rifle – VENERY™

Rifle Ready

Venery presents Rifle Ready, rifle instruction for women, by women.

Have you ever wanted to learn to shoot a rifle but didn’t know where to start, or didn’t have anyone to teach you ? Or maybe you want to improve your skills and learn more about your rifle. Now is your chance for both!

Venery presents Rifle Ready, rifle instruction for women, by women. A class for the never-evers, novice, and the experienced gun handler and hunter.

Rifle Ready is a rifle handling series where our time on the range will include in-depth instruction on Rifle Safety, Ammunition, Sighting in your Rifle, Rifle Cleaning and Care, Hunting Licenses and Regulations, Ethics and Conservation.

All geared towards keeping you in the field, increasing your odds of success while hunting, and ensuring your safety and the safety of others.

Space is LIMITED – Register TODAY and we’ll see you at the range!

Scheduled Topics: All sessions include shooting practice, plus
Session 1: Rifle Handling + Ammunition
Session 2: Sighting in your Rifle + Rifle Cleaning and Care
Session 3: Effective Range + Hunting Regulations, Ethics, and Conservation

~~All In One $115 – August 7, 2022 9am-2pm~~ completed
September Tuesday Night Sessions (Sept 13, 20, and 27 from 6-8p)
- Full Series $115
- Single Sessions $48

Equipment:
Participants are encouraged to bring their own rifles, ammunition, eye and ear protection or reserve ours by adding on the equipment fee.

Equipment fee includes eye and ear protection, rifle use, ammunition, cleaning supplies and targets.

All-in-One $45
Full Series $45
Single Session $20

Topics

Mother and son

by Alex Stokman

A few weeks before rifle season opened, my son and I went to the gun range to sight in his .243 rifle. The man next to us said “I see more men bringing their daughters than mothers bringing their sons”

He’s right, we are an anomaly.

I’ve been hunting deer for over twenty years. I took a break for the early years of motherhood. Now motherhood brings me back to hunting. My son, now age 11, is eager to hunt. He likes eating venison and knows the only way to fill the freezer is to put in the time and effort to harvest a deer. But this isn’t always easy.

Last year, my son became eligible to hunt as an Apprentice Hunter. This is a relatively new FWP program (created in 2015). As our first step together, although not required, we (mother and son) completed hunter safety.

Now we look forward to and plan our special two-day youth hunt, just prior to opening weekend. This year, we sat, we walked, we talked, we ate snacks. We scouted, and sat, and walked some more. We not only hiked the ups and downs of the terrain but emotions too; excitement, boredom, fatigue, disappointment, frustration.

My son commented, “This is hard work, I just want a deer.” It is difficult, and patience runs short. After 4 days of sneaking, standing motionless and still spooking the deer, we were drained.

On a rainy all too early Sunday morning, we were finally able to creep up on a small group of does. We watched them as we made adjustments; removing gloves, shouldering the rifle, sighting in as the does grazed 75-100 yards away. Waiting.

The rain helps cover your scent and sounds, I was thankful for that but we were also, getting cold and wet.

When he was confident in his aim, a shot rang out. I watched, as did he, that doe run away. Disappointment and tears filled his being. All too often we miss, flinch, get too excited and lose focus. I want him to succeed, but teaching him failure is one of life’s difficult lessons for both mother and son.

Trying to stay calm and comforting, we waited and watched. The group of does had not moved too far away. We walked into the spot we had last seen his doe. There, in a clump of grass lay his deer. A new wave of emotions, disappointment transforming into confidence and joy.

Motherhood and hunting are a lot alike. The ups and downs of emotions, failures, and successes. We keep trying, accepting when we miss and celebrating when we don’t.

Reflecting on this emotional weekend, I asked him if we would go hunting again next year. “Sure,” he said. “Why?” I asked. “I hunt because you do, mom.”

Education, Plan to Hunt, Public Lands, Topics

Teaching yourself to hunt

Learning to hunt as an adult can be difficult. While you need and want mentors, you have to take ownership over your learning in a way that you didn’t need to when you were 10. Oftentimes, it feels like you are teaching yourself how to hunt. In many ways you are because you need to make sense of things with your adult brain and your adult relationships.

Two years ago, my friend Sarah and I decided to teach ourselves how to hunt antelope. We’d both hunted and killed deer before, but we really had no idea how to nab a speed goat. That first year, we engaged in behavior that would have frustrated many people in my life to no end. We sat on the side of the road for 15 minutes strategizing our approach. We hemmed. We hawed. We debriefed for hours. We came home empty handed.

After our second year out, here are some things I’ve learned about teaching myself to hunt:

It’s hard to find the time. Really hard. Work, family, and other things in life get in the way. We put in for area 700 and decided to hunt the Brodaus/Alzeda triangle. It’s 7 hours away, and our hunting trip was seriously shortened by the travel distance. You don’t have to be crazy like us, but, if you’re in Missoula, you’ll need to do some traveling if you want to hunt with a rifle. Take a day if you can, but if you have four hours, take four hours. You don’t have to commit to a week. Commit to what you can.
Experienced hunters can tell you the same thing in a million different ways but it won’t make sense until it does. As a teacher, one of my favorite sayings is you can’t teach anybody anything, you can only create opportunities for learning. Opportunities for learning only happen in the field. Be smart and be safe, but get out there because you can’t learn how to hunt from a book.
Experiential learning is best when you have someone to debrief with, strategize with, and laugh with. So, grab a buddy. It doesn’t matter if they know more, less or the same amount. What matters is that they support you the way you need and want to be supported. (It’s a bonus if they still think you’re funny after 3 days in a truck!)
Call a friend. Sometimes, you just need to ask someone who knows. Find an experienced hunter who doesn’t mind if you call them at 7:00am with a question about the difference between BLM land and BMA land. Find someone who won’t laugh or get frustrated when you ask the same question for the tenth time as you struggle to make sense of it. Put that person’s number in your phone. (FYI, Alex and I will volunteer for that position!)

The cooler is still empty this year. We both had antelope in our scopes, which is more than we could say last year. For our own reasons, we decided not to pull the trigger. I could tell you why, but I’m not going to because hunting is a little bit like sex. If it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t feel right. If you don’t want to, you don’t want to. And you never have to offer an explanation.

We learned a lot this year. We had a lot of fun. And are excited to try again next season.

SarahEderer.Antelope2017 — Glassing at sunrise.

Topics

Sighting In

Getting to know your gun is the most important skill for new hunters. Knowing your gun means taking responsibility for your equipment and being familiar with your range as a shooter. Knowing your gun means safe hunting and ethical kill shots.

I recently got a new scope for my 7mm08. It was a birthday present from my dad for my 40th birthday. Taking up hunting changes your gift requests. I spent a couple of hours at the range sighting it in and getting comfortable behind it.

To start, I took out the bolt and looked down the bore. I moved the gun around until I could see the target through the barrel. Then I shot. Then I adjusted the scope for elevation (up/down) and windage (left/right). Then I shot again.

In the picture below, you can see me slowly walk it in to the bulls-eye. My first 2 shots were in the 6 ring. You can use math to get to the center more quickly, but I’ve always been an experiential learner…

Next step, take it to the 200 yard range and zero it in for antelope hunting!

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Opening weekend for rifle season is less than 10 days away . . . Read more about weapons and ammunition.

posted by Shadowhunter