LOCALadk Magazine

60 Winter 2018 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Five years ago, my husband, Jeff Caro, and I signed up our daughter, Raven, for a shooting club called the Saratoga Sen- tinels, through the Saratoga 4-H Club. None of us were into firearms at the time, but it sounded fun and seemed like a good skill for her to learn. The club leader, John Flynn, who is a long-time friend, asked if I would help out. One day John put a .22 rifle in my hands; that's when I fell in love with the shooting sports. In the years since, I have become a New York State Shooting Sports Instructor for rifle, pistol, shotgun, and muzzleload- ers. I also attend the Shooting Sports Committee meetings, where I have met a host of Department of Environmental Conser vation (DEC), National Rifle Association, and New York State (NYS) Shooting Sports Instructors. Raven joined one of the best Junior Rifle teams in the countr y: the Gal- way Jr. Rifle team. She is also a NYS Shooting Sports Instruc- tor for rifle, shotgun, and pistol. Jeff is also a NYS Shooting Sports Instructor for pistol. What started as a hobby has be- come a family passion. A DEC Hunter Education instructor I met through the committee meetings told me about the Becoming an Out- doors-Woman (BOW) program. BOW, run by the New York State Department of Environmental Conser vation (NYS DEC), is designed for women to learn outdoor skills. It sounded perfect to me, so I decided to attend with Raven. My friend, Micky Elliot, was able to get the Saratoga County Council of Fish and Game Clubs to sponsor us for the weekend of work- shops held in September 2017, at the Silver Bay YMC A in Lake George, NY. The list of the classes we had to choose from was long, but here's a shortened version: rifle, trapping, fishing, paddle boarding, big game hunting, camp stove cooking, backyard wildlife, backpack camping, kayaking, taxidermy, map & com- pass, outdoor sur vival, field dressing game, food preser va- tion, plant identification, birding, beginning snorkeling, ca- noeing, backyard mushrooms, Dutch oven cooking, outdoor photography, and much more. Women come from all over to attend this yearly event. Each class is approximately three hours, and ver y hands-on. As you can guess, it's difficult to narrow your choices down. Participants choose one class for Friday, two classes for Sat- urday, and one class for Sunday. That first year I planned to take classes in medicinal plants, field dressing game, turkey hunting, and muzzle-loading. Un- fortunately, the medicinal plants instructor had an emergen- cy, and was unable to make it. So that left three classes on my list for the weekend. Field dressing game was eye-opening. We had access to DEC collected deer, squirrels, pheasants, and fish. The deer had died from run-ins with fences or traffic. I was glad that the DEC used these resources rather than letting the animals go to waste. In the class, the instructors, Lou and Angie Ber- chielli, taught us how to make the correct cuts on the ani- mals, how to remove entrails and skin, how to butcher and pack the meat for freezing, along with how to cook it. Ever ybody was encouraged tr y the first cut to open the animal's body and remove the entrails. Lou, Angie's husband and co-instructor, was so good at teaching this that ever yone Becoming an Outdoors-Woman By Patti Caro Photos provided

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