COEUR d’ALENE — They took up arms and blasted away with different caliber rifles. They field-dressed a deer, shot arrows into foam bear and deer targets and discussed firearm safety and hunting ethics.

It was a full Saturday for more than a dozen women who attended the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s 17th annual Panhandle Region women’s hunting clinic at the Coeur d’Alene Rifle and Pistol Club.

Noreen Sullivan of Post Falls said she came out for the second year in a row.

“It’s so much information,” Sullivan said. “I wanted to catch the things I missed last year.”

If there wasn’t a clinic with the hands-on classes, she said, she would have had to learn by going out and doing it on her own.

“I feel more confident this way,” she said. “I can feel like a hunter.”

This year, she seriously tuned into the map and compass use training, and the archery. She’s hoping to take up bow hunting.

“It would be thrilling to have a buck that close,” she said. Plus, she said, she’d feel safer sitting up in a tree, in case a big bear came along.

Katherine Cousins, a biologist for Fish and Game, helped the women get the feel of different caliber rifles, coached them on their stances, and made sure they understood that hunting is a lot different than just standing in a range and shooting.

She blended the serious lessons with a good bit of humor.

“What you need to have is a love affair with your gun,” Cousins said.

“See, as women we give birth, so a little kick-back is nothing for us,” Cousins said.

Julie McKarley, a conservation officer with Fish and Game, said, “A lot of the attendees have very limited shooting experience, or some of them have none. We allow them to get comfortable with the different firearms that are out there.”

The clinic allows them to gain experience with different sights, different weights, and different recoils, she said.

Robin Sitar of Athol who’s done plenty of bird hunting, said she was there to learn about big-game hunting.

She wasn’t sure if she could do big-game hunting. Getting a little bloody during the field-dressing exercise told her what she needed to know about herself. The women took turns gutting, skinning, and quartering a deer (the animal had been struck by a vehicle earlier this year and frozen).

It was a messy lesson.

“I wasn’t sure if (field dressing) would be something that bothered me,” Sitar said. As it turns out, it didn’t. She said she’s ready to do it this fall.

If she could stomach field dressing a deer that had been run over by a automobile some time ago and frozen, a fresh kill in the wild shouldn’t be a problem.

McKarley, who taught the women field dressing, allowed, “Road kill definitely isn’t too pretty.”