Many women feel left out when it comes to hunting. They stay home while their husbands and boyfriends head off to deer camp to have a fun-filled weekend with the guys, or they go too and put up with all of the macho male bonding and S**T talking.
But not at my cousin Beth Rivers’ club, the Lightsey Hunting Club for Ladies, over in Brunson. She caters exclusively to women who hunt, and women who want to learn to hunt. Beth is a true Southern Belle who really enjoys the outdoors, and she runs a very nice club where the ladies can cut loose without the menfolk.
One of Beth’s members caught these bucks on her trailcam last week, and she was nice enough to send them over. The club has been very conservative about their buck harvest for the last few years trying to undo the damage the former club had done by killing all of the young bucks. And they now have a huge crop of medium bucks with quite a few mature ones too… and the buck caught trotting away is definitely one of them, and the other two should be there in another year or so!Now I wish she would email me a copy of the bucks that they actually photographed in the fields during daylight last year - one would easily go above 140″.
Beth and her club were highlighted three years ago in our local paper, the Hampton County Guardian, by Wayne Knuckles. I have copied the article here since they do not archive their stories online. I thought that everyone would enjoy reading it…
Talk about your major career changes.In the space of two years, Beth Rivers has gone from being a make-up artist for a cosmetics company to hunt mistress of her own whitetail deer hunting club.
Along the way, she’s not only transformed her own life, she’s leading the way for other women to take up the sport of deer hunting as well. Rivers runs Lightsey Hunting Club near Brunson in Hampton County, which caters exclusively to women who want to take part in a sport that has traditionally been the domain of male hunters.
Lightsey Hunting Club is one of the few-if not the only hunting clubs in South Carolina that caters only to female hunters. “I don’t know of any other clubs that cater exclusively to women,” Rivers said. “There aren’t any others that I’m aware of.”
That may soon change, however. Through programs such as the South Carolina Department of Resources Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) Program, more and more women are gaining exposure to outdoor activities-and finding that they love it.
According to SCDNR, the 8-year old program now has a mailing list of about 7,000 and its two annual weekends are filled weeks before the deadline.
In fact, it was a BOW class about five years ago that changed River’s life. “One day in the newspaper I saw a small article on the outdoor women’s program,” she recalled. “I went to the first class and I become totally addicted.” Rivers said she had been exposed to hunting by her brother as she was growing up, but never really had a chance to participate.
“I didn’t really know anything about hunting at all,” she said. “All I knew were they had these ladders going 20 feet in the air.” As she continued to attend classes and spend time in tree stands, Rivers began rethinking what she wanted to know with her life. “The more I was hunting, the less I was enjoying my work,” she said. “I’d be going down the road to work, but my mind was in the woods.”
Last year, Rivers was able to obtain a lease for 1000 acres of privately-owned land, complete with a bunk house for overnight stays, an she tried out her idea for a hunting club for ladies on a part-time basis. “I had met all these women who had nowhere to hunt,” Rivers said. “The first year, it was all word of mouth advertising. When I was turning down more money in a week than I could make in a month, I knew it was time for a change.”
Lightsey Hunting Club is opening its first full season with the goal of catering to “lady deer hunters (beginners-advanced) who are desirous of the sport and the art of the hunt,” according to a brochure Rivers has prepared. “Hampton County is a very popular area for deer hunting,” Rivers said. “The success rate has been really good. So far I haven’t had anybody come here and not see something. Last year, one girl killed four deer in three days.”
Lightsey Hunting Club requires no memberships fees are paid by the day. In addition to a variety of tree stands, including one huge stand overlooking a corn field that Rivers refers to as “the condominium,” transportation to and from the stands is offered, as well as grill and kitchen privileges. Harvested deer can be delivered to a nearby processor or they can be cleaned onsite for a fee.
Rivers will also offer special “bring your man” weekends during the off-peak hunting season so couples can enjoy hunting deer together. Rivers says more and more women will be hooked on hunting as they become exposed to it through programs such as BOW. “I like being out in nature,” she said. “I like sitting in a deer stand, being so still and quiet that nature comes back to the way it was before I got there, and seeing it as God sees it. I’ve let a many deer walk under my stand because I didn’t need the meat. I just enjoy being out in nature, and the friendships you make along the way.”
For more information about Lightsey Hunting Club, contact Beth Rivers at P.O. box 10, Brunson, S.C. 29911 or call (843)562-7099, (803)943-3132 or via e-mail deerrivers@yahoo.com.
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