From the Victoria Times Colonist
Sunday March 8th/99 editon
You can reach them at life@victoriatimescolonist.com
By Katherine Dedyna
Times Colonist Life writer
Sue Bender has a gold nugget in her ear, a love of the outdoors in her heart and a freezer full of wild game.
There's nothing gun-shy about her. That's how she fills the freezer. At 39, the energetic foreshore worker at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club is one of a growing minority of women who set their sights on hunting and the shooting sports such as black powder target shooting.
Often she uses a Hawkens cap style rifle that replicates the way it was in the mid-1800s, making marksmanship more of a challenge: "You only get one shot so you really have to make sure that you're right on target.''
Bender has been a gold medalist in the B.C. Summer Games and the provincial ladies champion for the B.C. Black Powder Association four times.
Women, she thinks are put off hunting by the macho, tough guy stereotypes that disguise the challenge and discipline it represents to her. "The general public takes a very dim view of firearms ownership, as does the government. And certainly among the urban areas, Vancouver and Victoria, most people are quite happy to go and buy their meat in a grocery store.''
Bender would rather hunt for her own food, something she first tried 14 years with her partner, Art, who had hunted all his life. "I didn't honestly know if I was going to enjoy it or not,'' she recalls. "It's something you don't know until you kill your first animal.'' She felt a little sad the first time and she still does in a way. "But I'm a meat hunter. I hunt to put food on the table and so I guess the end justifies the means.
"In my opinion, you don't shoot them if you're not going to eat them. And I think most hunters are working on the same premise. Animals that go to the slaughterhouse suffer far more than animal hunted, shot and killed.'' Over the years, she's bagged a dozen moose, eight deer and a bear.
How does bear taste? "Bear is wonderful. We had the hind quarters done into ham, and the rest was done into stews, roast and ribs. I have three nephews and a niece and they all love it.'' For her, the biggest lure in hunting is the chance to be out in the wilderness.
"Whether or not you shoot (game) them is somewhat irrelevant. Because lots and lots of hunters both male and female can be out in a field and see an animal - it could be a prime target and they pass it up because they were enjoying watching it at the time. It's not always a matter of going out to kill.''
Stalking animals with sensory abilities greater than her own is hard work, she says. "When you're actually out hunting, you're intensely looking, there's a lot of stealth, you're tippy-toeing along very quietly and watching very closely.
"People have this misconception that you just take your rifle or your bow or whatever and go out there and kill something. That's not the case.'' Camping out after a day's hunting is very relaxing, she says. "It's peaceful and quiet. There are no phones, there's no light, no excess noise. You can hear the coyotes and the owls.''
Delores Farmer of Salem, Virginia, founder of the Women Hunters Club, says on her Web site: "Once you've got the fever, you can't let go. Hunting and fishing are the best stress-reducers ever invented. Far fewer people would need therapists if more folks took up hunting and fishing!''
Nonetheless, hunting has been slowly declining in the face of urbanization, increased regulation, mandatory safety courses, shortened seasons, and an aging population with more single parent families, says Robert Paddon, manager of the hunter safety program of the B.C. Wildlife Federation.
The federation aims to interest more women in the rewarding aspects of shooting sports and keep the number of licensed hunters over 100,000 in B.C. "We find many women sort of feel left out.'' Still, in 1998, 19 per cent of 3,359 graduated of the hunter safety program were women.
Rodger Wright, past president of the Victoria Fish and Game Protective Association, has decided to hold firearms and hunting courses specifically for women after being approached by female relatives of club members and wives of people outside the club. "Basically, they were interested in learning fire arms safety, trap shooting and hunting. They didn't feel comfortable taking it with men. The shooting sports have always traditionally been looked upon as man's sport so therefore there's 's always sort of an uneasy feeling about women getting involved.''
Some women are intimidated at the idea of following up on their interest in firearms when they think of sitting down with men who are more at home in the territory.
"This is something brand new for the club. There's a growing market for it.'' The firearms safety course is mandatory under federal legislation, Bills C-17 and C-68 for those who want a licence to purchase guns. The women-only course will be held March 8-14 for $80.
The hunter safety course will run March 22-28 at a cost of $120 and is mandated under provincial legislation. It covers firearms safety as well as survival, first aid, bird and animal identification, hunting ethic, regulations and laws.
Both courses will cover safe handling, transportation and storage of firearms and legal, ethical and social aspects to firearms use. Wright wants more women to see what the fish and game association club offers in forms of recreation that develop concentration, and ability to focus.
"Hunting has always been traditionally the man's job,'' he says. But women in Canada have a long history of hunting in order to feed their families when the men were away.
In his own case, he extols the exercise, the enjoyment of the outdoors, getting to know the Island and its terrain., "I haven't harvested an animal in probably over five years. There is more to hunting that just shooting something. Every time I go out I learn something new.''
The courses are offered at the Club at 700 Holker Place on the Malahat near Spectacle Lake. Women who sign up aren't supposed to be thinking of self-defence. "Under the Criminal Code of Canada you can't use a firearm to protect yourself,'' Wright underscores. "If you do, be prepared to suffer the consequence. In Canada, to use one, you're looking at a very good possibility of some jail time.''
Shooting sports are the only ones in which men and women are on a completely equal footing, because size doesn't matter. It's also a way for women to get over their fear of guns or of seeing them only as tools for violence, not recreation.
"If you really get into the sports, they're actually very relaxing and calming,'' says Paddon. In the focusing and control over your breathing and body, it's not all that different from yoga, he suggests.
Of course, in yoga, there is usually no chance of killing a moose. Pulling the trigger is an issue that every hunter must deal with, regardless of gender, Paddon says. "And I really haven't seen anything that says women can't do it as much as men.''
For more information on firearms courses, call 478-2739.
British Columbia Flyfishing Resources
John Cochran