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Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData

I’m pretty passionate about encouraging women and children, Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData, that they can go into the great outdoors and encounter all that has been created for us, and there’s a lot of ways to get equipped so that you can have the right tools and make sure you do that correctly.

But it can start with just a camera or whatever your favorite hobby is it doesn’t have to be hunting. But for me, it started with photography and it turned into hunting and I loved playing a lot of different sports growing up so it was just another adventure for me to get involved in the outdoors and it helps me stay in shape and all of the above and encounter some great beauty that awaits us outdoors. Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData

passionate about encouraging women and children that they can go into the great outdoors

I can recommend two social media pages. One’s a social media page it’s called Step Up Step Out, and actually, Lisa and I are a part of that. Lisa’s one my partners here in our hunting business but we actually mentored two groups of young ladies last on turkey hunts. Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData

We also mentored two different groups we took a bunch of women on a pheasant hunt. So that particular page is called Step Up Step Out and that is here in Colorado but also, like here in Colorado Parks and Wildlife has a program for the youths and if they will go through that program get on their website and Google the youth portion of that, my daughter was a part of this five years ago where they had mentors set up there at Parks and Wildlife that you’ll apply for that process…and my husband and I actually do hunt but we went ahead and had our daughter go through the program because they have access to a lot of private ranches and so it actually increases the odds of the kids having a successful hunt, so.

Donnelle Johnson is a hunter, Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData, fisherwoman, CPA, and a musician. She grew up in Oklahoma fishing with her Dad and vacationing in Colorado. She also lived in Texas and Alaska where she developed a love for salmon fishing, outdoor photography, and the mountains. Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData

Donnelle Johnson owner HuntData, fisherwoman, CPA, and a musician

There is a way to hunt smarter and I’ll just use my own story. I started in 95, we started a business called HuntData. We started collecting the statistics and preference points and a lot of people, I’ve done hunting shows for over 25 years and guys’ll laugh at me and say, “I don’t need a computer or I don’t need statistics.” However, they do indicate where you’re more successful areas are and so my story was the first three years that I started, I started hunting in 95 and my first three years we went to the place where my husband, his boss had taken him. Because like we were talking about earlier, how do you get started?

Well sometimes if you know somebody that is a good way to get started but he kept taking us to the same unit and I had a bull tag and I kept seeing these same 12 elk and the way I knew is one had a radio collar on her. So I was seeing the same 12 elk and I hunted hard for two weeks. When I do something I give it everything I have. And so I just decided to use our own program where I took up and in the meantime, I started applying for points in the draw in April. And I always encourage people to do that as well. Some people say, “Well, I don’t need points right now” and usually, you don’t want the points until you want the points if that makes sense. Let’s say five years from now you say, “Oh, I’d like to do a limited hunt” but you haven’t been applying so you have nothing.

There is a way to hunt smarter and I’ll just use my own story

But if you’ve been applying every year in April whether you want to use them or not, you’re just putting money in the bank so to speak, you’re putting a point away. So I had been putting points away for three years so I took our program and I said, “I have three points, show me the most successful.” And I chose bull third season because I wanted to do a winter range hunt. And this one unit popped up and so I went down there and then I used our concentration maps and that shows where 90% of the elk are consistently coming back over a 10 year period so I used the rearrange and honest to goodness my first time I went out at dark thirty I ended up in the middle of about 500 elk, I have a picture of that on my website. And who would’ve thought that just doing research like that would’ve thrown me into such a great hunt? I shot my first bull that year, he was a five by five he wasn’t huge but for me, he was huge and…

she helped her husband form a hunting company HuntData

After moving to Colorado in 1991, she helped her husband form a hunting company HuntData. HuntData’s printed and digital maps are sold in Bass Pro, Cabela’s, Gander Mountain and Sportsman’s Warehouse. She developed a great understanding of the mechanics of hunting in Colorado and decided to start joining her husband on a few hunts.

Her hunting interest quickly developed into a passion for elk, deer, antelope, and other big game hunting. She also enjoys goose, white tail, turkey and pheasant hunting to round out the year and is now sponsored professionally by Mossy Oak, Bass Pro, The Outdoor Insiders, Hunter’s Specialties, PSE and Nockturnal. Her time is spent in Colorado with her husband, friends, and four-legged creatures of all kinds.

She has been published several times in Colorado Outdoors magazine and frequents hunting shows to talk about hunting, fishing, and the great outdoors. She was recently featured at the Denver International Sportsman Show teaching classes on archery, elk and turkey.
She promotes women and youth in the outdoors through various speaking engagements.

Her goal is to encourage and equip hunters in the outdoors

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