MAPLE LAKE, MINN. Celette Couette remembers the reaction she got when male hunters spotted her in a deer stand back in the 1950s:
"They'd do a double-take; some would talk to me, but others would move off without saying anything," she recalled.
Hunting was mostly for men.
But that didn't bother her, and for more than a half century she never felt out of place toting a shotgun or rifle afield with her husband and son to pursue ducks, pheasants, ruffed grouse or deer. For the family, hunting, fishing and a love of the outdoors has been an integral and essential part of life.
And she was always a full-fledged participant.
That's why Couette, a spry and lively 80-year-old, of Maple Lake, was in the north woods last week with her son, Bill, 48, rekindling a cherished family tradition. Though her husband, Russ, died seven years ago, mom and son keep the tradition alive. It was her 50th deer season. Shortly after 10 a.m. on opening day, perched alone in her chair on a ridge near Northome, she squeezed the trigger of her 30.06 rifle, bagging her 52nd deer.
Later, back in their motel room, mom and son celebrated, as always, with a sip of apricot brandy.
"That's another tradition," she said, chuckling.
A man's world
She never felt like she didn't belong out there.
"I love being outside. I still do. I've got to be with nature," she said the other day in her rustic home overlooking Maple Lake, west of the Twin Cities. Her family room is testament to that: It resembles a hunting lodge, with mounts of deer, caribou and elk, a pheasant, goose and duck, and a bearskin rug.
Outside on the lawn, cement deer welcome visitors.
She knows that, as an 80-year-old female hunter, she's a rarity. And she feels she was a pioneer of sorts.
"Oh, I was, yes, very much so," she said. "There's a lot of women out there now."
Today, about 9 percent of the state's 700,000 hunters are women, but that's likely far more than hunted in the 1950s, when she started.
Celette grew up in south Minneapolis, and fished with her brothers. But she didn't start hunting until she married Russ Couette in 1953. He was a lifelong hunter and catalyst for the family's love affair with hunting. She started hunting ruffed grouse.
"He taught me how to handle a gun."
A few years later, he convinced her to try deer hunting. She declined a new deer rifle, and used her .20 gauge shotgun with slugs for her first hunt in 1956. And what a first hunt. She bagged her first deer ever on opening day, and four days later shot a 10-point buck that weighed 260 pounds, field dressed.
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