The Ruffed Grouse Society, a national conservation organization, finished the first half of its premier Women’s Introduction to Wingshooting program offered at the Mt. Jewett Sportsmen’s Club in McKean County, Pa., in July. The second half of the program will be offered over a weekend in August. “We offer this program over a weekend in both July and August because the first weekend is safety and basic wingshooting. The women need to have a feeling of safety about them before we move to the next level of shooting. During the second weekend we get into how to hunt the different birds that you can shoot here in Pennsylvania,” said Kathy, an instructor from Kane.

 

“The August session is the ‘fun’ session as the women learn the finer points of hunting birds and handling dogs,” offered up Tammy, another instructor from Kane. “Once the women

graduate from this program in August, they will be offered the opportunity to hunt pheasants, chukars, and quail at a Special Retriever Training area as the grand culmination of their

wingshooting training,” finished up Bethany, an instructor from Ridgway.

 

The Women’s Introduction to Wingshooting program brings women from the point of never handling a shotgun before to the point where they can safely hunt birds, will learn to clean their harvested birds, and will leave the program with recipes for their harvested birds. Any woman or young lady over the age of 11 who is interested in this program for women for next year should contact Mary at wlhab9@gmail.com to get on next year’s list of invitees.