Every year, some time during the annual hunting season, girls and women throughout the Southwest involve themselves with some aspect of hunting.
While for some, involvement is as simple as packaging meet or feeding game birds, others have been tracking, shooting, butchering and tracking game for as long as they can remember.
Below are the stories of four female hunters from Dove Creek, who, over the course of the last several years, have made hunting an integral part of their lives.
Fury learned from dad
A member of Dove Creek High School’s class of 2014, Jennifer Fury has been involved with hunting for as long as she can remember.
Fury explained that after hunting alongside her father throughout her early life, she took a hunter’s safety course and put in for her first elk tag at the age of 13.
“I just kind of grew up in a hunting family, and that’s all I knew,” said Fury. “I’d always go with my dad and help him find animals.”
Since beginning to hunt on her own, Fury has killed three cow elk, two bucks and a doe using a Winchester .270 rifle. The college freshman said that she generally hunts on her family’s land using a variety of hunting techniques.
“Sometimes, we drive around until we see something,” Fury said. “We also have a couple of stands, and we also walk through a lot of fields and canyons.
Guynes twins hunt together
Also members of Dove Creek High School’s class of 2014, identical twins Jessica and Corissa Guynes have become prolific hunters over the years.
After hunting with their father and two older brothers when they were young, the two girls purchased deer tags five years ago. Since then, each twin has shot and killed three bucks.
“The first buck I killed, we hiked two miles on part of our land, and it started snowing really bad,” said Corissa. “The buck I killed was by itself, and it kept jumping through brush and trees. I followed it and shot it.”
After Corissa killed the buck, the twin sisters transported it to their shop and hung it overnight. The next day, they skinned the animal and let it hang another night.
“Then we cut it up into different sections, took it into the house and packaged it up,” Corissa said.
Knuckles aids bird hunts
Another member of Dove Creek High School’s class of 2014, Shelbie Knuckles’ involvement with hunting has always been somewhat unique.
Since she was 6 years old, Knuckles has helped her dad raise pheasants and chukar for a local bird club. Knuckles has also assisted her father in loosing the birds prior to hunts.
“We would go down to the field where the hunters were going to be and I would swing a gunny sack with the birds above my head to get them dizzy,” said Knuckles. “Then open the sack, put the birds down in the grass and run away.”
Knuckles said that not long after, hunters would arrive in the field and flush the dizzy birds from the grass before shooting them.
“My dad would guide hunts, and I would go with him,” said Knuckles. “We had bird dogs that would go and find the birds.”
Now all first-year college students, Fury, Jessica Guynes, Corrisa Guynes and Knuckles said that they will probably be involved with hunting the rest of their lives. All four agreed that they hope that their children take up the sport and continue on long-standing family traditions.
“(Hunting) is a good bonding experience for everybody, and it’s just a lot of fun,” said Jessica Guynes.