Think bowhunting is just the boys? These women are here to prove you wrong.
"I very much look forward to this time of year," said Heather Vanlanen, an avid bowhunter. "When it starts to get a little crisp outside when you walk around you're like, it's almost bow season."
For Vanlanen, hunting has always been a big part of her life.
"My dad had no boys, he had two girls," she explained. "So my sister and I learned how to hunt early. He'd always bring home a buck and we'd be like, 'Oh cool, Dad brought home this really awesome buck!'"
Hunting also runs in the family for Jennifer Eldridge of Green Bay.
"Women are doing a lot of things that men are doing and in this day and age, why shouldn't women do it?" said Eldridge.
These women are just two of many showing a new side of bowhunting in Wisconsin.
"License sales by women have increased, actually almost doubled since 2007," said Jeff Pritzl with the Wisconsin DNR.
Eldridge shot her first deer this year, which also happened to be an 8-point buck.
"Once you know that feeling, that adrenaline rush, I was like, 'I need to get another one,'" Eldridge said.
That's a feeling Heather also knows well.
"My heartbeat, the thrill, the rush, the adrenaline that you can get just doing that," she said. "It's amazing."
As more women get into hunting, these two said they appreciate seeing new products designed for them.
"They have a lot more women's clothes, a lot more fitted clothes, they're not always baggy on you if you want to pull back a bow or pull up a gun or whatever it is," Vanlanen said.
But there's one thing they're not always a fan of.
"Just cause it's a female thing, I don't want pink all over everything," Eldridge said.
"I mean I like pink, I have some on my arrows and everything, but I don't want to be sitting the woods and someone go, 'Oh there's a woman out there,'" explained Vanlanen. "I'd rather just be like everyone else, like one of the guys, and go out there."
And both women said they plan to continue the family tradition.
"It doesn't just have to be a father, son. It can be the whole family," Eldridge said.
