Becoming Bowhuntress

The desire to hunt has always been in my blood, although I have not always hunted. As a young child, a little girl, I was not allowed. I was raised in a family of four with my mom, dad, and younger brother in southern Ohio up an ole dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I was surrounded by cousins, lots of cousins, and all of them boys. Hunting was all around me. Yet it was far from me at the same time, I could only dream of it; because I was a girl!
Girls did not hunt in my family. They were given doll babies, and purses. All the things I did not like, yet received anyway. I much would have rathered played with my brothers guns and trucks and I did when he would allow it or when he was not looking, I also cut the hair from my baby dolls and let them drive. I was not going to let someone tell me that girls could not.
When touch football was being played in the yard I asked to join, and I was allowed although it quickly was switched to tackle in the gravel. I was threatened to not tell or I was not allowed to play again. Football quickly changed to war at the “sandpile” with BB guns that shot little plastic bb’s but they were not enough. We had an older cousin and he could get real BB’s and so he did. We wanted a real war, we weren’t sissies! I quickly became the target as I ran from boulder to boudler and dove beneath the tunnels we had carved by hand. I dodged bullets and rocks with all my might knowing that at any moment I would be a casuality of this great “Justice Road War”. Alas my time had come, just as Forrest Gump felt something jump up and hit him as he was running so did I, a sting to my backside as I dove to take cover. I had been hit.
We stopped playing for the day, and I never told anyone of my war wound. I knew if I did I would never be able to play again. I would be labeled a “cry baby” a “sissy” and worst of all a “girl”. It was several years later when I went to join the Army and had to have xrays that the BB showed up and I had to confess.
Joining the Army at 18 was my way of showing my friends and family that I was not some fragile female. I was just as strong and capable as anyone else. I was small framed and tiny, no one thought I would make it. There were bets on how long I would last, but I had determination, I had willpower, and I knew what they did not, I knew I had heart!
The Army taught me so many things. Not only to shoot, but to have self respect and confidence, which are important characteristics to have when you handle a firearm. I learned to respect the weapon as much as my self , to control it and make it do what I wanted it to, not to let it control me. So many poeple have misconceptions of weapons because they fear them and allow the weapon to control them. This is how accidents happen.
After being discharged from the Army I continued to shoot, and took up hunting, no longer did I allow anyone to tell me that I was a girl and could not. I began hunting squirrels, and rabbits, but because I did not eat much of them I no longer hunt them. I am a firm believer that you only hunt what you or your family eats or those animals that are considered predatory. Whitetail became my game of choice and after hunting a couple of years with friends I wanted to hunt on my own. I never really had that opportunity because I never owned land or knew of anyone that did. It was not until I met my husband that he made my love of hunting and the outdoors become a passion.
I now hunt with my husband and our friends, although I hunt in my own stand. I hunt bow, muzzleloader, and gun season, although my favorite is bow season. I have taken deer with my bow but never have I made a kill with my gun or muzzleloader. I am looking forward to going on a wildboar and bear hunt in the near future and am so excited to share my love of the outdoors with my family and friends and encourage youth and females to get involved.

Feb 05, 2015 | Category: Blog, Jeana's Corner | Comments: none

 

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