Duck hunting jackets: Options for women

If you're a woman duck hunter who isn't built like a man, I'm guessing you've had a hell of a time finding a duck jacket that works for you.

Personally, I made do with a men's medium jacket from Gamehide my first three seasons until I got tired of the butt of my gun getting caught in all the extra fabric. Two seasons ago I switched to Drake because it was the only company I found that made a men's small. I love that jacket, except for the fact that the hood is too small, and therefore useless to me.

But what if even a men's small doesn't work for you? What are your options?

SHE Outdoor Apparel announced this year that it will be producing a complete line of women's duck hunting clothing: jacket, bib, waders, gloves. I hope to give them a test-drive later this year.

But if that doesn't float your boat, would another women's hunting jacket do?

To answer that question, I tested two women's hunting jackets: one from Prois (disclosure: I'm a member of its field staff), and another from the Haley Vines Collection.

Both jackets are hooded, waterproof shells (not insulated). Waterproof is essential for duck hunting - even if you don't hunt in rain a lot like I do, there's all that splash potential.

And the exterior fabric of both jackets is soft and quiet - you won't be making noise with either of them.

But what are the differences? And how well are they suited to duck hunting?

I'll start with the Haley Vines jacket, which I spotted this year at the SHOT Show. (Click here and go to the fourth slide to see the catalog page.)

This piece stood out because while it isn't a duck jacket, Haley Vines made it in the incredibly popular Mossy Oak Duck Blind camo pattern. I glommed onto it instantly (love that camo pattern), and the folks at Haley Vines were kind enough to give me one to try out before my duck season ended.

The most un-ducky thing about this jacket is the blaze orange Haley Vines logo on the sleeve and waistband, but don't let that throw you - it's small, and it blends in surprisingly well with the detailed camo pattern (you can barely make it out just below the left pocket in this photo).

This jacket is slightly more form-fitting than the Prois jacket, and it's about two inches shorter, with the bottom seam resting at the top of my hips. But I had no problem wearing layers underneath it, and the slimmer cut made it well-suited for wearing under the waders. (For what it's worth, the fabric is a bit stretchy too, so it doesn't bind.)

One of my favorite features was the snug-fitting cuff inside of the loose-fitting sleeve. It's good for keeping the wind out, but it surprised me with one more benefit: When I had to plunge my hand into the water to get a diving duck, that cuff kept the water out too. Now, I didn't do a repeat performance to keep testing it, but after one quick plunge, my wrists were dry.

This jacket also has a license-sized, zipped chest pocket on the left side in the lining.

The only downside to this jacket was the mesh lining in the front: When you put your hands in the pockets, there's nothing but mesh on the inside of the pockets, which means the cold will come right through it. This really isn't a huge issue when you're wearing the jacket under waders, but it might be a consideration for other types of wear.

Oh yeah, minor point: Haley Vines doesn't use conventional sizes like S-M-L etc.; it uses a 0-5 system (a women's medium translates into a 2). While I appreciate any attempts to eliminate the stigma of some of those labels, it just adds to the time it takes to figure out what size to order.

Retail price: $125.

Now for Prois. I tested the Eliminator jacket, which comes in Realtree AP HD or Max1.

Now, if you think it matters that this isn't in a traditional duck camo, I would encourage you to check out all the rage in duck hunting: old-fashioned camo:


People kill ducks wearing this stuff, which doesn't look a damned bit like cattails. You'll be fine.

So, on to the important stuff: The Eliminator jacket is roomier than the Haley Vines jacket, so you could layer underneath it and still wear it over the waders. When it's raining hard, that can be a good thing if you don't want all the rain to run down the back of your jacket and straight into your undies. It's also about two inches longer.

One of the coolest features of the Eliminator is the duck tail. Yes, it's got a duck tail, which is basically an extra long flap of fabric in the back to keep your padunkadunk dry, which is helpful if your padunkadunk, er, sticks out (as good padunkadunks should, thank you very much).

While I'm not sure that's super helpful in a duck hunting context, it does give this jacket extra functionality for other types of hunting. And if you don't want to walk around with the flap out, it snaps right back up into the jacket.

Another positive: The pockets are lined with the same windproof fabric from the jacket's exterior, so your hands won't get cold in the pockets.

While this jacket doesn't have the snug interior cuff that the Haley Vines jacket has, it does have Velcro straps that allow you to tighten the cuffs as much as you want.

Final bonus points: Made in the U.S.A.

Price: $170 at Cabela's.

Now, while both of these jackets will work fine for duck hunting, they aren't tailor-made for it, so they don't have some of the features that duck hunters really love, like external hand-warming chest pockets that you can access above the top of your waders, or big, roomy shell pockets.

But on the plus side, if you do other types of hunting in the rain, these will do double-duty.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Head Down: A brilliant innovation in duck hunting headwear - with minor drawbacks

I love showing duck hunters my new Head Down duck hunting cap that I picked up at the 2011 SHOT Show, because it never fails to get the same response: Holy cow, how come no one thought of this sooner?

(OK, one exception: Boyfriend's first response was, "Uh, could you have gotten more than one?" Sorry, hon!)

If you're a duck hunter, one look at this photo tells you everything you need to know.

But for those who aren't waterfowlers, here's the deal: Duck hunters spend a lot of time tracking birds flying all around them, and the trick is to cover as much of your face as possible - usually with the bill of your cap - while still watching the bird. Head Down puts a mesh window in the bill of the cap, which means your face is still covered, but you can see through the bill.

It's kinda like having an invisibility cloak for your face.

I picked up a free sample of this hat at the Feather Flage booth at SHOT, and that gave me two whole weekends of duck hunting to test it out before our season ended on Jan. 23. It took time to get used to this cap, but here's what I learned:

Tracking birds up high: Looking up through the mesh at high angles for more than a second or two at a time made me dizzy. Try it for a second - face straight forward and crank your eyeballs up as high as they'll go, then hold 'em there. Not fun!

Tracking low birds: This is where the Head Down hat shines: I found I could tilt my head down pretty far and look up without causing eye strain.

Pre-dawn: It was almost impossible to see birds through the dark mesh in pre-dawn light. Then again, that's when you least need to hide your face, so it's largely irrelevant.

Acquiring vs. tracking: Don't bother scanning the sky for birds through the mesh - it's too hard to find flying things and distinguish between, say, duck and cormorant. Instead, drop your head once you've acquired the sight of the bird.

Bright sun: The Achille's heel of the Head Down hat becomes apparent when you're hunting a north wind and facing south into the late-morning to early-afternoon sun. This is when you'll tell yourself, "Oh yeah, there's a reason we don't put holes in bills - we need to keep the sun out of our eyes."

When I was hunting north wind/bright sun conditions midday, I found myself struggling to put the sun behind the opaque parts of the bill to keep it out of my eyes. At least once, I switched to another hat under these conditions.

But if you don't have to face the sun or track birds across the sun, this hat works fine in bright light.

Gray days: This hat is perfect for gray days, as well as early morning and late afternoon when the sun is less intense than midday.

The upshot: Once I got used to this hat and learned when to look through the mesh and when to treat it like a regular cap, I liked it. But it did take getting used to, and it wasn't perfect for all conditions.

If I hadn't gotten one for free, would I plop down $15 for this? Yep. And it'd certainly make a great gift for your duck hunting friends. I'm pretty sure Boyfriend is expecting one before the next season begins.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Winchester Blind Side: Nice ammo, but what does it do to the ducks?

One of the things I was most excited to learn about at the 2011 SHOT Show was a new kind of waterfowl shot from Winchester: Blind Side.

Now, I'm not an ammo geek by any measure, but I am interested in anything that will help bring down ducks more effectively, which is what Winchester promised this shot would do.

Here's the short version of how Blind Side works: The steel shot is "hex-cut" with rounded edges, so the pellets looks like dice. This does two things:

One, it allows Winchester to pack the shell more densely, as you can see in the photo above. A box of 3-inch 2s in 12 gauge contains 1-3/8 ounces of shot, which is an eighth of an ounce more shot than Kent Fasteel's heaviest 3-inch load.

And two, the irregular shape creates more trauma on impact. It also slows the shot down, but not by much - at 1400 fps, this stuff flies only 25 feet per second slower than Kents with 1-1/4 ounce loads.

The trauma is the key here, and the Blind Side brochures hype it with almost alarming glee.

My first question was, "But what does it do to the ducks?"

In my house, we hunt for the table. Yes, hunting is super fun, and bringing down a bird effectively is really satisfying, but if you've reduced it to ground beef in the process, you might as well get your food at McDonald's.

The rep I spoke to had done field testing, but not kitchen testing. When Phil Bourjaily at Field & Stream wrote about testing this stuff on flighted mallards, he didn't mention bird damage. One of the regulars here, Hilary Dyer of Waterfowl & Retriever magazine, had shot Blind Side at ducks too, but she'd given away the ducks so she didn't know how they looked.

Fortunately for me, Winchester rushed me a couple boxes of Blind Side (3-inch 2s) gratis before the final weekend of duck season, and I actually hit a few ducks with it, so I can tell you how it works in the field and on the table.

In the field: I was not at my best when I used this stuff on closing weekend - I kinda shot like crap through most of January - and I can tell you that Blind Side did not make me a better shot. Not that I expected it to, but one can always hope, right?

But my experience led me to share Bourjaily's conclusion that if you hit a duck well with this stuff, it's gonna go down hard. I did very little chasing when I was using this shot if I hit the birds in the neck or body. With wing shots, though, it's pretty much like any other wing shot - you either break the wing or you don't, and the amount of chasing required follows accordingly.

One more note: I usually shoot 1-1/8 ounce loads, and I was worried about the extra recoil from a heavier load. But I didn't notice any difference in recoil at all. The biggest adjustment I had to make was lead, because I'm used to faster shot (1560 fps).

The autopsy: When I plucked and gutted the birds I shot with Blind Side, I was a little surprised, looking at the wounds, at how hard the birds had gone down. Normally a bird that falls hard will have lots of shredded innards - shot through the heart, or torn up lungs with lots of evidence of bleeding.

But some of these ducks had wounds that didn't even seem to penetrate the body cavity - something that would probably just cripple or sail a duck with the shot I normally use. The one exception was a poor little greenwing teal that I just murderated. Not pretty.

The table fare: When I was finished dressing these birds, they looked like I'd shot them with BBs instead of 2s. I'm thinking that would be the "more trauma" thing. Considering I spent most of this season shooting BBs or 1s, that means this shot did the same level of meat damage that I'm accustomed to, only I was slinging more pellets because they're smaller.

Dental damage? When Boyfriend bit down on a piece of the shot in a couple gadwalls we ate this weekend (and it always works that way - if I shot the duck, he gets the shot), it was no different than biting down on any other steel shot. And no, he didn't crack a tooth.

The fun thing about Blind Side is that when you set it down on the table to admire what you almost just ate, it doesn't roll around much. Of course, if you don't enjoy playing with your shot at the table, this might not matter to you.

So what's the upshot? When this stuff hits the market this summer, it'll retail for $17-$22, which ain't exactly cheap, though it's not as bad as Hevi-Shot.

But I can think of three circumstances under which it'd be worth paying that price: 1) If I'm shooting well and not wasting a lot of shot. 2) If I'm hunting without a dog and want to minimize my chasing. 3) If I'm hunting an area with dense cover and it's really important to drop ducks right where I hit 'em.

Crippling fewer ducks and losing fewer ducks is important to me, and I think it's worth paying more for anything that helps accomplish that goal.

Postscript: If you want to check out some really cool footage of how this shot flies, check out Bourjaily's post today on the Gun Nut blog. It includes footage of the unusual diamond-cut wad this shot uses.

My next post-SHOT Show review: The Head Down cap in Feather Flage camo.

This is the one that prompted every duck hunter who saw it to say, "Holy crap, why hasn't anyone thought of that before?"

Well, with two weekends of hard duck hunting, I got a really good understanding of how it works. Stay tuned for that review.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Something to cling to as duck season ends

OK, I have to admit I was a little obsessed with duck hunting stuff when I was walking the aisles of the SHOT Show this week in Las Vegas. It didn't help that I missed fantastic duck weather back in Northern California on Wednesday, and that every time I returned to my hotel room, I got to watch a mallard pair dozing in the Bally's fountain.

But at the back of my mind, a little voice was rising in panic. Oh no oh no oh no! Duck season's about to end!

There are just two weekends left before I'll have to put away the decoys and waders for 265 days. The rush will be over. Hunting will go into slow mode - a turkey here, a pig there. If I'm lucky.

Oh well, guess I'll have to spend my time at the ... Read more...
Oh yeah! The shooting range!

One of the first things I got to check out when I arrived at the SHOT Show on Wednesday was the Prois Hunting Apparel booth. As owner Kirstie Pike took me through the new additions to her clothing line, one thing leapt out at me: an awesome shooting vest.

I already have and enjoy one of Kirstie's Competitor shooting shirts and love it - there are shoulder patches on both sides, accommodating those of us who shoot left-handed, and the patches are well-padded.

But I'm really excited about the new vest, which will be available for sale this summer (and as a member of the Prois Field Staff, I might get access to it a little earlier).

Here's what makes this vest cool:

- Nice feminine cut, which you can see from the photo above. OK, I know, that's not the most important thing in the world. But it's NICE.

- In addition to front cargo pockets for shotshells, there's a rear pouch for hulls that also opens by zipper across the bottom to make it easy to dump the shells at the end of your shooting day. LOVE that!

- If you don't want to use the cargo pockets and rear pouch, you can actually remove them - they unzip completely.

Because the SHOT Show is a trade show, not a consumer show, you don't always get the opportunity to try things on there. But Kirstie had a floor model vest in my size and it fit beautifully. I especially liked the built-in belt that allows you to adjust fit perfectly.

The vest will retail for $139. If you'd like to see the full catalog description, click on the image below (and for that matter, if you'd like to see the full catalog, click here).


Nothing like a new article of clothing (or the hope of one) to brighten your outlook on the future. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to pack for tomorrow's duck hunt.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Nine fun finds for hunters at the 2011 SHOT Show

It's easy to get distracted at the SHOT Show - there are tons of shooting/hunting/outdoors exhibitors here in Vegas - so I attend this trade show with specific goals in mind:

1) Look for cool new stuff for women hunters (and if you missed it, check out yesterday's post on the new women's waterfowl line).

2) Look for anything cool related to duck hunting.

3) Try to meet hunting TV celeb Jim Shockey.

This year, No. 3 was an epic fail thanks to my "friend" Phillip at the Hog Blog. Here's how it went down in our text-message exchange:

Phillip (12:46 p.m.): your boy, Shockey, is up here

Me (12:47 p.m.): WHERE???

Phillip (1:03 p.m.): He was in the press room. (Emphasis added.)

Me (1:03 p.m.): That's where I've been this whole time.

So, thanks, Phillip, for waiting SIXTEEN MINUTES before finishing the damn sentence.

Anyway, I did really well on Nos. 1 and 2, so here are some of my favorite finds of the 2011 SHOT Show, mostly in alphabetical order, except for No. 1, which is too awesome to be anything but first on the list. (And guys, only three of nine are chick-oriented, so keep reading.) Read more...
Best duck hunting hat ever: I stopped by the Feather Flage booth today to see if there were any women's items in the coolest camo pattern in duck hunting. The answer was no, but then they showed me the most amazing hat ever, so obvious I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to think of it.

If you're a duck hunter, I don't have to say a word here for you to understand what you're looking at. But for those of you who are wondering what the big deal is, it's this: When you hunt ducks, you spend a lot of time trying to hide your face under the brim of your cap. This, of course, makes it hard to see the ducks, which causes you to do neck contortions reminiscent of Linda Blair in the Exorcist.

Head Down Gear basically cut a hole in the bill/visor of the cap and put mesh over it, so you can look up through the visor while still having much of your moon face and eyes hidden. I am totally wearing this Saturday at Delevan. Psyched beyond belief.

Disclosure: I got this cap free. No clue what it costs retail. It's pretty new.

Beretta Xtrema's newest feature - handwarmer grip! Yeah, you heard me, the Xtrema now has a built-in HAND-WARMER. You pop open a little lid on the bottom of the grip, stuff a chemical hand-warming pack in there, then close the lid.

Voila! Warm grip.


(Sorry for the lame image, but oddly enough, there were no detail shots of this feature in Beretta's media kit.)

Obviously Beretta thinks this will be a hit with men, because that's most of the market for this gun, but holy cow, women will love this. Our biggest problem in the marsh is cold hands, and this solves it. Zowie!

Price: Starting at $1,350 (and hell no, they did not give me a free sample).

Ducks & Bucks Cart Blind: This nifty device is a combination decoy-hauling cart/boat AND portable blind. The easiest way to see how it works is to check out the slideshow on the company's website - click here - but the short version is that the boat tips up and becomes a seat (with seat and back cushions) surrounded by a camo blind. There are slots on the outside where you can stuff grass or branches, whatever you need for the terrain you hunt.

The cart retails for $375, but the company has a season-end clearance sale now in which you can get it for $295 - pretty sweet discount.

It's impossible to gauge field performance in a trade show booth, but I did take a seat in this, and it was comfortable and afforded good field of vision in front, with little windows to the side.

You do have a blind spot behind you, which can be mitigated a bit by lowering the camo blind material. But the boat is basically your back wall, so you can't see through it. However, if you're 5-foot-8 like I am, once you stand up you can shoot in a 360 around the blind.

Looks pretty cool - I hope I can try this out next season.

Haley Vines' almost-duck jacket: I stopped by the Haley Vines Outdoor Collection booth and while the company doesn't have women's duck gear per se, it does have a waterproof jacket made in Mossy Oak Duck Blind (a pattern they chose because, simply put, chicks dig it).

I'm hoping to score a review sample and put it to the test in the field this weekend. Looks like the kind of thing that would work if you layer appropriately for your temperatures, or if you tend to hunt in warm-ish rain.

Price: $125

Sizes: 0-5 (and no, I have no idea what that means, but the floor model I'm coveting is a medium, so this isn't just for little pixies)

Heated wader sock: This merino wool blend sock from Heat Factory is pretty cool: a thigh-high compression sock (i.e., designed to stay up) that has a foot-warmer pack pouch on the end. The pouch takes one of Heat Factory's foot warmers (hotter than hand warmers), and it sits on top of your foot, not underneath it.

A friend today said that sounded uncomfortable, but I know I have plenty of room in all my wader boots, so I think this will be awfully nice.

Disclosure: I paid discount price for this pair of socks, and got a fistful of free footwarmers to fit in the pouch.

Loon Lake Decoy Company: I need more duck decoys in my house like I need blanks in my shotgun, but when I walked by Loon Lake's booth, I had to stop.

The first thing that caught my eye was the drake spoonie decoy, which is the one we have sitting on our hearth at home, purchased at a Cal Waterfowl fundraising dinner. Love spoonies!

But as I looked around, I found I loved the whole collection. The pintails have a true-to-life purple sheen on their brown heads, and all the birds are vivid and striking.

The company also has a collection of antique decoy replicas that are stunning. If you love buying decoys, check these folks out. They're good people.

Rocky Durango Flirt: One of my online buds has been telling me how much she likes Rocky clothes and shoes, so I was pleased to get a chance to check the company out for myself today.

I hope to try some of their hunting/hiking boots soon, but honestly, what really caught my eye (and heart) was this pair of Durango Flirt boots.

I am not a cowboy-boot wearer. I don't hang out in the country music scene. But orange is my favorite color and I'm a sucker for flame designs. Add a sensible sole like you see here (uh, SCREW high heels) and I'm sold.

Or in this case, gifted. The folks at Rocky said they'd send me a pair gratis. Yay! New shoes! Cute shoes!!!

Storm Kloth II women's jackets etc.: I have to file this under "way too warm to wear where I hunt," but I really liked Storm Kloth's offerings for women.

Storm Kloth II is a fleece laminate, and products the company makes with it are fully waterproof (score!).

Dede Speight designed clothes that she'd want to wear hunting - and does wear hunting - herself. On the vest and jacket, you'll see there's an interior drawstring to allow you to cinch the waistline to your own personal specifications. (In fact, it was that women's jacket on display that caught my eye.)

It looks super cozy and this whole waterproof fleece thing sounds pretty cool.

Winchester Blind Side: This is Winchester's new waterfowl shot, designed to induce the serious trauma that will bring a bird down hard.

Couple things going on here:

1) The steel shot is not round - the pellets are shaped like dice. The goal is to create big wound channels (not sure what that's going to do to the meat, but with any luck I'll get a sample and find out soon).

2) The second point of that weird shape is that it allows the shot to be stacked efficiently in the shell - you get a 1 3/8-ounce load in a normal 3 inch shell.


3) This shell has a "hinged wad" that apparently absorbs a bit of the felt recoil, which is good, because those funky stacking pellets leave room for more gunpowder.

I definitely look forward to trying out this shot. The test for me is going to be whether the awesome stopping power that Winchester promises is worth the "250% more trauma" to the bird, which I am killing for food. I will, of course, report back when I find out.

Velocity: 1400 fps

Price: No clue.

Availability: Initially, just for 12 gauge in 3- and 3 1/2-inch shells, shot sizes 2 and BB. Look for it in stores in a few months.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

Finally! A women's waterfowl hunting line

The first time I came to the SHOT Show - the mammoth hunting and firearms trade show put on by the National Shooting Sports Foundation - I spent a lot of time walking around looking for women's duck hunting gear. I never found any.

But this year, I was in for a terrific surprise: SHE Outdoor Apparel has just unveiled an entire line of women's waterfowl gear: waders, bib, jacket, gloves.

I was floored. And thrilled. This is an enormous commitment to make to a very tiny market - women waterfowlers number 131,000, at best, in the U.S.

SHE didn't have anything other than gloves that I could actually try on today, but here's what I can tell you so far:

Waders: The most brilliant thing about these waders is the sizing option: First, you pick your shoe size. Then, you pick your body size, ranging from S to XL.

After working with Cabela's to develop women's duck hunting waders, what I heard most from women was how much they wished they didn't have to settle for one-size-fits-all. These waders address that problem. Quite honestly, I don't know how SHE can afford to do it, because we're talking about very, very small numbers of women in each sizing option. But God bless 'em for doing it.

The wader design also shocked me, because, holy crap, it's feminine.

What I don't know is how it looks on someone who's not a beautiful, slim model like the woman you see in this photo. But my experience with SHE pants in the past has been that they worked well for those of us with the figures of mere mortals. (They're going to send me a pair later this year, so I can report back in full detail in, hopefully, a few months.)

For all my duck huntin' sistahs in the cold parts of the country, you're going to love these: 5 mm neoprene, boots with 1000-gram Thinsulate.

Price: $240 - steep. But at this point, it doesn't look unjustified based on the design - it's pretty carefully built.

Boot sizes: 6-10

Body sizes: S-XL

Only concern: They don't have a hand-warming pocket - it just wouldn't work with the zipper front you see here. But I'm happy to give them a test-ride to see how I like it.

Jacket: This jacket has a feminine cut that tells me it will work beautifully under the waders (how I prefer to wear my jacket), but SHE CEO Brian Zaitz told me it's cut with enough room to wear it over the waders (and with the beautiful cut of those waders, I can see it).

The jacket is made of brushed tricot with 200-gram Thinsulate, and it is waterproof (note: in the original version of this post, I wasn't sure whether it was waterproof, but I've confirmed it). There's a zip pack-away hood, magnetic pocket closures and fleece-lined hand pockets, which may make up for the lack of handwarmer pockets on the waders, assuming you wear your jacket outside the waders.

Price: $120 - well within the realm of normal for a duck hunting jacket.

Sizes: XS-XXL



Bib: I don't do any dry-land duck hunting - I have ZERO expertise on bibs - so I'll just give you the catalog details: brushed tricot, 200-gram Thinsulate, two chest pockets, full front zipper, knee side zippers, internal gaiters.

Click on the image if you want to see a larger version to check out details for yourself.

Price: $120

Sizes: XS-XXL

Glove: Lord, one of the most frustrating things about being a woman hunter is finding properly fitting gloves. This may be the only women's duck hunting glove, based on what I've seen so far. (If I'm wrong, e-mail me.)

This one I got to try on, and it was quality. It's a neoprene extended-cuff glove, with 600-gram Thinsulate, and unlike my other duck glove with an extended cuff, it was really easy to get my hand and into this (on the ones I have now, the lining gets all bunched up and I can't get my fingers into the finger holes - irritating).

Price: $50

Sizes: S/M, L/XL

So, when can you get this stuff?

For those of you who, like myself, still have a little bit of your duck season left, you won't be able to give these items a test ride in your last weeks in the field - this collection isn't available for sale yet.

Personally, though, I'm just happy there are some more options on the horizon for all of us duck huntresses.

© Holly A. Heyser 2011

A feminine upland vest? For real!

I've been in the market for an upland vest ever since I started hunting, but I've never found what I needed. It wasn't the shape of the men's vest that put me off - I mean, how could you possibly make something with a big ol' game-bag pocket pretty? It was the fact that my hunting stores never carry a men's small.

Then I went to the SHOT Show on a mission to find women's hunting clothing, and there in the SHE Safari catalog was this beautiful upland vest. It wasn't just sized for me; it was shaped for me too. It was the only upland vest I'd ever seen with a feminine shape, so I went online, added another $130 to my beleaguered credit card balance and waited for the mail to come.

When the vest arrived this week, I wasn't disappointed. The vest fits great, looks great and has lots of cool features.

Here's what I like about the vest so far:

1. Feminine shape. When I was a tomboyish little kid, I loved making people think I was a boy. My neighbor Tammy and I giggled whenever some kindly old person called us "son." But I'm over that, and while I don't need to look sexy out in the field, I no longer enjoy being mistaken for a male.

This vest is cut for a woman's curves, and the shape of the blaze elements accentuates those curves.

2. Cool front pockets: These roomy bellows pockets expand by undoing Velcro on the bottom that holds them close to the vest. But the best part is the flip-out shell holders:

If you want to keep the shell flaps out, you can pin them up with a Velcro flap on the vest just above the pocket.

3. Easy-to-clean game bag. Just unzip the top...


... then unzip the sides...


... and down she goes.

4. Fit. I have a difficult proportions: size small from the waist up, and size large from there down. Though I wouldn't mind an extra inch in the bottom hem on this vest, it still works for me, and I suspect the proportions are right for most women. (And if you have the opposite proportions, forgive me for not knowing how this vest would work for you, because I can't even imagine being so blessed.)

And as luck would have it, my university is on spring break next week, and I'm going pheasant hunting with my friend Dana on Wednesday. I'll be sure to let you know how this vest works out in the field. Woo hoo!

Check it out: Click here to see the catalog listing for this vest. You'll notice that it says "Available in May 2008." Guess I just I got lucky and got an early edition.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Click here for gear review policy and disclosures.

Women's hunting clothing comparison

I'm still working on field testing women's hunting pants. In the meantime, though, I thought it would be worthwhile to share what I've put together for Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors.

To see the article on the women's hunting apparel companies I found at the SHOT Show - SHE Safari, Foxy Huntress and Prois Hunting Apparel - click here. To compare the collections of these three companies - run by and for women - click on the chart below. It shows clothing lines, fabrics, prices, sizes and availability.




© Holly A. Heyser 2008

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Midwestern huntress insulted by troglodyte conservation employee

Oh joyous day! Today's the day I picked up my 2008 California sport fishing license at my local hunting and fishing store.

I love the experience of getting my license - I get as excited as a little kid thinking about all the places I'll go with that little piece of paper. And after a long season of hiding from ducks in often miserable conditions, the idea of kicking back on a boat with some beer in the cooler and a line in the water sounds pretty good.

Unfortunately, my huntress-blogger friend Blessed did not have such a pleasant experience when she picked up 2008 licenses for herself and her husband this week.

Get this: She goes up to the counter of her local conservation office and says she needs to get licenses, and the conservation employee tells her, "I'm sure it's not for you - do you have their Social Security number so that I can look them up in the system?"

When she tells him that in fact one of the licenses is for her, the guy ... well, you should go check out her post on it, because I don't want to steal the story. But I pretty much guarantee you that you'll wish you'd been there to smack the guy for her - at least verbally.

Blessed was especially offended because she went straight to her state agency to buy the licenses. Not to Wally World, but to the state agency that is really trying to promote women hunting.

I guess I've been pretty lucky - the insults have been far and few between for me. About the worst lately was when I went to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas earlier this month and had to visit the Duck Commander booth three times before anyone there took notice of me. Was it that hard to imagine that a chick staring intently at duck hunting products might actually be a duck hunter? Duh.

The silly thing is that there's no harm and plenty of good to be achieved in these situations by treating every woman as though she might be a hunter. Even if she's not, showing her a little respect is bound to make her feel better about the sport her husband, boyfriend and/or sons love.

And assuming that she might be a hunter could just make her feel welcome enough to try it.

Reminds me of what happened to me 12 years ago when I signed up at a tae kwon do school. I was just foolin' around, having fun taking classes, when one day another student said, "You're going to make a great black belt." It hadn't occurred to me before that I might take it to that level - but that was the day I decided I'd do it. Within three years, I had my black belt.

Ain't it amazing, the power that words have?

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

A new ethic for huntresses - or at least for this huntress

From the time I was a little kid, my mom raised me to "shop local." Support your local merchants, she told me. Make sure your tax money goes into local coffers.

I've tried to live up to that ideal my whole life, and when I started hunting, I applied the same standard, always aiming to shop at my local, independently owned hunting store unless it didn't carry something pretty close to I was looking for.

Going to the SHOT Show this weekend, however, changed that equation. From here on out, if there's a company that make women's hunting clothing that meets my needs, I resolve never to settle for the man's version of the clothing just because it's what my local store carries. And fellow huntresses, I really hope you'll make the same pledge.

Here's why:

When I was at the SHOT Show, I asked reps from a lot of clothing companies what they made for women - for hunting, not lingerie - and the answer was typically little or nothing. We already knew that, though, right?

But when I talked to the folks at Columbia, they told me they used to make a line of women's hunting clothing, and their retailers even did a great job of stocking it and promoting it, but women just didn't buy it. So Columbia pulled back - the company's not making women's hunting clothes anymore.

If I didn't know the statistics, I might've been taken aback by that. But I already knew that women hunters spend far less than the national average on hunting gear, according to the latest available stats on the matter from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Click to enlarge.

I already blogged in December about the need for huntresses to spend money if they want manufacturers to meet our needs.

But this weekend, I met the resistance: Pam Zaitz from SHE Safari. Shelah Zmigrosky from Foxy Huntress. Kirstie Pike from Prois. These are women just like us who went looking for hunting clothes, came up empty-handed and decided to do something about it and design their own clothing lines.

God bless 'em!

For Columbia, it doesn't pencil out to cater to our needs. Do you think it will be any easier for Pam, Shelah and Kirstie? Do you think they'll be in it for the long haul if we don't buy what they're selling?

Don't get me wrong: I'm not suggesting you buy anything that doesn't work for you. For me, the big test is how well pants fit, and how much of a pain in the pants it will be to return anything that doesn't work, because I know I'm going to have to buy this stuff online or over the phone. In the end (sorry, didn't mean to continue the pun), if their products don't work for me, I won't buy them. This ain't charity; it's commerce.

But we have options. And if we continue buying and wearing men's clothes and complaining about the dismal fit all the while, whose fault is it that there's not much on the market for us?

In case you're wondering, no, I'm not on the payroll of any of these companies. I'm just acting on the ethic my mom taught me: Support the merchants who support me.

L-R: The hunting apparel of SHE Safari, Foxy Huntress, Prois Hunting Apparel

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Prois Hunting Apparel - just for huntresses

And now for something a little different!

I loved what Foxy Huntress and SHE Safari brought to the SHOT Show, but today I found something really cool: Prois Hunting Apparel - "Serious Huntwear for Real Women."

This is not to detract from what Foxy Huntress and SHE Safari are doing at all, because I love both of their clothing lines.

But Kirstie Pike, president of Colorado-based Prois (pronounced PRO-iss), is producing gear strictly for the huntress - not for hunting wives on safari, not for street wear. I totally respect that.

Kirstie is a fellow tomboy who sympathizes about the kinds of body proportions that make finding the perfect pair of pants difficult (though if you ask me, she is rail thin). And as she went through the features of her clothing line, it was clear that functionality is of utmost importance.

The company's jackets are lined with nylon that doesn't get caught up on whatever clothing you wear underneath them. The pants have elastic and an adjustable strap on the sides of the waistband, and a side zipper and a drawstring on the hem of the pantlegs.

Click to enlarge detail.

The long-sleeved shirts - made with the same wicking fabric you get in running apparel - include thumbholes, which Kirstie assured me come in handy when bowhunting because they allow you to keep the sleeve taught and out of the way. "Do you bowhunt ... yet?" she asked. Man, she's got me pegged. I'm sure it'll happen.

And the jackets? They've got pockets in the lining - one right between your shoulder blades, one on your lower back - where you can put a heat pack to stay warm. Nice! I tried one on with a heat pack in the "scapular" pocket (between the shoulder blades) and got to thinking how nice that would feel out in a marsh in the middle of a storm.

Which brings me to camo. The current Prois lineup does not include waterfowling wear, but if the jackets were done in a waterfowling camo pattern, they'd be almost perfect with little or no additional modification. Kirstie said the company's looking into it, but can't promise anything for the duck huntress just yet. She's pretty adamant about not releasing it until she's been able to field test it thoroughly, so she won't rush to market.

Interestingly enough, Kirstie's website popped up a few weeks ago in my Google alerts, which notify me of anything new online that has to do with women hunting. So it was very cool not only to meet her, but to see her product line.

Kirstie Pike, president of Prois Hunting Apparel, with blaze hoodie

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Foxy Huntress - best of both worlds?

On Saturday, I found the beautiful feather-based camo pattern of Feather Flage - pretty, but not made for women. Then I found SHE Safari - a feminine take on traditional upland and big game hunting clothing.

And just when I was about ready to call it quits for the day Sunday, I saw it: gorgeous feather-based camo patterns on women's hunting clothing. I had found Foxy Huntress!

I had heard of Foxy Huntress before and hadn't given it much thought because I'm not too worried about being foxy out in the field - I just want to be comfortable. (And personally, if I had a women's hunting clothing company, I'd call it something obnoxious, like "Chicks with Guns." But the Foxy Huntress line is beautiful, and when I talked to owner Shelah Zmigrosky, I found out one of the reasons why: Italian fabrics.

Ooooooh. If there's two things the Italians do well, it's shotguns and couture. This could be a match made in heaven.

Just like Feather Flage, Foxy's camo pattern looks like it will work well while looking beautiful. And because the clothing is made of great fabrics and designed nicely for a woman, I could wear this to work and no one would know I was in my hunting clothes. In fact, Shelah said, she had to do that once herself - had to go to a business meeting and didn't have time to change, and she said she got loads of compliments.

As SHE Safari does, Foxy Huntress also produces clothes for the non-hunting women who like to look good when they go on safari with their husbands. Gotta love her take on leopard skin in these pants.

But Shelah has the huntress in mind in her gear designed for the field. The pants pictured above include a Velcro-latch crotch (with a soft lining, of course) so the wearer can take care of business out in the field without baring all.

That's what I'm talking about! Men have had front openings in their boxers and briefs for eternity, but it takes women hunting apparel designers to come up with something for us. It's about damn time.

One thing worth noting: Foxy Huntress is definitely on the higher end of the price scale, particularly compared with SHE Safari - many items list at more than $100.

Shelah doesn't want to go cheap, either. "Quality is my No. 1 thing," she said. "I don't want it to look homemade. I want clothes that look like they come from a couture shop."

But she told me on Sunday that she is lowering prices. Always music to shoppers' ears.

Aside from the beautiful clothing, the other great thing about Shelah's booth at the SHOT Show was that she had a dressing room. Ding ding ding ding ding! Like many women, I have to try things on to know if they're cut for me. As Sir Mix-A-Lot says, baby got back! (Translation: Padunkadunk! Booty!) Even if you have the best return policy in the world, I don't like buying clothes online and getting all excited about it if I think I might be disappointed.

So I dived into that dressing room and started trying things on, and walked out with a great pair of pants that convert to shorts and a hunting shirt, both in the green feather pattern. Spring turkey hunting is coming up, and that is the tiny window in which green camo is actually useful in California, so I can't wait to check it out.

The other camo color I saw at Shelah's booth was absolutely gorgeous, but I'm not sure where the rusts would fit in in my landscape. They'd look fantastic in a state where the indigenous forest breaks out into glorious fall colors, but that ain't California.

Now, if I can just convince her to come out with something in the gold that prevails on Califoania hillsides throughout most of the time I'll be hunting wild boar... And yes, she has some traditional safari colors. But I love that feather look.

Shelah Zmigrosky

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

Confessions of a huntress - and karma!

There was something I didn't tell you about this morning's SHE Safari press conference. Yes, I was impressed by the incredible lineup of huntresses and the cool clothing line and the new TV show.

But I'll admit it: The thing that really took my breath away was when Jim Shockey walked into the room.

Being a chick, I don't watch hunting TV to see hot guys. Ladies, you know what I mean. But Jim Shockey is definitely the sexiest guy in hunting television.

So what did I do when I saw him? Averted my eyes and did pretty much everything but introduce myself to him. I'm not an autograph-seeking kind of girl. I texted Phillip - editor of the JHO Journal and the author of The Hog Blog - to tell him that I was swooning over Shockey. Later, I even called the Boyfriend, who's aware of my Shockey crush, to tell him about it. The Super Bowl was going to be on soon, so he didn't really care. And that was it.

So, a couple hours later, I was back on the exhibit floor again, making a beeline toward the Gamehide booth to see what they might have for women, and who do I see there but Julie Kreuter from the Outdoor Channel's "Dream Season" TV show. She happens to be Boyfriend's very favorite hunting TV chick, which is saying something, because there are plenty of cuties out there.

Julie is just as adorable in person as she is on TV. And she was safe! I could introduce myself to her without a scintilla of embarrassment, tell her about my boyfriend's appreciation of her incredible beauty and even assure her husband that my boyfriend was safely 1,300 miles away.

Could I take her picture - for my boyfriend? No, her husband would take a picture of us together!

Thanks, Julie and Rick!

Julie Kreuter and me

© Holly A. Heyser 2008