ASCEND by Ducks Unlimited


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Creators and Guests

Host
Adrian Jessen
Adrian Jessen is a reviewer, writer, and adult-onset hunter best known as co-founder and on-camera host of the YouTube channel Review This Thing. Since 2020, she and her husband Robbie have published thorough, real‑world reviews and tutorials on optics, firearms, archery, and outdoor gear—built around a promise to be complete, honest, and unbiased. Adrian also contributes to titles such as North American Deer Hunter and Crossbow Magazine. When she isn’t testing new kit, she’s likely chasing spring gobblers or helping new hunters choose reliable gear and build safe, ethical skills.

What is ASCEND by Ducks Unlimited?

Ascend is a multimedia platform that spotlights the millions of outdoorswomen across our country who go hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, biking, running, and perform important conservation work every day.

Our web series and podcast feature guests who share their experiences with a focus on entertainment, education, and authenticity. Our viewers and listeners will get to know them and learn all about their passion for the outdoors. Whether you've been in outdoor communities all your life or are just getting started, Ascend is the place for you to follow your story!

Brought to you by Ducks Unlimited.

Laurel:

If a girl is trying to give me an excuse as to why she can't come, I will find the quickest way to prove that excuse wrong. I'm like, you gotta just come, dude.

Adrian Jessen:

So if a lady has never shot a shotgun, would you recommend that she go on on one of your trips, or would what do you think?

Laurel:

Yes. Oh, yeah. We've had a couple actually who have never ever ever hunted.

Jaycey:

We had we had a couple girls come on a dove hunt with us that never shot a gun, never hunted, and they left with so many dove. This girl can shoot.

VO:

Welcome to the ASCEND podcast, a podcast by and for women in the outdoors. Every episode delivers real stories, practical how to's, and a welcoming community to help you start, sharpen, or rediscover your passion for the outdoors. Authentic women, real stories, outdoor adventures, ASCEND. Presented by Ducks Unlimited, the leader in wetlands conservation. Your next adventure starts here, the ASCEND podcast. Don't forget to rate and review the ASCEND podcast. It's the best way to grow the podcast and help other women discover the next step on their outdoors journey.

Adrian Jessen:

Welcome to the ASCEND podcast by Ducks Unlimited. I'm Adrian, and today we're gonna talk about finding group hunts to go on and reputable outfitters. Today, I'm joined by Jaycee Stone and Laurel York. JC is a wife and mom to two little bitties, and she's also a full time special needs teacher. She was born and raised in Texas but now lives in North Carolina for a little over a year, and she says she loves it.

Adrian Jessen:

Laurel, on the other hand, must have hated it because she moved from North Carolina. She got a ag business degree from NC State and now works full time as an account manager for a commercial landscape maintenance contractor. And they are here today because they are co owners of Sisterhood of the Hunt, which we're gonna talk about quite a bit more as we move forward. Laurel and JC, thank you guys so much for being here with us today.

Jaycey:

Yeah.

Laurel:

We're so happy to be here.

Jaycey:

Thank you. What

Adrian Jessen:

led you to start Sisterhood of the Hunt? What exactly is it, and what does everybody need to

Jaycey:

know about it? We started sisterhood in 2021 because when Laurel and I did hunt together, there was just so much backlash for girls, like, posting photos together and people just assuming that everyone's doing it for the wrong reasons. We just wanted, like, a safe space in the hunting community where girls could feel like they could feel supported by other women. Basically, we posted about hunting just with a group one time, and we got so much interest in one season that one group of 10 girls turned to eight groups of 80 girls really fast.

Laurel:

I think the main goal with starting sisterhood was to provide a gateway for women who don't have an opportunity to get into the outdoor space. Like, say, they didn't grow up hunting. Say they're married and their husband doesn't hunt and they don't wanna go with a group of guys or anything like that. We provide the opportunity for them, a safe place that where they can feel welcome and they can gain knowledge, I mean, be surrounded by like minded women.

Adrian Jessen:

Everybody is gonna get to know these two ladies a lot better pretty soon because, they just filmed an episode of the ASCEND adventure series. So that's in case you don't know, that's the video series that comes out every other week between podcasts. Tell us a little bit about I mean, don't give any super great secrets away.

Jaycey:

Oh, man. That was really fun. We had 13 of us total hunting cranes in Texas, and it was a banger. There might be some Halloween costumes involved.

Laurel:

Everyone left with a new friend or multiple new friends, and the Halloween costumes was just something that we did for fun. And I think people will wanna watch the YouTube video just because of that part. But, overall, it was a great weekend and great hunts.

Adrian Jessen:

So sisterhood of the hunt is not an outfitter in and of itself. So, like, you guys don't host

Laurel:

hunts. Correct?

Jaycey:

We

Adrian Jessen:

Correct. We're more like

Laurel:

a booking agency solely for women.

Jaycey:

So we're always there. We never book a trip without one of us being there. But, yes, we are more so a booking agency.

Laurel:

The goal down the road would be to definitely run hunts ourselves, like, say, woman guided turkey hunts or woman guided duck hunts. But JC and I, we both work full time jobs, so it's pretty much impossible for us to work with twenty days of PTO per year, go out and scout, and take haul all the equipment there and plan for that and run 40 trips a year. I mean, it's just it's really impossible working full time jobs. So but that is a goal of sisterhood eventually. So

Adrian Jessen:

How many trips per year do you do you guys go on?

Laurel:

I would say it's normally from 30 to 40 per year.

Adrian Jessen:

Yeah. What process do you use to make sure you're going with with good outfitters?

Laurel:

So we really are only partnered with outfitters that we've known for a long time. I mean, we've hunted with before. We know that they're safe to bring women to. We're going to someone who's qualified and someone who's gonna be professional around a group of women. We never wanna put any women in an uncomfortable situation or anything like that, so we're very picky when it comes to where we go hunt.

Adrian Jessen:

What does that vetting process look like?

Jaycey:

We do get on the phone and have some talks about, like, our expectations and just what they expect from us. We've gone to this outfitter for quite some time, and we ended up having a Halloween get together, and we played charades. And so we had the the guides came over. We know the guides really well. So there was we wouldn't do that with everybody, but because we've been there for about four years and we know everybody, it felt right and safe.

Jaycey:

And so we're just very serious about that kind of stuff just from previous experiences and other girls' experiences that we've heard. We just wanna look into it as much as possible and just have clear expectations with the outfitter when we're going there.

Laurel:

Yeah. I think there's a couple things we take into account when vetting outfitters, and number one is safety. I would say number two is their reputation, and then I would say number three is success rate because although we do wanna get together and have a good time, we also wanna have good hunts. So we also take that into account as well. So

Adrian Jessen:

It's called hunting, not killing. But Yeah. If you're, you know, paying money and the better your chances are, the more the, you know, the more fun it kinda it You can still have a blast when you're not super successful.

Jaycey:

Obviously, like, it's hunting, and there have been, like, a handful of times that, we've either gotten, like, one or two birds or skunks completely over the last four years. It's not happened a lot because they have great experience in what they do. Because, you know, like, how are we gonna learn to clean birds if we don't have birds to clean? Not a big deal. It just is what it is, you know, full moons and weird stuff like that.

Laurel:

Yeah. And I would say we also try really hard to keep prices low for girls coming because a lot of the girls that come with us are younger. But I feel like you really do get what you pay for because, say, an outfitter that's charging a lot less than somebody else, he might not have as much land leased as someone else whose hunt is maybe a couple $100 more expensive, but he has land. I mean, he's going to have birds, and you're gonna have a good hunt. So we take all that into account as well.

Adrian Jessen:

Have either of you been not necessarily through sisterhood, but on a an outfitted trip that was just terrible?

Jaycey:

Yes. We started sisterhood. Has. Everybody has. But Laurel and I, before we started, sisterhood had been to an outfitter that was having women's sons just for the wrong reason, and it just made some girls uncomfortable, made us uncomfortable.

Jaycey:

And, so that's part of the reason why we did start sisterhood and just in conversation with lots and lots of people. We now can see the red flags even through, like, social media. And so that experience helped us here. Mhmm.

Adrian Jessen:

So We're gonna take a quick break so we can hear from our sponsors. If someone and we'll we'll circle back to how people can find your trips. But if let's say someone can't go on any of the trips that you guys have going, what can they look at? What are the red flags they can look at for not going with one of these bad outfitters?

Jaycey:

An outfitter that was trying to work with us one time a couple years ago, we looked at who they were following, and it was a married man running the page. They were following quite a lot of bikini OnlyFan influencers. And so that was a absolutely not. We're not gonna bring girls just for that reason. And I know that, you know, we can't judge a book by its cover, but better safe than sorry.

Jaycey:

And then a lot of times I don't know if this goes for everyone. I see people doing this a lot, but a lot of people pay people through, like, Venmo and Cash App, and I see a lot of people on Facebook doing this and never hearing from Outfitters or Guides ever again after they send their deposit. I I feel like you should be doing, obviously, something really safe and secure and that's why we have like an invoicing system that protects everyone's money. You really need to just do your research and see what other people are saying and reviews and ask people who've gone even if you've seen someone write a review and you just wanna message them, get on their Facebook Messenger and say, hey, I saw your review. Like, is this still accurate?

Laurel:

Yeah. I would just say definitely look into the outfitters that you're looking to go home with and make sure they're reputable. There are a lot of beginner outfitters that probably won't have, like, a lot of reviews or a lot of people who have hunted there yet, and we're not trying to knock those outfitters at all. It's just better be safe than sorry.

Adrian Jessen:

Well, let me ask you this. Of you guys, each of you, what is the your favorite trip that you go on each year?

Jaycey:

My favorite trip we've ever been on would be this Alaska trip we had this year.

Laurel:

I would have to agree.

Jaycey:

It was so beautiful. We hunted Harley Quinn, ducks, golden eyes, surf scoters. It was so much fun. We saw whales. We caught crabs and ate them.

Jaycey:

It was just amazing. But besides that, the Texas Panhandle, we love going to the Panhandle.

Laurel:

Favorite reoccurring trip is definitely Texas Panhandle. It's we've never had a bad hunt there. There's so many birds. But as far as Alaska goes, that was this is our first year doing Alaska, and it was just awesome. I mean, it's so remote.

Laurel:

There's no pressure up there, so the birds just dump right into your decoys. I mean, it was awesome. And we already have two trips planned back next year. Maybe we'll have to do a third because we're getting a ton of interest. But our Panhandle trips, they fill they're, like, the first trips to fill up first every year because, I mean, the it's like, they don't call it tornado country for

Jaycey:

Right.

Laurel:

No good reason. I mean, the birds literally tornado around you. It's crazy.

Jaycey:

The guy we go with lives out there and has for quite some time, so he knows lots and lots of farmers. So it's another thing. He's just got such an upper hand up there, and, he has great guides, and we always, always do well there.

Laurel:

The trip we plan in January every year, we plan it on the same weekend, and it's always that weekend that gets hit by the blizzard kind of all the way across the central portion of The United States. I mean, girls' flights get canceled on it every year. Like, last year, JC didn't make it, and she was like, well, we should switch the weekend. And I said, we are not switching the weekend because we have such good hunts solely because of the blizzard. But, yeah, I think last year, we shot limits of dark yeast.

Laurel:

I mean, we shot pintails. We shot mallards. We shot shot wigeon. We shot snow geese. We shot so many different species in one hunt.

Laurel:

It was insane.

Adrian Jessen:

Man, that sounds absolutely amazing. And I just have all Texas hunts. Like, you might have to book, like, thirty

Laurel:

eight years. We have a lot already. We do have

Jaycey:

a lot. Yeah.

Adrian Jessen:

It sounds pretty amazing. If you are experienced hunter, then absolutely you're gonna love it. But if you have never hunted before, then it's absolutely for you as well. Is that pretty true?

Laurel:

Yeah. I think, honestly, the beginner girls who come with us get more out of it than girls who are experienced in it. I mean, the experienced girls definitely do enjoy it. But the beginner girls always leave, and they're talking about it for weeks after. I mean, they're keeping in touch with the girls.

Laurel:

They're planning more trips. They're signing up for trips that are a year down the road. Our trips are really good for beginners, and they do end up getting a lot out of it by the end of the trip.

Adrian Jessen:

So if a lady has never shot a shotgun ever, would you recommend that she go on one of your trips, or would what do you think?

Laurel:

Yes. Oh, yeah. We've had a couple actually who have never ever, ever hunted.

Jaycey:

Had we had a couple girls come on a dove hunt with us that never shot a gun, never hunted, and they left with so many doves. This girl can shoot. She's been a deer hunter, but we were like, you have to take out a water panel.

Adrian Jessen:

Do they need to have a hunter safety course? What tags or whatnot? Like, you're gonna walk them through that process as well. Is that true?

Laurel:

Oh, yeah. This is JC's expertise.

Jaycey:

Every hunt, we make, like, a graphic that shows our itinerary, what licenses you need to get. And so we have all that prepared for girls.

Laurel:

So if a girl is trying to give me an excuse as to why she can't come, I will I will find the quickest way to prove that excuse wrong. I'm like, you gotta just come, dude.

Adrian Jessen:

Now so let's say there's a lady listening, and she is like, you know what? I I really wanna hunt. I know nothing about it. What would be the first like, okay. If you've never done it, this is the trip you should do first.

Adrian Jessen:

What would that be?

Jaycey:

If they're not into hunting yet, but they wanna try something they've never done, we do bow fishing trips. And we have tons of girls who've never shot just hang out on the boat all night and shoot arrows at fish, and you don't have to have anything. You just show up, and the guide, brings all the bows and everything. And, yeah, you just show up, have a fun time, and aim at fish. It's really fun.

Adrian Jessen:

Okay. Yeah. You need to get one to North Carolina, JC. Come on. I know.

Adrian Jessen:

I need

Jaycey:

to find some

Adrian Jessen:

We got lights.

Jaycey:

The boat and some some some lights on the boat. I need to get a boat myself.

Adrian Jessen:

That probably doesn't.

Laurel:

We do an NC Intour fishing trip in Hyde County, which is coincidental because that's where everyone goes to duck hunt. But Yes. The the fishing there is awesome. And this past year, we hit it right after a hurricane, actually, and then we ended up catching, like, twenty one fifty plus incher red drum. Holy smokes.

Laurel:

Within, like, an hour and a half or two hour span. So, I mean, we had a we had an awesome trip this year.

Adrian Jessen:

You have them all over the country, but let's say somebody can't get to those spots. Are you familiar with any other organizations similar to yours that that maybe have trips in other areas, or you pretty much just kinda know your jam?

Jaycey:

We're kinda just down on our jam. I feel like we're just so slam packed on and we're also just, like, working on trying to get everywhere. It'd be tough to do, like, a sixty day waterfowl season with 50 states.

Adrian Jessen:

You can do it. I believe in you.

Jaycey:

You gotta do something else. I'm sure her sister

Adrian Jessen:

had told Especially with a full time job. Yeah. Those jobs those pesky jobs get in the way of all the fun.

Laurel:

Sure do. Oh, yeah.

Adrian Jessen:

They do. Outfitted trips do cost money. Mhmm. They're not they shouldn't be cheap because if they're cheap, you should probably be leery. So what would be your advice for maybe somebody who doesn't, like, maybe can't afford to go on an outfitted trip for finding the opportunity to hunt?

Laurel:

Yeah. Definitely find a mentor.

Jaycey:

I was actually gonna say the same thing. There's a lot of local groups. I'm in one that I joined last year when I moved here to North Carolina. It's like Women Hunters of NC. You can go on there and message an admin, and they can pair you up with someone in your area.

Jaycey:

It's really neat. People talk down about social media, but it really it really can connect people. And I think it does a lot of good. And this is one of those things where community with social media is just such a huge blessing, and it's literally how Sisterhood started. It's how me and Laurel met.

Jaycey:

It's how we are meeting all these girls, and so many amazing blessings have come of it. So I would just say get plugged in on social media with other people.

Laurel:

Yeah. I think a lot of the girls find us through Facebook. Instagram does tend to shadow ban us when we post dead ducks or dead turkeys, and so not very many peep we can't reach very many people sometimes. So I think a lot of girls do find us through these Facebook groups and end up signing signing up for trips.

Adrian Jessen:

So And we will put those group names, and we'll put some links in the description. You know, hunting is great. It's fun. We all, you know, we all love it. But what is it about hunting or fishing outdoors and especially the community hunting that is so valuable to you?

Laurel:

I think right off the bat, what drew me to hunting was that it made me feel empowered. Once I experienced it one time, which was actually my first hunt was a turkey hunt, I was like, this is awesome. I wanna learn how to do this for myself. Just kept learning and learning and learning to the point where I was like, okay. I've killed enough turkeys on my own.

Laurel:

Like, I love it. I'd like to share that with other women specifically. I wanna want other women to know that they don't need a man or they don't need someone else to help them do this, that they can do it on on their own.

Jaycey:

Amen, sister. Aside from how fun it was, the more I'm out in God's creation and all the, like, purpose for all sorts of different things that you see and learn about with hunting just makes you feel so small. And it almost is just, like, so much proof to me about the existence of God. How all of it has such purpose is just makes me feel small, like I said. And so and also just the fact that I can just, like, bring home game and, like, feed my family is such a incredible feeling and just knowing that if something crazy happened, you know, like World War z and, god forbid, zombies just pop out of nowhere, like, I know how to shoot.

Jaycey:

Like, I can aim. I can I know how to cook duck? I know, you know, just things like that. It just like like Laurel said, just feeling empowered and, like, you can do something on your own without having to rely on, like, products and all that kind of stuff. It's just just such a blessing.

Adrian Jessen:

Awesome. Well, any other last piece of advice that you would wanna share for the the folks listening?

Jaycey:

Yeah. I would just say Laurel and I always talk about how when we were meeting up for the first time with each other and a couple other girls, how intimidating it was and just remembering that feeling. And we always just tell girls, like, how much courage it takes to just step out of your comfort zone and try something new.

Laurel:

That's crazy because that's the exact same thing that I was gonna say. I would just say that it's worth the I mean, you shouldn't be intimidated, and it's worth being nervous. I mean, you should definitely take the risk. What you're gonna get out of it is way more than the nervous feeling than you had before coming on the trip.

Adrian Jessen:

Both of you are also saying that when you first went, you were super intimidated. You were nervous. So Oh, yeah. If, yeah, if you're a person that is going on these trips as well, the understanding that probably everybody else is nervous and intimidated too. So

Laurel:

Yeah. I mean, nobody knows each other, and we put everyone in a group chat ahead of time so everyone can, coordinate travel plans and get to know each other. And I just remember whenever me and Jaycee decided to go on this hunt, I was creeping on all the girls' Instagrams and social medias, and I was like, wow. They really look like some legit killers. Like, I don't know if I can hang.

Laurel:

Then, I showed up, and everyone was super nice and encouraging and welcoming. I mean and was really just there to have fun. Like, it was not a competition at all. It was just like minded women getting together to enjoy the outdoors, which is what we're trying to provide to all these girls who were taking hunting with us. So

Adrian Jessen:

That's fantastic. I really appreciate you guys being here. Thank you for what you do.

Jaycey:

Yeah. Thank you so much, Adrian. And It was awesome. Podcast. We appreciate it so much.

Adrian Jessen:

Where can listeners find you, follow you, all that good stuff?

Jaycey:

Yeah. So if you have social media, we're on Facebook. You can just look up Sisterhood of the Hunt. The same thing goes for Instagram, and, our website is huntsisterhood.com. So just message us anytime.

Jaycey:

Inquire on our website. We'll get back to you ASAP. We're open all day.

Laurel:

That's right. A couple days after a weekend hunt, we might be a little slow to respond, but we'll get back to everyone as soon as we can. So

Adrian Jessen:

Thank you guys so much. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for tuning in. As I said, comment. Make sure you like this episode.

Adrian Jessen:

Share it with all of your friends. The more interaction these episodes get through comments and likes, the more they get sent out to other people. And I think the heart of all of us is just that we want as many women as possible to get in this world that we all love. And the more of us that are doing it, the more opportunities that we have to do it. I'm Adrian, encouraging you to follow your story wherever it takes you.

VO:

Thank you for listening to the ASCEND podcast. New every week, the conservation driven podcast one week, and our adventure video series the next. Watch the ASCEND adventure episodes on the Ducks Unlimited YouTube channel, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe. Opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited. Until next time, follow your outdoor story wherever it leads you. ASCEND. Don't forget to rate and review the ASCEND podcast. It's the best way to grow the podcast and help other women discover the next step on their outdoors journey.