The hunter’s nickname is “Deerslayer” and for four straight years she has put venison in the family freezer. Her latest trophy was an impressive mule deer with a 4X4 rack that is being mounted.
The hunter’s name is Shantell Boylan and at 13, she is already a veteran hunter.
“She’s one heck of a shot,” her father, Nathan Boylan, of Fairview, said.
Shantell Boylan is just one member of the fastest growing segment of the hunting population in New Mexico and across the United States: female hunters. A survey by the National Sporting Goods Association shows that from 2001 to 2005 the number of female hunters grew by 72 percent across the country.
“It’s very exciting and wonderful to see that,” said Jennifer Morgan, assistant coordinator of the New Mexico Hunter Education Program. “I see the increase myself in my classes and all the instructors I talk with have seen an increase as well.”
The numbers in New Mexico support Morgan’s claim. In 2007, 3,113 males and 763 females took hunter education classes in New Mexico, In 2008, the number of females taking the classes jumped to 847, while the males had a more modest increase of 10 additional students, according to figures provided by Program manager Kari Boynton. This appears to be a part of a longer term trend. In 1999, 3,475 males participated in the Program compared with 602 females.
Hunter education classes are taken by first-time hunters as a prerequisite for obtaining a hunting license and are a good indication of the number of new hunters.
With the percentage of new women at over 25 percent in New Mexico, the state far exceeds the national percentages for total hunters. A 2006 National Survey by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service put the percentage of women hunters at just less than 10 percent of 12.5 million total hunters.
“I think it’s a great thing, getting women hunters involved,” Nathan Boylan said. “Truth be known I think women are better shots then men.”
Shantell Boylan took her Hunter Safety Course when she was 7 years old.
“She was so small, I had to have a gun made especially for her,” Nathan Boylan said.
Shantell shot her first buck with a specially fitted .223 caliber rifle and now shoots a .270 caliber. She thinks it is important to make a quick kill and has only needed one shot to bag her prey.
“I was taught to make a good, lethal kill,” she said.
Shantell Boylan is not the only accurate shot among young female hunters in the Española Valley.
“We call her, ‘One-Shot Angelica,’” Ray Holmes said of his 15-year-old daughter.
In 2008, Angelica Holmes, of Arroyo Seco, tagged one of the most sought after trophies in North America. Holmes bagged a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep with one shot after beating out over 3,000 applicants for the one youth bighorn tag offered. She shot her bighorn in the Pecos Wilderness Area while being guided by her father.
“When we took her bighorn head in to get sealed, there were other hunters there who had paid thousands for an outfitted hunt and her ram was just a couple of inches smaller than theirs,” Ray Holmes said.
Angelica Holmes has had good fortune in the big game license drawing. This year she drew a tag for an elk hunt in which only 25 licenses were available among a field of 746 applicants and drew a deer hunt in which 759 candidates applied for 150 licenses.
Angelica Holmes passed her hunter safety course when she was 10 and bagged her first deer one year later during a youth deer hunt on Caracas Mesa in northern Rio Arriba County. She has since bagged another deer, a turkey and last season added a mountain lion to her collection of trophies.
Angelica is not the only female hunter in the Holmes family. Her 11-year-old sister Deseray went on a bear hunt Monday and both girls will go on an antelope hunt this weekend near Clayton. This is Deseray’s first season hunting with her sister and father.
“I love it that I get to hunt with my daughters,“ Ray Holmes said. “When I’m out there with my girls I think I’m more excited than they are.”
Ray Holmes learned hunting from his father, who recently passed away.
“At the end, all you have is memories,” he said. “That’s what I’m making now hunting with my daughters.