Barnes Bullets

Joyce Wilson

Huntress Spotlight
Joyce Wilson

 

Unlike most of the women featured here, I didn’t grow up in a household that hunted or shot competitively. I grew up in the city and only remember shooting a firearm once as a child with my grandfather. At the age of 34, I found it necessary to take a handgun safety class in order to get a concealed carry permit. I’d had a rude awakening to the need for self-protection following a rough divorce.

After my initial exposure to shooting and the world of firearms, I liked it so well that I took a Hunter Education class. At the age of 35, I started hunting and harvested my first animal—an old 6-point whitetail buck that had broken off one of his antlers. I was hooked on guns, shooting and hunting. Golf was no longer an important part of my life! Women who don’t shoot and hunt have no idea what they’re missing in life.

From self-protection and hunting, I progressed to handgun shooting competition. Through competitive shooting in the International Defensive Pistol Association, I was blessed with meeting my husband. He’s continued to foster my love of shooting and hunting. Though I was high lady in many national level competition events, including a competition highlight of being IDPA Ladies Champion in 2000, my husband and I are no longer doing much competitive handgun shooting. We’ve pretty much retired from competing to pursue other interests, our primary interest being hunting with both handgun and rifle.

We’re really fortunate to have a game farm in the Northern Province of South Africa, and are able to hunt there basically on our own. It’s just an awesome experience to be able to spot and stalk an African animal all on your own! I’ve taken bush pig, kudu, warthog, impala, blue wildebeest and baboon all by myself—just like going out deer hunting in America. I’ve also been privileged to hunt in Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Australia. To date, I’ve taken three of Africa’s Big 5, including elephant, buffalo and leopard, as well as most plains game species.

Hunting is a very important part of my life. I’m very fortunate to be able to enjoy a lot of time in the field hunting. In 2007, I will have spent over 100 days hunting everything from small game in America to large antelope in Africa.

 

Nothing bothers me more than wounding an animal, so I am very selective on what shots I will take. I try my best to always place my shots in the vital area. When I do my part, I certainly don’t want my bullet to let me down. I want every advantage I can get to help make a clean kill. As far as I’m concerned, Barnes TSX bullets are the only choice when it comes to hunting large and/or dangerous game. Bullet performance is consistently flawless. The few we have recovered expanded into the classic X configuration and retained almost all of their original weight. However, we’ve only recovered a few from the bigger animals because most of these bullets provide full penetration and large blood trail..

Since most of my hunting is in Arkansas, Texas and Africa, I’ve migrated to some favorite rifles for those areas. Most of my personal experience has been with 168-grain .30, 210-grain .338 and 300-grain .375 TSX bullets. Most of my favorite deer/hog rifles are in .308 and the new .338 Federal calibers. My all-around favorite and the rifle I always take to Africa is my Sako Hunter .338WM. Having confidence in your firearm is very important to consistent hunting success and I have TOTAL confidence in my little Sako with Leupold scope, and the Barnes TSX I load it with. Of course, when I go after African or Australian big game like buffalo or elephant, I have to step up to the .375 H&H, which is about the largest rifle I can comfortably shoot.

To all the fine people at Barnes, thanks so much for producing such a wonderful product that actually performs as advertised.

—Joyce Wilson

 

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