There’s change brewing in the hunting industry; more and more women are reaching for rifles and heading out into the field to seek the challenge, reward, and enjoyment that hunting brings. What was once a rare occurrence has become an underlying trend that has been steadily gathering momentum over the last decade and has now reached a point where ignoring it as a manufacturer, distributor, or dealer could be a foolish move.
In Germany alone, one of Europe’s largest and most significant hunting markets, women taking up the sport is certainly on the rise. The German Hunting Association (Deutscher Jagdverband), estimates that around a quarter of people applying for the hunter’s exam at hunting schools in the country are women – a figure that has increased by more than a fifth over the last decade.
An international trend
It’s not only Germany where this movement is taking off. In Norway, so many women are showing interest in country sports that the national association, Norges Jegerog Fiskerforbund (NJF), has a thriving programme of organised events and learning opportunities specifically for that audience. From rifle shooting lessons to seminars about moose hunting, to clay shooting practice sessions – there’s a packed events calendar for women shooters in Norway. The NJF also has a Facebook group (NJFF Jenter) specifically for women who hunt or want to get into hunting, which currently has just over 6,500 members.
Across the pond, the latest figures from the United States of America show the same trend. In the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, it was revealed [on page 23] in a survey of 14.4 million hunting participants, that 22 per cent were female. This equates to 3.1 million women – ignoring a market that size would be pretty crazy.
However, it’s one thing to pay attention to a trend, it’s another to understand it.
