58 Nebraskaland • January-February 2024
hunting would prove to be the perfect initiation — Harleigh
had experience shooting trap with her boyfriend, who shoots
competitively.
"I felt so excited to shoot my fi rst bird — the almost shaky
anticipation of waiting for the bird to pop up, and when it
does, it's almost like watching it in slow motion, and sweeping
your barrel over the bird to just the right spot so that you can
really hit it. And then watching the poof of feathers as it falls
and kind of being in shock that, 'I got it!' I believe I hit two
pheasants and a chukar that day," she said.
The hunt gave Harleigh confi dence where she felt lost or
overwhelmed before. She felt lucky to be guided by Game and
Parks' Christy Christiansen and Julie Geiser.
"It was great to walk into the fi eld with them and have
them give me advice, in saying 'slow down' or 'stop,' 'wait'
and 'look that direction,' and helping me spot things that I
wouldn't have necessarily spotted as a new hunter," Harleigh
said. She also learned how to clean and take apart birds,
which had been a mystery. BOW and Women on the Wing
instructors broke down every aspect of upland hunting, step-
by-step.
"They made me feel like I wasn't so unknowing, and they
During a mentored Beyond Becoming an Outdoors-Woman deer hunt in Lincoln County, Lisius waits in a pop-up blind with
her rifle and checks the height of her monopod. JULIE GEISER, NEBRASKALAND
