Gone are the days that outdoor adventures, such as hunting, were only for men. Hen Outdoors CEO Kari Ann Irby shares when and how she began her hunting adventure. She talks about how women connecting with women during waterfowl hunting made things a lot easier and fun. She attests how women enjoy a lot of humor and real-life stories of actual women outdoors. She also recounts the story of her first bear hunt, her apparel, and how outdoor adventures which is usually male-dominated can also be a world for women.
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Must Listen Ladies – Hen Outdoors – CEO Kari Ann Irby – Hunt
We’re heading up to Central California. We’re going to connect with the CEO of Hen Outdoors, Kari Ann. Other people know her as Kari Irby. Kari, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I’m excited to have you because you have a great woman voice both on social media in your apparel line and in doing a great job with your blog. You’re doing a lot of great things out there for the women in the outdoors. Let’s talk about how Hen Outdoors began.
I started Hen Outdoors as a Facebook page. My intention of that was to connect with other women who are in for waterfowl hunting because there are not a lot of girls around here where I live anyway that are into that. It evolved from there and then I created a website for it. From there, we went from being a women’s waterfowl company to catering to all outdoors women. It’s an online destination for women where they can get content that’s related to them. There’s apparel for them. It’s a woman’s world and a man’s world, if you will.
In three years, you’ve got about 50,000 people on social media that are connected to you. That’s fantastic and props to you for a job well done. What’s drawing women to Hen Outdoors?
We like to have a lot of humor and real-life stories of real women outdoors. It’s not based on anyone’s looks or has anything to do with that which in some places, you have to have a pretty face in order to be highlighted. I want to show real women from every walks of life and every background. That’s our main thing. We want to be genuine and real with people.
Many times, and you alluded to it, if you don’t have that pretty face, then you don’t get a chance to be part of it. I don’t get that. The biggest thing that I see is when I put up a grip and grin, I don’t get bashed by other men. Some guys say, “Why did you kill such a small deer? Congrats. That’s going to be great kill or whatever,” but that’s not so much with women. Why do women attack other women so ferociously?
I don’t know. When I first started my hunting journey, I did notice that a lot. I feel like nowadays women are sticking up for other women a lot more than they used to. At least from my personal experience, I have a lot of men that attack me as opposed to other women that stand up for me. The only time that I ever do see guys is when it comes to African hunting. I’ve seen a lot of women bash other women over that, but from my personal experience, I don’t feel that women do it as much as they used to. There are a lot more groups and a lot larger of a community. There are other groups like Hen Outdoors too and I think that’s helping. At least not from my experience. I don’t experience that.
I had a guest and she was telling me some of the stories because she does hunt in Africa and she takes kids to Africa through one of the foundations that she’s involved in. She said you will not believe what kind of responses they get. I just don’t see it on the guy’s side and for some reason, women are doing it but I’m happy that you’re not getting that same response. The ladies banded together. It’s a band of women who don’t mess with Mama Bear.
There are a lot of anti-hunter women who do attack other women and that happens a lot. The other hunters are not so much, at least not from what I see.
I’m happy with that. Where did your hunting tradition begin? How did you get into this game?
I didn’t grow up hunting. I didn’t get into hunting until I was in my early twenties. It all started on a trip that I took to Colorado. I stayed with a family of big-time elk hunters. The father there talked me through his tradition of hunting and why he hunts elk and how good the meat is and that they live off that meat for the entire year. I was like, “That’s so amazing to go out and get your meat yourself.” That’s no different than gardening vegetables and being proud that you grew in or eating your own vegetables. Why should it be any different from animals? That’s how it all began for me.
Then you came back to Central California and started duck hunting. Is that how it all started?
I started with deer and squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, things like that. It wasn’t until I met my boyfriend, we’ve been together for about five years now and he is super big into waterfowl hunting. That’s how I got introduced to it and it’s just taken off with it and here I am.
What are some of the tips that you give to women who are starting out? They’ll reach out to you and go, “I’m just starting hunting. What do I need to do because I want to hunt mule deer?”
I’ll say go for it. Don’t be afraid. My biggest thing that I try to tell women is don’t be afraid to be the new person. Don’t be afraid of not knowing anything. I am guilty of it too. When I first started, I was scared and intimidated to be that person that was absolutely clueless, and now I’ve discovered just ask questions. Don’t be afraid to not know anything because you’re going to look like a weirdo pretending you know everything and not knowing what you’re talking about. Use it as a learning experience. That’s something I had to change about myself, to admit I don’t know everything and don’t be scared to ask questions. That’s my biggest tip.
How do people reach out to you? How can they get ahold of you?
On social media, you can message me through all platforms. I’ll be the one that’s on the other end of the phone. You can go to HenOutdoors.com and we have our Contact Us page and you can go through there.
How big is your company? You said you’ve got an apparel line. You’re branching out. Do you have other people working with you?
We do have some blog writers. My brother helps me on behind the scenes part of it, as far as the website. He’s super into technology so he knows a lot more of that than I do. He helps me a lot with that. I have some Pro Staff girls that we go on hunts together and they help me promote it.
Talk to me about your hunts that you’re doing where you invite women from all over the country to come out to California or go to other states and hunt. How does all that work?
We’ve had a few outfitters contact us that wanted to partner for our women clients. We’ve been to Arkansas twice. We went on a waterfowl hunt and we went with another outfitter and did a snow goose conservation hunt. We got back from Maine doing a black bear hunt. Each time, it’s been women from all over the nation. At the bear hunt, we had a girl from Florida, a girl from Georgia, another California girl, a girl from Rhode Island. It’s such an amazing experience to not only meet girls from all over the nation that are just like you but to be on a women’s hunt. I know from my experience and from meeting and talking to other women that every time you go hunting, you’re the only girl. You’re surrounded by guys. You see guys out in groups together and how amazing is it to look and see a group of women by themselves hunting. It’s something that’s neat and I would recommend to all women. Even if you don’t come on a hunt with us, you go and hunt with a group of women. It’s so much fun.
Women are sticking up for other women a lot more now than they used to. Share on XLet’s give a shout-out to where you went because from the pictures, the accommodation looks outstanding and you did harbor some bears. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about where you went, who you went with and what the hunt looked like?
That was with Primitive Outfitters. It’s owned by Daniel and Katie White. The lodge was absolutely breathtaking. It was so pretty there. I can’t even describe in words how beautiful it was there. Even if you don’t go there to hunt, I would recommend just going there to stay in the lodge because it’s breathtaking. They were so amazing and so accommodating. They have Ben who was at the lodge. He was helping us and he was cooking and cleaning the lodge for us. It was a once in a lifetime experience, I feel. Even if I didn’t get a 540-pound bear, I would still absolutely go again because it was so much fun. The girls were nice. I have literally nothing bad to say about that place.
Did you take the bear out with a rifle or a bow or a muzzleloader?
That was my rifle. I use my .243 and everyone was telling me, “Don’t take your .243, that’s too small.” I’m like, “Hopefully, I’ll get a small bear.” Then out walks the 540-pound bear.
What happened then?
It was our first hunt of the entire seven days, six days. That was our very first time going out and sitting in the stands for the evening. I remember sitting there the whole time. I was thinking and praying to myself, “Please let one of these girls get a bear.” I wasn’t concerned about myself getting bear. I just was sitting there hoping, “Please someone shoot so we know that someone got a bear.” The sun was starting to set. It started raining and I was sitting there trying to stay as still as possible and the next thing I know, I looked up and I see it walking through the trees and my jaw dropped. I think I even might have whispered, “Oh my gosh,” as he came walking through because he was so massive. The only way that I could describe him to people was it looked like a smart car. That’s what he looked like walking through the trees. I shouldered my rifle and right as I did that, he had got to the bait barrel and he stopped, and he looked up at me. I had to freeze and luckily, I was wearing a lot of face paint because I’m not sure if he would have stuck around if he would have seen my face sitting there staring at him. It felt like eternity but he finally looked away and looked back down at the bait barrel. I looked through him in my scope and all of a sudden, he looked at me again.
I’m staring at him through my sight. I see his face and he was breathing hard, trying to smell the air like he knows something’s there, but he’s not quite sure. The food got the better of him because he went back down to the bait barrel. I went to put my crosshairs on his vitals but there was a tree blocking him. There was a pretty big gap between each tree, but he was so massive that his vitals happened to be behind that tree. I thought I’m just going to wait and hold my crosshairs in front of him and hopefully, he’ll step out or do something and I’ll be able to hit him. Sure enough, he took one step forward and I pulled the trigger and he went barreling through the trees. It sounded like a bulldozer crashing to the trees. It was so loud and all of a sudden it stopped. That’s why I sat there like, “Did I hit him? I don’t know.” Then he let a howl. I don’t know if you’ve ever been bear hunting. It’s the death moan that they do. Suddenly, I heard that and I thought, “He did the death moan.” That was the first bear hunt that I had ever been on.
How did you know he’s going to talk to you? How do you know he’s going to moan?
The Outfitter, Daniel and Katie talked to us a lot about what to expect, their body language, what they predict that they’ll do. They had told us about the death moan. I thought it was going to be something that was going to be a lot worse than it was. Now it replays in my mind in a good memory because I’ll never forget hearing that and knowing, “I got the bear.”
What does it sound like as best you can vocalize it?
Luckily, he only did it once. All I remember is hearing the trees crashing and then it suddenly stopped and then I heard it and that was it. Then it was silence after that. I don’t do very good bear noise.
That’s okay. That’s the perfect scenario because you took out his heart or you took out both his lungs. You destroyed him with the .243. Tell us about what the bullet did? A lot of people are saying, “It’s too light a caliber for a bear.” People are shooting with bows and arrows all the time. I’ve killed bears with my rifles and I’ve killed them with my bows and arrows. If you hit him in the right place, he’s going to die. Tell us about the bullet performance.
I double lunged him and nicked his heart. I don’t know if they ever exited out of him though. It must have still been inside of him. He was pretty jacked up on the inside. I have no complaints about my bullet .243. He was a big boy. When we cut him open, he had at least maybe seven inches of blubber. He was pretty thick. I’m pretty impressed with my little .243.
What kind of bullet was it?
Those were Winchesters. I know it was lead.
Like a silver tip or something like that. You don’t reload yourself?
No. My father-in-law had given me those and I thought, “What am I going to do with these? We can’t shoot light here.” Then I had the trip coming up and I asked them, “Can I use lead over there?” They were like, “Yeah.”
California’s different. Let’s leave it at that.
They’re like, “You can use lead. Not for waterfowl but you can use lead.” I’m like, “I can use this ammo again.”
One thing about the .243. It took out his lungs, nicked his heart and left all the energy in the bear. Sometimes bullet will pass through and they don’t expand. They don’t leave all their energy. That’s an excellent performance because I’ve been told if you find the bullet on the off side inside the hyde, then that’s as good as the bullet could perform. Good job. Did any of the ladies get the bears? How many of the bears did you get?
The next day we went out and Brittany, the other girl also from California, it was her turn, but in the morning time, we ran dogs. We ran I think until 6:00 AM and until about 1:00 PM is when they finally treed the bear, because this bear will not just give up and neither would the dog, so props to the dogs. About 1:00 PM, we finally got the alert that they had treed. We jumped out of the truck and ran into the woods and sure enough, there was a bear up in the tree. She blew it out of the tree and that was her bear. Unfortunately, the other girls didn’t get a bear but they still had a lot of fun.
It’s the journey that counts a lot of times for a lot of people because you go to some new places. You met some fantastic people, had great meals and develop relationships. In my opinion, that’s what hunting is about. What did you do with the meat? Did you bring some of the bear meat home? Did you share it there? What happened to the meat?
Don't be afraid to be the new person. Don't be afraid of not knowing anything. Share on XI ended up bringing home about two big ice-chest full. They said that we got about 150 pounds of meat off of him. It didn’t all fit into the two ice chests that I brought. Lindsay from Florida brought it home with her. She at least got to go home with some bear meat.
Early on we talked about organic meat. Everybody wants organic and there’s no better meat to get than organic meat because they are range bred, free ranging. We have all the additives to what we hunt and the males are fantastic. Let’s talk about how you have seen women grow in the outdoors because of Hen Outdoors.
I feel that women are already in the outdoors. I’m not necessarily looking to empower women because I feel like we’re already empowered. It’s just now we need to be normalized if that makes any sense. Nothing is better to me than to support women and to share the stories of women outdoors.
The women that are following you, the 50,000 some women plus or minus, they’re there in your community for a reason. How is Hen Outdoors helping these women become more confident and become more self-sufficient? You mentioned they’re all empowered. They’re already in the outdoors. What growth do you see of the women that are part of your community?
Seeing other women outdoors normalizes it for everybody. Having it constantly on your news feed, constantly hearing stories and tips from other women and everything that I ever do is from a woman, by a woman. I want it to be a world for women because it’s such a male-dominated core. That’s a big reason why I wanted to do the apparel because it’s not necessarily the stuff that you are hunting. It’s stuff that you can wear in your everyday life. If you’re at the grocery store, some lady could see you wearing a deer shirt and it’s like, “She hunts deer too.” It’s something that brings women together. That’s been my whole goal, to normalize and make it about real everyday life women and connecting women, that’s my big thing.
You have been a gracious guest. I look forward to seeing your growth and continued success with your company. Continue having a platform that women can come and be a part of your community and feel comfortable and do feel empowered and say, “We can do this together.” That’s what you’re all about, bringing women together and taking the journey together. Well done.
Thank you.
Important Links:
- Hen Outdoors
- Contact Us – Hen Outdoors
- Primitive Outfitters
About Hen Outdoors
Founded in 2015, Hen Outdoors is an online destination for women who enjoy hunting, fishing, bow fishing, archery, or anything outdoors. Our goal is to provide outdoors women with content specifically geared towards women. As well as provide outdoors women with a tight-knit, supportive, and inspiring community of 36k+ women who share their passion.
A California based company, we’re devoted to providing women with Women’s Hunts across the US, entertainment, outdoor related discussions, hunting/ fishing tips, stories, and more for women all over the world.
Hen Outdoors has also created a lifestyle apparel brand, allowing women, and young girls, to wear their passions proudly to the gym, to a concert, school, or wherever life may take them.
Hen Outdoors was created not just to celebrate women outdoors, but to revolutionize and change the way the world views women outdoors.