Day 1: Who Is Babes, Bullets and Broadheads and What Do They Do?
Editor’s Note: This unique organization, Babes, Bullets, and Broadheads (BBB) was started by three moms who hunt with rifles, muzzleloaders and bows. All three of these ladies - Beverly Sisk, Amanda Chance and Crissy Springer - started hunting as soon as they could walk when their families took them hunting. Today, these ladies take their children hunting. Some years ago, these ladies were aware that somebody should be working to promote women and children in the outdoors, and they decided this would be their mission in life. BBBs host women-only hunts throughout the year, promote and take children hunting and participate in other organizations’ activities to get more women and children involved in hunting sports.
Beverly Sisk: Our organization tries to bring together women who like to hunt, women who want to learn more about hunting and women who never have hunted before who want to discover hunting. We host five to six hunts a year. Many times we have new ladies email us and say, “I'm kind of nervous about coming on this hunt, which is my first hunt ever. I'm not really sure if going on a hunt is the thing for me to do.”
Crissy Springer: We encourage those ladies to come and go with us. We offer to sit with the new lady on her stand where she’s hunting deer, turkeys or ducks. We let her know that we’ll be with her to explain what’s going on and make sure she has fun. We don’t want her to get embarrassed. We do want her to learn why we all like to hunt. We often spend at least the first day or two one-on-one with new lady hunters and use that same strategy that we do when we take a youngster on his/her first hunt. I got an email from a lady in San Diego just a few days ago who’s coming to North Carolina to bear hunt with us. The first thing she said in her email was, “I'm really nervous, because I’m new to all this hunting stuff.” We have two or three more ladies coming to that bear hunt who don’t have a lot of hunting experience and have expressed concerns. They’ll need some coaching - which we’re glad to do. Our job is to teach, help and encourage newcomers to the sport of hunting. I think women feel more comfortable learning to hunt from other women than they do with a man teaching them how to hunt. We also give them tips and strategies that we believe will help them enjoy the outdoors more.
Sisk: We’re often asked, “With what type of equipment will we be hunting?” Each of our hunts is designed to be with bows, blackpowder rifles, modern rifles and/or shotguns. For instance, we host a hunt with Campbell Cameras (www.campbellcameras.com) which will be an archery-only whitetail hunt. We also have an archery hunt in Pike County, Illinois, with Buck Chasers. Our North Carolina hunt is a combo hunt for whitetails and black bear with modern rifles.
Amanda Chance: We also have an event in the spring called Turkeys for Teens. We take children who may not have an opportunity to hunt - perhaps a financial problem that keeps them from going hunting or not having a family member or a friend to take them hunting. We match these youngsters with guides and landowners and take them on their first turkey hunts. We've had as few as eight hunters before, and we’ve had as many as 30 hunters. The school system, the churches and law enforcement help us find these children who want to hunt. We also partner with the police departments that have DARE programs. These groups do effective jobs of helping us find these children who have an interest in hunting.
We really like to turkey hunt and have learned that not many organizations are willing to take youngsters on their first turkey hunts. So, we fill that need. We make sure the kids have fun. Generally, the youngsters we take on these turkey hunts become addicted for life to hunting those birds. Many of the children we take on their first turkey hunts may not have an opportunity to hunt turkeys again the rest of their life, but still they’ll have the desire to go turkey hunting.
To learn more about Babes, Bullets and Broadheads, go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/babesbulletsbroadheads, or Twitter at https://twitter.com/BBBOutdoorGirls. Also you can email us through our website or contact any one of us at Beverly@babesbulletsbroadheads.com, cspringer@babesbulletsbroadheads.com, or achance@babesbulletsbroadheads.com.
Tomorrow: Amanda Chance of Babes, Bullets and Broadheads on the Love for Taking Women and Children Hunting
