Last week I wrote about deer hunting success with a first-time hunter, but this week I want to explore what happened with some of the female hunters in my life. Yes, my dear wife tagged an antlerless deer last week, and I’m sure there are a lot more men these days who are seeing their wives take deer. In fact, women are becoming much more involved in hunting and fishing, and if you doubt that, just check out some of the hunting and fishing shows on the outdoor channels. Even the hunting apparel industry is waking up to the fact that women want hunting clothing designed for them, and the demand continues to grow. It’s also true that game and fish agencies around the country are offering more and more programs to promote women in the outdoors, and the participation rate continues to climb.

As a fly-fishing instructor for the National Wildlife Federation a number of years ago, I had the opportunity to teach fly fishing to adults in several states throughout the country’s northeastern part. Interestingly, the majority of my participants were women, and today there is an even greater push to get women into fishing and hunting. I have always been on board with the idea of getting the ladies into the outdoors, and although my wife came from a non-hunting background, it didn’t take me too long to get her into both hunting and fishing and the same for my daughter.

What’s even more satisfying is not only getting the women in your life more involved in the hunting experience but also witnessing their success. On the last day of the regular firearms deer season last week, I had the opportunity to behold more success than I ever expected. All three generations, my wife, Sheila, our daughter, Kristin, and our granddaughter, Sierra, were all set up in deer hunting treestands about a hundred yards apart on my son’s property-I was in a stand a bit further away. Things were quiet until late morning when Sierra’s gun rang out, and she dropped an antlerless deer; great, I thought, at least one of the three had success.

Sierra departed for the day, and her mother took up a position in her stand. Late on that final day, I again heard a shot ring out and soon got the message that Sheila had scored on a doe as well. I made my way to her stand, congratulated her, and began gutting and then dragging the deer up to the truck. This is great, I thought; at least two of the ladies bagged a deer-can’t expect much more than that!

As my wife and I made our way towards the truck, only about a half-hour of hunting was left, and suddenly another shot rang out from Kristin’s direction; we stopped what we were doing and headed right for her location. She took us to the spot where she thought the deer was standing when she shot, but I found nothing; light was fading fast, so I got a flashlight out and began searching further down in the woods. Finally, a good blood trail and another 50 yards revealed doe number three. All three ladies representing three generations were all successful in that final day-kind of exciting.

What I found even more intriguing was that this was the first time for each of them to be alone in a stand -nobody was there to mentor or offer direction. Yes, they have taken deer in the past, but they were always with an experienced male hunter; this time, they did it on their own. Not a bad way to end the final day of the regular gun hunting deer season.