Chicks and guns
We’ve known for a while that the largest growing segment of shooters was women. Now, it looks like women are taking to hunting too:
More women than men took up hunting last year, according to new net figures from the National Sporting Goods Association.
While total hunters in the U.S. decreased slightly (.05 percent) between 2008 and 2009, the number of female hunters increased by 5.4 percent, netting 163,000 new participants. Growth areas for women included muzzleloading (up 134.6 percent), bowhunting (up 30.7 percent) and hunting with firearms (up 3.5 percent).
Data also show women outpaced men among net newcomers to target shooting with a rifle, where female participation grew by 4.1 percent.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:42 am
The rest of the nation is catching up. My wife likes to squirrel hunt and my sis-in-law killed more deer last year than her husband. Now, I have to admit that a woman in hunting camp is more of a novelty right now, but I always remember women in camp, and not just as cooks and babysitters. Years ago, about a half-dozen families would meet each year for squirrel camp, bringing toddlers and young-uns too small to hunt. We’d have to draw straws to see who stayed in camp for opening morning.