allowing them to enjoy the experience instead of stressing about whether they’re forgetting something.

Gear

Cost is a factor in any new endeavor, but even harder is figuring out what all of that money should be spent on. It’s hard to know what’s necessary, where a little splurging is called for, and the things that can be skimped on or that you don’t need at all. Then, there’s the fear that you won’t enjoy hunting after all or discover that what you thought was perfect wasn’t at all. For this hunt, we were outfitted literally from head to toe, removing all of that worry. We were also taught why each piece was needed, and what it would do in our hunt and future ones. Personal advice and instruction about fit and function made an enormous difference, especially when it came to the Beretta shotguns we were lent and coached on by Diane Sorantino, champion shotgun shooter and captain of Team Beretta. Lending specialty equipment and providing a detailed, curated list of what to bring — perhaps along with a team shopping mission — can have a similar effect for the friend or family member you want to get into hunting.

Mentors

Some people, like me, didn’t grow up hunting and have had few or no friends who were hunters. We may know a couple hunters but, for whatever reason, be shy about asking them for the low-down on all things hunting. We may feel like we’re imposing if we ask them to actually go through with an off-handed invitation to get out into the field. Hunt Like A Girl solved that here by including experienced waterfowl hunters as mentors to the rest of the group, who ranged from women with less direct waterfowl experience, experience only with other kinds of game, experience only with shooting, to no experience at all. The mix allowed us all to learn from each other, without the newer ones among us feeling like we were being annoying because the group was specifically put together to allow us to observe and learn. To get the same effect for the new hunter you’d like to encourage, you should be explicit and direct about your willingness to be a role model, leader, and mentor, and provide ample opportunities for the questions to come up naturally.

Knowledge

In addition to having a group of mentors available to us, Hunt Like A Girl also made it clear that there were no stupid questions. Besides simply saying so, they also proactively taught us when we might have been too embarrassed to ask anyway. For instance, if we barely knew the head of a duck from its tail, we could watch harvested ones being processed and were invited to jump in if we wanted to try — no judgment for doing it poorly, because it’s a skill and you have to start somewhere. Even our chef was openly interested in learning new processing tips and tricks from our guides, providing a role model of always being willing to learn more about seemingly basic areas of knowledge, even as she turned around and expertly showed us some simple preparations for the game we’d harvested. Being proactive about providing information is a step beyond inviting questions, which will help your hunting-curious friend learn with less shame that they’re behind or dumb in some way.

Memories

It’s no surprise that a trip like this would make lifelong memories, but part of what Hunt Like A Girl did was help create and preserve them for us so that we could focus on being present in each moment. We participated in communal meals and other activities, enjoying the wonder of the scenery around us and the joy of the hunt. Mentors provided guidance if we wanted to taxidermy any of the waterfowl we harvested. We were led through a craft project to create a special memento of our trip. A designated photographer and videographer were invited along to record small and large pieces of each day. It wasn’t just a matter of being given memorable moments to experience but having tangible souvenirs to take home and remind us of those mornings in the blind and afternoons and evenings at camp. When you take your friend into the field with you, make an effort to do the same for them. Having those fond memories at hand will remind and inspire them to get back out there and hunt again.

Calling the Hunt Like A Girl experience life-changing seems trite, but I can’t think of another way to describe it. It’s not just adding the nuts and bolts of hunting to what I know so that I no longer feel at sea, too shy about my ignorance to tag along with another hunt. It’s not just having most of the equipment and personal gear I need to get out into the field again, so that I’m likely to do so. It’s the confidence that comes from having taken on a challenge and finding that, yes, I can conquer it. It’s the satisfaction of having taken a game animal from sky to fork, being personally responsible for my food at every step. It’s the serenity that comes from sitting with nature and feeling the pieces of myself click into place with it: woman, hunter, carnivore. And you can help do the same for your family or friends.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Carnivore Magazine Issue 8.

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