A group of 17 ladies got an introduction to shotgunning and pheasant hunting at the Lincoln County Sports Club Saturday. The women’s pheasant hunt was coordinated through the Sports Club, the DNR and Pheasants Forever.
Lincoln County Sports Club president Bill Bialecki said the club has sponsored a number of similar youth hunts. But, with the recent growth in its women’s trap league, the club decided to hold a learn-to-hunt event for ladies.
“We’ve had more women than youths coming to our trap league,” he said. Bialecki added that the youth hunts are attracting about equal number of girls and boys.
The Lincoln County Sports Club tries to educate people on the opportunities to hunt in Wisconsin.
“Our membership has topped 1,100,” Bialecki said. “A lot of them are women and we want them to get more involved in the activities out here.”
During the learn-to-hunt event, the ladies were instructed in basic firearm safety, shotgun handling techniques for wingshooting and got to practice on the trap range before actually getting a shot at a bird.
DNR wardens and Pheasants Forever members were on hand to help with the instruction, which included a demonstration on how dogs are used for bird hunting.
In the afternoon, the women were able to try their hand at hunting pheasants at the Kippenberg Creek Kids property near Gleason, where pheasants had been released by the DNR for the hunt.
Due to a very small population of wild pheasants in the area, there is normally very little opportunity for pheasant hunting in Lincoln County. Pheasants Forever instructor Joel Schneider noted that the organization is interested in the bigger picture of wildlife habitat management, not just pheasants.
“We want to get everybody involved in outdoor management,” he said.
The ladies bagged 18 pheasants during the afternoon hunt.