Leave it to women to pretty up the place

For as long as I've been hunting, I've maintained that women make hunting a better place. Just as we can take a skanky bachelor pad and turn it into a livable home that smells, if not good, at least not bad, so can we improve the conditions of hunting.

My friend Dana can turn a duck blind into a luxurious, heated breakfast resort. As for me, let's just say the waders in my house smell a lot better since I started taking care of the post-hunt air-out and clean-up.

Now we've done it for guns too. Last year, Gander Mountain started selling pink rifles and shotguns to cater to the higher aesthetic demands of women shooters, and women loved 'em. But guess what! Turns out tha boyz thought it was a pretty cool idea too.

“(W)e heard from parents and their sons requesting a unique firearm made just for boys," said Gary Buescher, Vice President for Hunting and Firearms, in an announcement Wednesday. So now Gander Mountain is going to start selling two blue long guns - the Remington Model 870 Jr. 20Ga Pump Shotgun (shown above), and the Remington Model 597 22LR Semi-Auto Rifle.

The chain is also expanding its pink offerings, adding a full size stock Remington 870 pump shotgun and a full size Remington 11-87 semi-automatic shotgun.

Of course, I'm not much of a fan of pink - with apologies to my girl Keli Van Cleave, the pink huntress - so I'd actually rather have a blue gun. But of course I am delighted that the industry's desire to cater to women has made hunting a prettier place.

And to all of you grumbly guys thinking, Geez louise, why does hunting need to be pretty?, I say this: For the same reason most bachelor pads ultimately must succumb to a woman's touch - if you want a woman in the house, the house has got to make her happy.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008