Welcome ReelCamoGirl Brand Champion- Erin Crooks

Hi friends and followers. Meet Erin! Erin is our newest ReelCamoGirl Brand Champion. She truly embodies what it means to be a ReelCamoGirl. Erin used to work in Alaska as a fishing guide and as an outdoor athlete, would run her dogs on the mountains at night. She met her husband there when he was on a work trip. After dating long distance she moved to Virginia, they got married, and had a son, Gus who is the cutest little 3 year old guy you have ever seen!

As you can imagine, Virginia Beach life was vastly different than Alaska fishing life. She needed something else to do, so she and a friend opened a gym. This lead to her running ultras and back to the mountains for races.

Erin's love for being an athlete, for fishing and for hunting is why we asked her to be a part of our team. Hunting alone doesn't make a ReelCamoGirl. She does it all. Please welcome her.

Erin's Hunt Story:

From West Coast to East Coast

I grew up in Oregon watching my dad hunt and going fishing with my grandparents since before I can even remember. I didn’t know a lot about hunting and fishing but I knew I loved tagging along and doing whatever anyone told me to do. Cast here, ok. Tie knots like this, ok. Step lightly, ok. I tried to soak up every bit of knowledge I could from day one because I never wanted to have to rely on anyone else. I didn’t want to be the girl who could only go fishing or hunting if I had someone with me to tell me what to do and do things for me. So I took every piece of advice, every lesson and every story I was ever told and did my best to remember it all. Erin 1

Now I grew up watching my dad hunt. But I didn’t get into hunting myself really until I was 21 years old. As a little kid we would hunt squirrels, and birds. But we only tagged along to watch or stay back at camp for any big game hunts. So When I was older and moved back to Oregon after traveling around Helicopter Logging. I told my brother he had to take me. I don’t remember why but for some reason I just was ready to go hunting. I didn’t want to pretend like I knew what I was doing and just go out and try to shoot a deer and end up wounding it. So every weekend I woke up at 3 am and packed lunches and met my brother to head out into state forest outside of Coos Bay, Oregon. We would head out on the logging roads, hike around and glass all morning for deer. I would listen to anything my brother had to say about hunting and tried to soak up as much knowledge as I could.

Erin 2 Second to last day of the season. We hadn’t seen any shooters yet. My brother had to work and I really wanted to go. So I decided at that point I was going to go with or without him because I was going to shoot a deer this season! I called up a girl friend of mine and had her meet me in town at 4 am. We grabbed coffee, and a few provisions to get us through the day. We spent the entire morning taking new logging roads, hiking every corner of every ridge and glassing every tree line and clear cut we could see.

I think it was around 10 am and we were about to call it for the day when we were headed back down the mountain and saw a doe run down this trail. That doe was the first deer we had seen all day and we knew we were right in the rut. So we quietly and slowly walked that deer trail through the trees just to see. Really we had no explanation for why we actually walked through those thick trees.

Erin

But 100 yards down that trail stood a nice 4x4 Black Tail Buck! I thought I was seeing things so I smacked my friend Ali who was standing next to me and told her to stop moving. I pointed towards the buck and thought to myself holy shi%^ ! There’s a buck and a big one at that! I had my grandma’s 30/30 Winchester with me. I spent a good time before the season target practice with the rifle so I felt confident shooting but I had never had so much adrenaline pump through my body I could barely hold that rifle still. I could only see his rack from behind a bush and a small section right behind his shoulder. Perfect spot. I pulled up my 30/30 and aimed at the buck standing maybe 80 yards away. I had open sights but I was locked into where I was going to shoot. Now if I could only calm my nerves!! Ali started to whisper to me “ Shoot It "

Erin 3 I took two deep breaths and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, just a click. I wasn’t loaded, there wasn’t a round in the chamber. All you could hear in the dead silence was that little click from the rifle. The buck turned his head towards me and just stared. My heart pumped even harder and a small sense of panic came over me so I took a few more deep breaths and as quietly as I could, I pumped the lever action rifle and set a round in the chamber. Put my rifle back up and locked back on him with my open sights. He stood there just staring at me. I was even more nervous now. I took a deep breath and once again pulled the trigger. This time it fired! And like that he was gone from my sight. I thought for sure I missed him. A sense of dissapointment grew over me. But Ali was all smiles and thought for sure I hit him! So we took off down the trail as quickly and quietly as we could and there I spotted his blood trail and not but 20 yards down a steep bank there he was laying. He was even bigger than I had first thought!

I remember being in such shock that I shot my first deer and neither my brother or dad were with me. I was as proud as I think I had ever been at that point in my life and couldn’t wait to call them.

Erin 4

Connect with Erin:

Intagram: en_cook

Snachat: encrooks

Email: erin.nicol.c@gmail.com

ABOUT REECAMOGIRL:

ReelCamoGirl is a lifestyle brand focused on ladies who love the outdoors.There is a growing need for a place for women to share their outdoor experiences, as well as an interest in clean eating and self-sufficiency. Through our website and social media networks, we offer a safe place where the ladies can share their pictures, stories, wild game and fish recipes, and news articles about conservation and hunting perspectives.

ReelCamo girls are strong, capable, kind, compassionate, nature & country-loving individuals. We encourage responsible and ethical hunting. We care about the land and wildlife management and about long term sustainability. We hunt, fish, dive, shoot and hike…for peace of mind, happiness, pure clean protein & connection to the outdoors. ReelCamoGirls can shoot a gun, draw a bow, track an animal, get CAMOed up, bait a hook, clean a fish and still be feminine.

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