Rebekah Stephens starting hunting with her father from the age of 10.

Her daughter, not quite 10 months, has already begun.

This 30-year-old, stay-at-home mom is showing her daughter how mothers and babies have survived since the beginning of time. With her baby strapped on her back, Stephens has set out to feed her family with the bounties of her hunt.

As with a lot of things real and raw, she has attracted a lot of negativity, which she says she just ignores.

“I get quite a few anti-hunters saying things like, ‘How would you like it if someone hunted you and your baby?’ and other things along the lines of, ‘How can you teach an innocent baby such horrible things like hunting?’,” Stephens said.

Rebekah’s hunting accoutrements. Photo: MDWFeatures

“It can be tough at times, but strangers online don’t know me so really cannot judge me.”

Some people have “even wished ill on my life for taking my daughter hunting.”

“We didn’t buy beef, we always had deer meat,” she said. Hunting, for her, has only ever been a way to “put food on the table.”

“As I got older, I saw it as a way to escape the outside world and relax. And I’m providing food for myself and my family.”

Her daughter’s first hunt was for wild turkey.

Stephens recalls, “I took my friend and her daughter turkey hunting. We had to be there before daylight, so I got my daughter up early, fed her and drove to the spot we were hunting. We had to sit and wait. She did extremely well for an eight-months old baby and was very quiet the whole time, for five hours.”

In response to those who are critisizing her, Stephens has this to say: “There is always much respect in taking a life. If you haven’t been in my shoes and lived this lifestyle, you really can’t judge what is best.”

