in East Dundee began tagging along on hunting trips with her dad and his buddies at the tender age of 14. “My father, grandpa and their friends would come home from hunting, and I would help them butcher the meat,” Berry says. “They said since I could do that at around 12 years old or so, I should come along with them next time.” Jim, Berry’s father, concurs. “If she could cut it, I thought she could hunt, too, so she went through a hunting course and came with us the next year,” the Elgin resident says. “Her first time out, I was sitting with her in a brush pile and she got a four pointer, and her second year she was in her own stand.” The father/daughter stories of that first outing line up perfectly. “My first time out with my dad, I saw a deer but wasn’t sure if it was big enough,” Berry recalls. “So, I asked him if is it was a good one, and he said go for it. My first deer was a four pointer, which means there were four points on the antlers.”
3 Berry’s next challenge in the woods is learning to hunt with a bow and arrow.
Knowing the rules
In addition to completing a hunting safety course before her first foray into the forest, Berry was sure to go to a range for target shooting using a couple of different firearms to get a feel for the skill. Experienced or novice, Berry says that every hunter has to remain aware. “Once, there were other people hunting close to where we hunt, so you have to
always know about your surroundings,” she says. “Plus, it’s easy to get lost in the woods because everything looks the same, so I suggest a GPS device. “You can always go old school and watch where the sun is to get a sense of direction, too,” she laughs. On another occasion, Berry noticed a deer take off even though the woods were completely silent. “It was a bobcat, and I just stayed still knowing that it’s more afraid of you,” she says.
A lone woman
Although the numbers of female hunters are up across the country, Berry doesn’t know of many other women who hunt. “There’s another employee at GAT that I know hunts, but most of the people around here grew up in the suburbs,” she says. “You definitely have to grow up with it to appreciate it. Most people I know are afraid of guns, and girls don’t want to get dirty and clean a deer. You have to let the deer sit for a while before you clean it, and it can be
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26 Kane County Magazine • November 2012
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