Desertdog
Member
Aiming to get women on target
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8569303.htm
PEOPLE LIKE ME
For females with an eye toward marksmanship and big-game hunts, Dallas woman offers rifle-and-pistol class
By MARY THERESE BIEBEL
[email protected]
Lugging a backpack of fresh venison a mile or so across the tundra can give a person sore muscles. But dancers are used to that.
"They both can be painful," Wendy Weir Henry of Dallas said, smiling as she described the similarities between her two passions, ballet and big-game hunting. "They're both physically demanding, and they both require focus."
So how does this slightly built woman take down a buffalo, a caribou, or perhaps a deer, at a record-setting 783 yards?
With a .50-caliber rifle that, quite frankly, looks like something soldiers might fire from a tank to destroy a wall.
Henry shoots this powerful piece in marksmanship competition and to bag big game in places as far flung as Alaska and Africa. Suspecting that other women might enjoy similar challenges, she has organized a seminar titled "Women in Scope" for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Pennsylvania Game Commission Range in Mooretown.
Participants can learn to handle several types of rifles and pistols and, if they ever decide to invest in a powerful .50-caliber themselves, they might look forward to experiences like Henry's recent Alaskan adventure.
On the third day of a trip to remote Kodiak Island, she and her boyfriend, John Yenason, hiked a steep incline from their base camp, set up their guns on both sides of a lake atop a volcano and waited. And waited. After a long day without firing any shots, they decided to pack up their guns and return to camp.
Halfway down the mountain, they saw movement. Henry hurried to get the rifle from her backpack and pulled down its bipod legs. Peering through the scope, "I saw a beautiful set of antlers on a black-tail deer in the far distance."
The range finder said the deer was 783 yards away. Her rifle was sighted for 500 yards, so she turned the dial to the appropriate range and shot one round. That was enough.
The deer ran 100 yards and dropped; Henry's heart raced with excitement as she and her partner headed toward the animal. They dressed it in the field and carried the venison back to camp in packs specially designed for meat.
"We feed a lot of people," Henry said. She has strong feelings about not wasting food, so friends regularly benefit from her hunting skill. And she and her family - she has three children ranging from 9 to 21 - usually have their pick of exotic meats from the freezer. "I don't buy a lot of chicken or hamburger at the grocery store."
To those who decry hunting, Henry responds, "I think it's more humane than a slaughterhouse, and I think the animals are a lot healthier."
And, Henry prides herself in "clean" kills, with a single shot to a vital part of an animal's body doing the job quickly.
Another major ethical consideration is safety.
"You have to know what's between you and your target. You have to know what's behind your target. You only put your finger in the trigger when you've made the decision to shoot," said Henry, who insisted a photographer and reporter wear eye and ear protection even as she showed them an unloaded rifle.
Safety will be a major topic at the seminar, which Henry designed for "women of all shooting skill levels and their guests, including children 11 years and older."
Six certified instructors will be on hand to help participants shoot various rifles, including muzzle-loaders and the big .50-caliber, which weighs about 50 pounds, as well as pistols. Guns will be available for those who don't have their own, as will ammunition and eye and ear protection.
The event will take place at a Game Commission range about eight miles east of Ricketts Glen State Park, but participants don't have to worry about finding it. They're to meet at the Castle Inn on Route 415 in Dallas and take a shuttle bus, which will return them to the restaurant for lunch and a keynote speech by Sandy Froman, first vice president of the National Rifle Association. The entry fee is $50 per person. For reservations, call 814-6572.
IF YOU GO
What: Women in Scope seminar
When: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Meet at Castle Inn, Route 415, Dallas
Admission: $50 per person
Info: 814-6572
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8569303.htm
PEOPLE LIKE ME
For females with an eye toward marksmanship and big-game hunts, Dallas woman offers rifle-and-pistol class
By MARY THERESE BIEBEL
[email protected]
Lugging a backpack of fresh venison a mile or so across the tundra can give a person sore muscles. But dancers are used to that.
"They both can be painful," Wendy Weir Henry of Dallas said, smiling as she described the similarities between her two passions, ballet and big-game hunting. "They're both physically demanding, and they both require focus."
So how does this slightly built woman take down a buffalo, a caribou, or perhaps a deer, at a record-setting 783 yards?
With a .50-caliber rifle that, quite frankly, looks like something soldiers might fire from a tank to destroy a wall.
Henry shoots this powerful piece in marksmanship competition and to bag big game in places as far flung as Alaska and Africa. Suspecting that other women might enjoy similar challenges, she has organized a seminar titled "Women in Scope" for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Pennsylvania Game Commission Range in Mooretown.
Participants can learn to handle several types of rifles and pistols and, if they ever decide to invest in a powerful .50-caliber themselves, they might look forward to experiences like Henry's recent Alaskan adventure.
On the third day of a trip to remote Kodiak Island, she and her boyfriend, John Yenason, hiked a steep incline from their base camp, set up their guns on both sides of a lake atop a volcano and waited. And waited. After a long day without firing any shots, they decided to pack up their guns and return to camp.
Halfway down the mountain, they saw movement. Henry hurried to get the rifle from her backpack and pulled down its bipod legs. Peering through the scope, "I saw a beautiful set of antlers on a black-tail deer in the far distance."
The range finder said the deer was 783 yards away. Her rifle was sighted for 500 yards, so she turned the dial to the appropriate range and shot one round. That was enough.
The deer ran 100 yards and dropped; Henry's heart raced with excitement as she and her partner headed toward the animal. They dressed it in the field and carried the venison back to camp in packs specially designed for meat.
"We feed a lot of people," Henry said. She has strong feelings about not wasting food, so friends regularly benefit from her hunting skill. And she and her family - she has three children ranging from 9 to 21 - usually have their pick of exotic meats from the freezer. "I don't buy a lot of chicken or hamburger at the grocery store."
To those who decry hunting, Henry responds, "I think it's more humane than a slaughterhouse, and I think the animals are a lot healthier."
And, Henry prides herself in "clean" kills, with a single shot to a vital part of an animal's body doing the job quickly.
Another major ethical consideration is safety.
"You have to know what's between you and your target. You have to know what's behind your target. You only put your finger in the trigger when you've made the decision to shoot," said Henry, who insisted a photographer and reporter wear eye and ear protection even as she showed them an unloaded rifle.
Safety will be a major topic at the seminar, which Henry designed for "women of all shooting skill levels and their guests, including children 11 years and older."
Six certified instructors will be on hand to help participants shoot various rifles, including muzzle-loaders and the big .50-caliber, which weighs about 50 pounds, as well as pistols. Guns will be available for those who don't have their own, as will ammunition and eye and ear protection.
The event will take place at a Game Commission range about eight miles east of Ricketts Glen State Park, but participants don't have to worry about finding it. They're to meet at the Castle Inn on Route 415 in Dallas and take a shuttle bus, which will return them to the restaurant for lunch and a keynote speech by Sandy Froman, first vice president of the National Rifle Association. The entry fee is $50 per person. For reservations, call 814-6572.
IF YOU GO
What: Women in Scope seminar
When: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Meet at Castle Inn, Route 415, Dallas
Admission: $50 per person
Info: 814-6572