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PART V: Activism and Shooting Sports in the Shadow of Gun Control together a team of editors, writers, graphic designers and photographers, and set to the task of creating the preview and subsequent early issues.  e feedback was more than the board could have hoped for. More than , members subscribed that rst year, signaling in a substantial way that e American Hunter was lling a void le by the available “gun-guy” and “outdoor living” magazines of the time. In e American Hunter, the created the world’s rst pure-hunting magazine.  Within a few years, it was obvious that the gamble had paid o . At the annual meetings in the spring of , as membership numbers  continued to swell, the cemented  e American Hunter as an O cial Journal, allowing members the choice of receiving it or e American Ri eman every month as part of their association bene- ts. By , a time when the . . reported historically peak hunter participation numbers of million men and women annually taking the eld, the was delivering more than million monthly copies of  e American Hunter to mem- bers. Despite the current decline in hunter participation, that proof-of-concept remains undeniable today; next to time at the range, hunting is the primary way gun-owning Ameri- cans use their rearms. HOME OF THE OUTDOOR WOMAN American Hunter dropped “ e” from its title in , at the same time American Ri eman did the same. But American over the years. In the ve-page feature story, Fadala provides Hunter has promoted and encouraged women in the eld a detailed description of eld-tested boots, garments,  guns since the very rst issue! Titled, “ e Outdoor Woman,” and gear that proved suitable, including guidance that “the this regular column showcased the real-world experiences of brassiere must t exactly, I am told,” and the suggestion that female hunters, their valuable insights treated no di erently women looking for cold-weather down garments ought to than those of their male counterparts.  consider “kits which the lady can sew herself,” as they are From mothers and wives like Joan Cone,  who’s  bagged “cheaper than complete garments and each piece can be tted.”  more pheasant and quail with a shotgun than most hunt- When it came to rearms, Fadala lamented the lack of guns ers could even dream about, to traveling hunters like Leora designed for women and discussed his search of youth guns as Co ey, who’s solo hunting exploits have taken her and her well as cutting down stocks of some of his ri es, none of which ri es to such notable places as the plains of Africa, the South proved ideal for t and recoil mitigation. rough trial and American jungles of Paraguay, the frozen  tundra  of Alaska error, the duo eventually settled on a few rearms of the day and as Leora put it, the “Shangri-La” that is New Zealand, that were sized better for Nancy, including a -gauge Rem- these early tales—and the women who authored them— ington Lightweight, a  light-recoiling  Sako small-action paved the way for the growth in female hunters we experi- chambered in a “ mm wildcat” with which she could routine- ence today.  ly “pop holes in the bull every time at yards,” and the “little It s interesting to note that while the availability of hunt- Ruger Bearcat” that t her hand perfectly.  ing guns and gear tailored to women has increased in recent years, allowing  them  to nally take to the eld as comfort- THE RACE TO FIRST ably protected and properly out tted as men, generations of The October issue of The American Hunter was the first female hunters know the struggle of trying to make do with pure-hunting magazine to be published in the United States, ill- tting gear designed for men. It was an issue  American beating delivery of the first issue of Petersen’s Hunting by only Hunter sought to bring to light early on in a May col- one month. Today American Hunter remains the largest circulat- umn titled, “Lady Outdoors,” wherein the author, Sam Fada- ing pure-hunting magazine in the world, delivering magazines to la, spoke to the di cult process of out tting “his lady,” Nancy, roughly million mailboxes every month.