Women in Hunting

"About 7 years ago, I was dating a guy who liked to hunt and would take me on public land whitetail and waterfowl hunts. When a co-worker who was an avid hunter, heard that I was hunting, he then taught me how to use a bow and a climbing tree stand and suburban whitetail hunt. I hunted 5 does that season.

The next spring, my co-worker suggested that I go to Alberta and hunt black bears with a guide friend of his. I had never seen so much wildlife. I hunted two good -sized black bears. My co-worker then suggested that I should go the following fall to hunt mountain goats in Prince William Sound on a boat-based hunt. Prince William Sound was the most awesome place I had ever been. I had never hiked up rocks or shot distances much beyond 200 yards. I hiked up and missed the first goat, which was a big billy. I was very sore but hiked up again and hunted a smaller billy. When I got home, I was hooked on hunting. I promised myself to become a better hiker and shooter. I enrolled in long-distance shooting classes and started competing in local long-distance competitions. All of the guys were very supportive of me and helped me learn. In the next couple of years, I hunted moose, bears, whitetail, antelope, aoudad, waterfowl and axis deer. I then decided to hunt dall sheep. I have since been on three dall sheep hunts in the Yukon and Northwest Territories and was successful twice. My co-worker suggested that I look at hunts through Cabelas/World Wide Trophy Adventures. I looked at the Cabelas website and there was an advertisement for a bezoar ibex hunt in Turkey. I am then on a plane to Turkey. Everyone in Turkey was very kind and encouraging to me and even wanted their pictures with me and my ibex. I then toured around Turkey, which has very ancient history combined with picturesque country.

Now I travel as often as possible to hunt - across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Spain, France, Macedonia, Slovenia, Zambia and more to come. I can shoot reliably past 500 yards and really enjoy hunting and shooting with all of my good friends, who I have met in the last 7 years. Has been some amazing adventures with hopefully many more to come. SCI is important to me because I believe in hunting for conservation. I have seen it in action in many places." -Barbara Solow

"I grew up in rural Montana and started hunting as a young child with my father. I've been hunting my entire life. Hunting always has and always will be a huge part of who I am. Now that I have a child, I'm eager to introduce him to the world of hunting.

A few years ago I decided to physically challenge myself and chase aoudad in Texas Hill Country on foot. I convinced a fellow SCI member to accompany me up and down miles upon miles of cactus-filled hills in search of a large aoudad. Growing up in Montana, I was skeptical that those Texas hills would be challenging, but boy were they exhausting! We saw large herds of sheep, but they were always too far away to get a good shot, and too many eyes would catch us before we could get within 400 yards. After a full day of the aoudad eluding us, we crested one last hill and there he was - a lone mature ram not even 40 yards away. I instantly dropped prone and pulled the trigger, not even wasting a second to dial down my scope. The aoudad dropped and my quest had ended. I couldn't decide if I was more grateful to have had a successful hunt, or that I no longer had to hike those hills in the Texas heat!

No other organization protects the rights of hunters the way SCI does. Without SCI fighting for our rights, hunting in this country - and internationally - would look much differently. I'm looking forward to passing on my hunting heritage to my young son, thanks to the efforts of SCI.

As a 36-year-old female, I'm not who people think of when they envision the typical SCI member. However, I've found SCI to be a very inclusive group of diverse hunters. I've made countless friends in this organization and I'm proud of the efforts that I've been a part of in helping SCI continue to protect the rights of hunters and conserve wildlife across the globe." -Stephanie Hickey