Where Women Can Comfortably Step into Hunting

Joy Campbell learned to hunt so she could help feed her family of 10. She grew up on a sheep farm in Southland, New Zealand and hunted with her father and brothers every opportunity she got. Later she moved to Australia, where she chased wild pigs and deer species across the outback. Now as manager of New Zealand Trophy Hunting, she oversees the company’s hunting operations in Central Otago and Canterbury, New Zealand. It’s not just her lifestyle; it’s her profession.

“Hunting is my passion,” she says, “and I love helping women make it their passion too.”

That’s why she connected with the Women Go Hunting community and invites women of all skill levels to come experience the special opportunities available with New Zealand Trophy Hunting. Since she took over management, many of the women who visit them as nonhunting companions have confided in her how they are keen to try hunting themselves but need help stepping out of their comfort zone.

“Many of them are self-conscious about learning while their husbands watch, or they simply feel more comfortable learning from another woman or with a male guide not associated with their husbands,” she says.

Campbell has worked personally with many women clients or provided the right guide to help them overcome inhibitions to handling firearms or hunting with confidence. “There’s a sense of silliness or self-doubt that some women feel when learning to shoot or hunt. We help them get over that,” says Campbell. “I want other women to feel as confident in their hunting abilities as I am.”

Campbell has empowered numerous women clients to go beyond feeling competent at shooting, learning every aspect of hunting, including how to dress their kills, carry them out of the field, and use every part of them. She has proudly taken clients from never having shot a firearm to taking their first red stag during one visit to her operation.

New Zealand Trophy Hunting offers a variety of options and experiences for hunters of all interests and skill sets, including hunts based from two luxury lodges, rustic backcountry cabins or even tent camps in high mountain areas. They offer hunting for trophy red stags, wapiti (elk), fallow deer, tahr, wallaby, goats, and arapawa rams in a 2,500-hectare fenced estate, or free-range hunts on adjacent private land for fallow deer, tahr, wallaby and red stag.

Campbell also has exclusive hunting access to other private properties for free-range red stag, fallow deer, goat, chamois, tahr and pigs. In the Southern Alps, she operates hunts for tahr and chamois, with access by either helicopter or all-terrain vehicles.

“We can cater to whatever hunting style or experience you want in New Zealand,” she says. “I can even combine them, giving you a taste of everything we have to offer. Come experience New Zealand with us.”

New Zealand Trophy Hunts is an SCI Convention exhibitor, and interested hunters can visit Campbell at her booth in Nashville this next February. Send her an email at [email protected] or text her on WhatsApp at +011-64-21-221-6048 to discuss your interests. Check out their website at https://www.newzealandtrophyhunting.com. Remember to let her know you heard about her through Women Go Hunting!