If she’s not in the classroom teaching young toddlers, Amy Hunter is out hunting in the woods and preparing for competitions. As her name implies, Amy has been a hunter since she was a young girl. In this episode, she shares how females have just as much right to be hunters as men. She tells the story of how her son was able to go back to bow hunting. Amy also hunts competitively and has been award-winning in her categories. When she isn’t teaching children, she’s teaching other women how to shoot via Shoot Like a Girl.
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LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Amazing IBO Competitor, Pro Staff & Huntress – Amy Hunter
We’re heading out to Pennsylvania and we’re going to connect with Amy Hunter. Amy isn’t your typical outdoor lady. First of all, she’s a preschool teacher. Second, she’s a mom. Probably a lot of people check that out. Three, she part-time runs a bow shop then helps with the lanes and helps people get set up on their bows. She loves to spend time on the line for IBO. I’m trying to think it’s some of the other things that you do Amy, but that’s good enough to get us started. Welcome to the show and say hi to the people here in Whitetail Rendezvous Land.
Thanks for having me. I’m excited about it.
I’m excited too because women in the outdoors represent the fastest-growing segment. Ergo, the most important segment for manufacturers, advertisers and people that want to get their product seen. Why do you think women are trouncing men as far as getting ahold of promotional opportunities?
It’s more in the past. I was born in the ‘70s. In my lifetime, my mother never worked outside of the household. Now, there seems like there’s no mom that stays home full-time anymore. Women are thrown out there on the front lines, working as hard as men do. If there’s something a man can do, we want to do it, just as good as men. If not, better.
This is a true statement. There’s not much fluff in that. Everybody reading this certainly recognizes that. That drive and determination are making women extremely successful. You could look in Pursuit Channel or Sportsman Channel and see that ladies, all by their lonesomes, are carrying the males. I’ll salute you.
Thank you. It’s nice to go onto the Outdoor Channel or any of the sporting channels and see almost as many women now on the outdoor shows as there are men. It’s great to see it. I hope it shows kids that are coming up now that you can be whatever you want to be. It’s not just a man-dominated world anymore. It’s wonderful.
You’re a staff member in Shoot Like a Girl. What does that mean?
I was welcomed in as a staff member for Shoot Like a Girl, which has been the brainchild of Christy Crawford out of Texas and a couple of other women. It is an introduction for women to shooting sports, be it handguns, long guns and archery. It gets these items in their hands, the correct poundage on the bows and things like that, where a woman can shoot it. It’s not set up for a man. It’s set up for them in a comfortable environment and it’s an overall promotion of women in the shooting sports. That’s the biggest part of it.
What do you do? Do you go around the shops, talk shows?
Hopefully, I’ll be moved up to be one of their inspectors, but we do a number of different articles, social media events and social media posts. Anytime we’re out and about, it promotes women in the shooting sports. For myself, my biggest thing is women in archery and that’s basically where we’re at with that. They travel around the country with a wonderful tractor-trailer that has a shooting range on it, set up with all guns and bows. Women come to different shows and put these in their hands and get a good crash course on how to do things.
You are an instructor there in Pennsylvania. Is that correct?
Yes. I’m an S3DA instructor. I just got my certification and I am trying to build up some youth programs at our shop. Our bread and butter are getting these families and getting the kids, getting these bows in the kid’s hands, teach them and get them hooked.
Something about your son getting back in the woods with a bow in his hand is great.
I’m happy for him. He hasn’t got the bow in his hand yet. He hasn’t got the weight to poundage yet that I feel that it’s ethical for him to use it but he’s been out with a gun. He’s handy with a gun and he asked to go hunting in a number of years. He wanted to come along with me when I took my buck with my bow. It was a perfect setup and it was Halloween night. There was a perfect north wind. He was about 100 yards across the field from me and everything worked perfectly. I had a doe come in with a buck chasing after her. He was a good mature buck. My son brought binoculars up and he was excited. He says, “Mom, I got to see you pull your bow back and take the shot. I got to see the buck go down.” He thought it was great, so he was instantly hooked back in it. He took his doe and his own buck. I’m proud of him.
What kind of rifle does he shoot?
He has a Weatherby .308. He’s a slightly spoiled little guy but he’s a good shot though. I don’t even get him the right thing in his hand. It was a gun we won through a youth organization here and it seemed like a good perfect fit for him.
You got to be proud as a mother because you get him out there and have him sit across the field and watch the whole thing rather than double set with you in the tree stand. I’m assuming you were in a tree stand?
Yeah. He wanted to be in that tree stand. We only have single stands. We don’t have any doubles, so as it turned out, he had to sit across the field and it was cold that night. It was right freezing. I was standing in that tree waiting for something to come by because I kept seeing his face go up and down and I knew he was cold. It worked out well.
How old is he?
He just turned fourteen. I’m paddling all that teenage stuff.
Hunter share a common feeling. It's a connection to the animal, the land, and to what God has given us. Share on XIt sounds like you’ve got the hang of it. That’s for sure. Why do you think more moms or dads or both are taking their kids and experiencing it? It was cold. It was windy. It wasn’t comfortable at all, but he wanted to be there. What makes you special if you take my meaning?
It’s been an up and down the road with him. He got into shooting pistol and clays for a long time. I transitioned from just shooting backyard archery into shooting more competitively. I got him into archery. I’ve had all that teenage thing a little bit with him, but I put a lot into hunting. I put a lot of time into preparing during the summer. We spent a ton of time in the tree stands. He saw how passionate I was about it and it was the right time in his life that he said, “I’m ready to get back to it.”
The passion and drive you have are nice to see. A lot of people are like, “I do this and do that,” but you’re accurate. You take the hunting part. You take working in the shop and some of the years, you’re shooting IBO. When do you have time to cut the grass?
My boyfriend does that. That’s his job here at the house. Thankfully, he runs a bow shop. We’re a good match that we’re both into the same thing. We both had the same mindset. We both believe in the same thing. We work as a good team with stuff but it does not leave a lot of time around the edges. There are 6:00 AM on a Sunday wake-ups and you go move tree stands. There’s a lot of Sundays that I roll over and say, “I’ll meet you at 10:00,” but it’s a lot of work. We say it all the time that a lot of people don’t put in this work. Even this late in the season, we have our late archery season. We have a lot of stands out there from the fall, which may or may not be good stands at the moment. We would like to get some time in there but we just run out of hours in a day. You’ve got to pay the bills sometimes.
When you say the stands might not be any good, is that because of the travel patterns? Is that because of food sources? Help me understand that statement.
We have a lot of lands that we’ve been fortunate to be able to hunt on. For years, it’s probably 75% wooded but the fields were left clay or sod or just left to deadhead. They put corn in it, so it changed our game plan considerably. We move stands around the edge of the cornfield a couple of times. The corn got cut opening rifle weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend here in Pennsylvania. That changes patterns. Rut changes patterns and the late rut changes patterns. We’re getting cold weather again so that’ll change it for us, too. You have to stay on top of it. You can stick a stand in a tree and hope they’re going to mend our path for 3 to 4 months.
You got to pinch point or funnel. It’s geographic. Sometimes, they’re good all the time because some of our stands that we have on our farm, they always produce year in, year out. Does it take some effort? Yeah, you get a sit to stand but year in, year out, I know there’s a couple of nice mature bucks we are taking every single year. Again, some other stands, one year, they’re hotter and the next year you go, “There aren’t any deer here. They’re not coming by. What do I do? What did I do to screw this up?” You did absolutely nothing. Something has changed and you need to find out because the deer is still here, but you’re going to find out and adapt to where they are. I don’t care if you can sit a stand in the corner of the cornfield. It looks great and you see some active stuff but never see a deer and you go, “What’s up with this?” The deer is telling you, “I’m not coming by that stand no matter what you do.”
What a lot of people don’t realize is that most whitetail hunters in our area know it. You’ve got to play the wind and weather and things like that. There are funnels or there could be somebody a mile away moving deer around or there’s farm machinery going. You don’t realize that you’ve got to be aware of all those things around you and how it changes the patterns on our deer. We have areas that continually produce every single time. There was a doe week for youth, disabled veterans and mentored youth. They had that week early in October and it was an area that I can put my son in. Within an hour, it paid off for him. That’s that guaranteed spot on the farm that we hunt but other times, you spend all summer thinking, “This is great. We’ve got these bucks funneling through here,” and a week into the season, they’re gone.
I had a conversation with Dan Smith who’s the editor of Deer Hunting. He hunts 70 plus acres and he had five bucks on his hit list. This is in Central Wisconsin. There’s plenty of deer around them and so forth and so on. He couldn’t believe it because come bow hunting season and even rifle season, he said, “They left. They were gone.” I was talking to him one time and he said, “You’ll never believe it. On our cameras, one of these bucks showed up again.”
I’m hoping. It was up to 52 degrees on the playground and it’s supposed to snow on Christmas day here. I have my fingers crossed that that’s what’s going to happen. That change in the barometric pressure might bring the big guys back around. They might be a little more relaxed again and get a chance to see some good deer.
We’re going to be five on Christmas Eve.
I believe I saw it was going to be 26 degrees on the 26th. It’s going to be a cold opener day for us, but that’s alright.
Get out there early and you’ll be done early.
Honestly, I try my best. I have always shot everything late in the day. I have more success on the luck of the draw. I always hit in good feed patterns and get them at the end of the day moving off or on bedding. We’ll see. I have one more doe tag burning a hole in my pocket.
I’d sleep in myself and go out there an hour before you want to kill your doe and get the heck out of it. That’s funny.
I don’t have anybody on my hit list. I left my toolbox, but my last two racks are not typical. They’ve either had not broken off in a fight or a little smaller on one side than the other. I always look for the oddball out when I’m hunting. I had a beautiful shot on what I thought was a good deer on the first hour of opening day. He had a nice full size on one side and just a tiny little mini of the exact same side. I thought I’ve got a beautiful arrow on him and I nicked him. We did see him come back on cameras. He looks happy and healthy so they’ll be there for next year.
Are you there for that nuclear plant?
No, they’re wasted out. I know which one you mean. It’s done in Turbotville. They’re south of us.
Getting all this crazy frame, maybe something’s got to do with that.
I always seem to find one every year that has something a little different about them. That’s the one that sparks me and I look for them. At the end of the day, I’m a meat hunter. Everybody starts hunting nice but you can’t eat them. If I’m taking a nice bodied buck, I’m happy with that. As long as it’s an ethical kill, that makes me happy.
I couldn’t be happier. Some of the great times are when we’re sitting around the bunkhouse, drinking a beer or having a soda, watching the Packers play and we’ve got cheese, crackers and venison. That’s good. You get your venison stew and all that other stuff. That’s what we hunt for is to feed ourselves.
I haven’t hit that point in being a hunter that I’m only out there looking for racks. I’m still happy with looking for a big-bodied deer and take him home that day.
Get there if you want to. I put a couple of bucks up on my wall and I’m happy with them. I put a buck on the wall because the deer behind me is the prettiest whitetail I’ve ever seen or ever shot. He’s not the biggest deer but it’s gorgeous. That’s why I shot him.
Mine that I took with my son was only a seven-point. He bested me and he got an eight-point but we’re going to put it on the wall because it was that memory. It was the perfect night with my son on Halloween night. I’m going to have a funny-looking little seven-point mounted on the wall and it’ll be the best year I ever took, I guarantee you.
It’ll stand through time, that’s for sure. Think about what we’re talking about. Why do we have these conversations? There are some people out there going, “What are these guys and girls talking about?” In your mind, what is it? We know each other and we’re friends. We’re talking about things that we love and it’s easy to have a conversation.
I thought about this all day as I was preparing for this. I had a little trepidation thinking, “What are we going to talk about?” I started thinking back to the thing that’s part of me. That was growing up and watching my father, my uncles and their male friends every year. I grew up in Southern New Jersey. Every year, the day after Thanksgiving, they loaded up with their flannel, guns, snacks and stuff. They headed up North of Pennsylvania to hunt deer for a week. They would call a couple of times during the week and they come home with the best stories. They had the best time and they showed the best pictures.
Back then, it was never even a thought for me going or being asked to go hunting. It was a guys-only club, but that comradery that they had has always struck me as that one thing that I want to pass down to my son. It’s the feeling of you having something in common with somebody that hunts. It’s a connection to the animal, the land and to what God has given us. I have that memory of how they look and how much fun they had hunting when I was a kid. It still means something to me and it’s a big deal. We always joke when it’s hunting season eve and we’re all excited like it’s special to see.
Our whole crew which you’re involved in Whitetail Rendezvous, I’ve had over 200,000 followers and every one of them hunts. Think about that. That’s the people I reached out, touched with and had a conversation with. It’s remarkable that even with all the other crap going on in our lives, we still come back to this tradition, we still come back to this opportunity. The opportunity to sit with them in a tree stand with the wind blowing and a buck or a doe walks by, that’s crazy.
You sit there with a heater thing stuck all over. You shiver and think, “Why am I out of here?” The second you get home, you think, “When can we go again?”
Are you on any of the pro staff other than Shoot Like?
No. This is the first year that I have stepped out and chased any sponsorship. I joined IBO and became a New York State Rep with them. I had a lot of personal goals to shoot in the female hunter class. I exceeded every one of them. It was a lot of work, but I’ve got some goals that made me happy. I’ve gotten through them. I thought about it all winter. I would like to move up to Semi-Pro and Pro with IBO and step my shooting up to the next level. I shoot for Shoot Like A Girl and I’m on the pro staff there at the bow shop as well.
Are you going to ATA?
We were back and forth about it but honestly, I’d rather take time off from work and spend the money possible to go to the Triple Crown for IBO instead. We’re going to stay home and I’m probably going to head out on the reshoots for that instead.
I know Brittney Glaze and Nikki Tilley did well for sponsorships. That’s where you can see more people in a shorter period of time than anything by just introducing yourself, “This is what I do and this is how I represent,” and go from there.
It’s a double-edged sword. My shooting is a private thing for me. It’s something I work hard at. If I stumble, I stumble. I am the first one to say, “I didn’t put enough time in and there are certain things that I didn’t reach that maybe I wanted to.” When you start searching for those sponsorships, you have to be sure that it’s a company you want to work with. You’re using their items and you’re proud of them. You’re proud of what they do for you because I’ve seen a lot of people get locked into this Hollywood glamour, “I want sponsorship. It’s going to make me a better shooter,” when it doesn’t at the end of the day. It’s the hours you spend in front of the bag pulling the bow back.
It’s good to have sponsorships but you better know what you’re doing.
You don’t want to go out and misrepresent them. It ruins the whole thing for you all the way around. It’s the first year that I’m going to start chasing a few things and see if I can start stepping into that program at a little bit and push myself. It’s the challenge. That’s all it is. It’s one of those, “I feel like I can do it.” Let’s see where it goes. I love to shoot and I love seeing women in the sport. I feel if I can step up like that, it gives more women that opportunity to think that they can, too. I’m not a 21-year-old kid. I’m in my mid-40s. I want people to think, “At any point in my life, I can step up and try something new and do good at it.”
It’s all a matter of attitude. That’s all this. There are too many examples of people. I’ve got a friend Katie Maynard in Kentucky and he can’t use his left arm because of military service so forth and so on. He pulls his bow back with his teeth. He has a mouthpiece type of thing and when you see this kid shoot, it’s like, “My goodness.”
We got to meet the armless shooter that shoots four-point. I feel terrible that I can’t bring his name to mind right away, but we got to watch him shoot live at an outdoor show here in New York. It almost gives you chills to sit, watch this person and tell his story of what he went through. He shoots a bow and he doesn’t even think twice about it as I do. It’s amazing.
Let’s talk about gear tech. What’s the last piece of gear that you bought and why’d you buy it?
When you start searching for sponsorship, you have to be sure it's a company you want to work with. Share on XI’m waiting on the brand-new Triax bow from Mathews. I’m a Mathews gal so I’ve got their Chill SDX. That’s what I competed with in the past. I shot a Halon 6 before and we’ve got the Triax in the shop. I pulled it back and I fell in love. It’s an unbelievable bow, so I’m waiting. I’m hoping that’s going to be the next step up in my game that’ll push me a little further.
You said you picked it up, pulled it back and you were in love with the bow. What does that mean to a non-shooter? Somebody will say, “How can that be? It’s just a bow.”
I would agree with that a couple of years ago before I started to shoot competitively. I had an old 1970 something Browning Bow, a terrible beastly thing. I shot it in the backyard and had a ball with it. The more I started competing, the more I started thinking, “I want this little thing to work a little better.” My SDX took me through everything. I had the best time shooting that bow and I tried out Mathews Avail that they got out a few years ago. It’s almost the same platform. I could shoot them blindfolded and barely tell any difference between the two. When I picked up the Triax, they’ve done some different dampening with it. It’s silent in your hand. You don’t get that recoil feeling.
When you’re making shots and you have to have that quietness in your hand, that little extra bit that they put into that bow made that after the shot follow-through much quieter. It’s a big deal when you’re shooting competitively. I shoot against some women and it’s an honor to shoot with them. They used to scare me. It used to be like, “I want to beat this one. I want to be that one.” Now, I fought around with them enough and it’s an honor to shoot with them. They make you step up your game and they make you start thinking about little things like that. How can I get the one little advantage that might make my arrow fly a little flatter, straighter, faster and quieter?
In your tournament, how far are you shooting?
The female hunter class was a max of 30-yards. I was sitting and discussing with Don that I’m going to step up to the next class, which is a female released class that will be 35 yards. I know it doesn’t sound like much to some that don’t shoot it. What’s the difference between fifteen feet? It’s a lot different. The step-up will give me another ten yards on top of that. We’re moving from 30 to 35. It gives you a little better visual practice. Every time you go out there, that five extra yards is going to make a difference I hope in my game.
In shooting, is it 100-point total or you want ten tens? Help me out.
The IBO scoring that we do is typically all over what they call kill shot, which is your normal kill shot for an animal. If we’re shooting a deer, the X ring, which will be eleven points would be right where your optimal shot would be. If you were going to double on them, I’d be right where you want it to hit. There’s another one that comes out about an inch around that’s ten-point. There’s a little bit bigger circle that’s only eight-point. The rest of the body is five points and of course, if you miss it, that will be all zero. You want to go for that tiny little X ring, which is typically only the size on the smaller animals like the size of a dime. When you’re standing in 30 yards away and you’re trying to hit something the size of a dime, it gets a little difficult. Especially if you get Mother Nature thrown in there. She gives you some rain and some wind.
You’re outside, right?
Yeah, but we do shoot indoors. We’re getting ready to gear up at our shop where we shoot an indoor 3D lead where we bring the same animals inside. It’s just a little bit shorter distances, but it still gives you a little bit of practice. It puts your arm in shape during the winter.
What are three suggestions or tips that you would give the women that are reading this about anything about what you’re doing?
Don’t be afraid to go to the pro shop. My biggest fear was being able to walk into it. Don’t be scared to go in go in and ask. If you don’t want to ask for help from a man, go in and ask for help from a woman. I bet you they can find you one that will make you more comfortable. My second biggest thing is don’t shoot your husband’s or boyfriend’s equipment. It’s never going to fit you. Go out and spend the time getting something for you. My third biggest one is to go ahead and make mistakes. My first few years of hunting were terrible. I’ve made some terrible shots on deer and I’ve lost the deer. It’s the same with any sport. I fish, too and I’ve done things that I take back. Try it and make mistakes. It’s all right. Try gears until you find that right piece for you.
Thanks for that and I hope our readers take that to heart. What are the techniques that you use all the time to close the deal?
I’m the person that stands all the time. It’s a point of controversy in our house. I can set my bow on my thigh so I can hold my bow in the same straight-up position where you would shoot it. I don’t ever hang my bow on the hook and I don’t sit. I stand almost the entire time that I’m in my tree stand. For me, it gives you that extra second. I’m not standing up and I’m not reaching for my bow. I’m not trying to be quiet and not trying to get into position. I know it makes for a long sit but if you do the homework, you don’t have to sit in your stand for twelve hours and hope something comes by. There are days you do it because you want to but for me, I’ve always got my bow in my hands. I’ve always got my release on my string and my ears open. That’s the biggest thing.
I haven’t heard somebody standing the whole time. I would stand the whole time I was hunting, but in ladder stands, I don’t. Even when I’m in a ground blind, I’m sitting down from it.
I don’t do much ground blind hunting. The only time I’ve been in a ground blind to hunt was with my son with a gun. These past years, I’ve shot out of a tree stand, so that’s been a new learning experience. Before that, we always did spot and stalk hunting. That might be where my tendency to want to stand in the tree stand is because when you spot and stalk, you don’t sit on the ground and wait for something to go by. You are always moving and leaning against a tree and listening. It’s a big point of contention here in the household, “Why don’t you sit down and hang your bow up for a few minutes?” I don’t know for me. I like to be that ready. It keeps me on my toes and keeps me more alert and less likely to fall asleep because I had done that when I sat down in my tree stand. Thanks for the harnesses.
If you’re standing up then you get your harness and you can lean forward into your harness. It helps support you.
There have been times where I’ve leaned around the tree and leaned into that harness a little bit. When you’re shooting out of a tree stand, sometimes, that back elbow if you’re standing in too close, you hit on the tree. Having that harness, you can lean out a little bit and fly around a little bit. It helps get you in a better position.
This has been a joy. Amy Hunter, thank you for spending some time with you. I know we didn’t do a lesson plan, so you can give me an F in the class.
You did great. Thank you, Bruce. Thanks. I’ve enjoyed it.
This went well and you’re a great student, so you get an A.
Thank you. You do the same, Bruce. I appreciate it.
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On the next show, Ryan Campbell joins us from Georgia. He’s been hunting the same family land that his grandfather hunted and they’re bow hunters. They don’t hunt with rifles not because they can’t but they choose not to. They also hunt squirrels and rabbits but more so than anything, they’re stewards of the land. You’re going to hear Ryan tell about being stewards of the land down in Georgia.
Important Links:
- Shoot Like a Girl
- Ryan Campbell – previous episode
- Amy Hunter
- IBO
- ATA