Rebecca Francis, Hardcore Huntress

I have been extremely fortunate to harvest many large mule deer, elk, moose, antelope, dall sheep, bighorn sheep, black bear, brown bear, red stag, African plains game, and dangerous game.

My obsession with hunting began as a small child as I followed my dad and brother on every hunt while freezing to death. My love for hunting flourished when I married my hunting partner during the autumn bow hunt. We celebrated our honeymoon in a tiny two man tent high in the Alaska Chugach mountain range sheep hunting. We have subsequently celebrated all 14 anniversaries since, packed in on some type of hunt. I planned my life around every hunting season including school, work, children, and vacations. I refused to miss one hunt even at full term pregnancy. I hauled each baby on my back to the top of a mountain to shoot my deer and elk every year. As my children grew, I began school and would study many nights in a blind awaiting the perfect bow shot. I would leave school at 5:00 pm every Thursday night during hunting season, drive all night, saddle my horse, and ride several hours to my favorite hunting spot to arrive by sunrise. During each duck hunting season I would load up my kids, drive out to the river, shoot a few ducks, drive home, and have the ducks cooked by the time my husband arrived home from work.

I look forward every year to suffering from a sore butt in the saddle, rubbing elk manure on my pants to cover my scent, and crawling through sticker bushes for hours while stalking my trophy. I prefer to hunt alone with my bow and will stay anywhere, in any type of weather, after any kind of animal for days on end. I have even gone so far as to bare my white butt in order to mimic a bighorn sheep, so that I could sneak up to 28 yards for my successful bow shot.

I can't decide if I feel more at home in my own family room or in a sleeping bag in the mountains with a frozen nose and the sound of bull elk bugling throughout the night. Yet through it all, I have vowed to always celebrate my femininity by refusing to remove my earrings while hunting, always wear pink somewhere underneath my camo, and wash my hair at least every two days in the wild, with or without ice in the river. I am proud to be the most hardcore WOMAN huntress around!