Vicki Cianciarulo- Featured Lady Archer/Bowhunter

Vicki Cianciarulo

The path you follow in life is not always the path you set out to tread. But for Vicki Cianciarulo one half of the charismatic television duo, the path her life was to take changed for her when she came to full draw and what a journey she has had. It would be difficult to separate Vicki from her husband of twelve years to focus on her accomplishments since they co-host one of the Outdoor Channels most popular shows. However, for this moment in time the focus is going to be on Vicki and not Ralph. Besides, anyone that has ever caught a glimpse of their show knows that they have a constant battle of the sexes going on, all in fun of course. So, chalk one up for the girl’s side of the scoreboard as we take a closer look at true girl power.

Like many women, Vicki did not grow up in a hunting family. With the exception of an uncle and a few cousins who had an occasional deer for show at family Thanksgivings, Vicki would have to wait until later in life to be introduced to hunting, especially bowhunting. Ironically, it was not Ralph that introduced her to archery. A previous boyfriend was into archery. Vicki recalls that she was tired of walking around those 3D shoots with him and not getting to participate in shooting. Soon Vicki was convinced that she wanted her own bow, so with the old boyfriend in tow Vicki headed to Archer’s Choice Pro Shop that was owned and ran by Ralph Cianciarulo. That was in 1989, a few years later Vicki decided to try her hand at hunting with her bow.

Vicki recalls her first bowhunt; it was on a lady’s only deer hunt that Archer’s Choice put together in Wisconsin. "That was it, I’m all messed up now" says Vicki. Vicki now has countless memories of hunts that she has been on from Africa to Alaska. Each one of those hunts hold special memories for her for some reason or another, but one of her most favorite memories is when she shot her first whitetail buck. Vicki recalls that she had been hunting for several years at this point and had yet to harvest a buck with her bow. Ralph was out of town on business so Vicki thought she would head out to the farm by herself in hopes of seeing some deer. After getting set up Vicki said it started to drizzle, she had plans on getting down and heading back inside when the sight of a few does caught her attention. She recalls that she then heard a little grunt; Vicki didn’t have a call with her at the time so she tried to make a grunt sound with her mouth. "I sounded terrible, that buck paid no attention to me!" recalls Vicki. She thought she would try to rattle him in but didn’t have any horns with her either. So she took her release and raked it up and down the tree trunk and it work! She took the shot at twenty yards and the buck ran about fifty yards and dropped. She later picked Ralph up at the airport and said nothing of her accomplishments. When they pulled in the driveway Ralph saw a buck hanging and asked, "Who shot the deer?" When she replied "I did!" he said, "Yeah right, who shot the buck?" Vicki said, "He knew right then that he was in trouble!"

Fortunate enough to catch most all of her bowkills on film Vicki realizes that what she does for a living is a blessing. However, with that blessing also brings a lot of work and preparation and pressure to pull off the shots in what is normally a man-dominated sport. But Vicki has risen to the task at hand time and time again with more trophies hanging on her wall than most of us will see in a lifetime. Speaking of trophies, when asked about how many record book animals she has to her name. Vicki offered a unique perspective on that topic. Both Vicki and Ralph are proud members of the Pope and Young club but feel that sense they hunt for a living and have more opportunity to take more animals than most hunters; it would not be totally fair for them to put their harvests in the record books. "We have more time out there in the field then most and that means we also have more opportunities for the animals, of course that also means we make more mistakes too!" say Vicki.

It is hard for Vicki to keep a current tally of how many animals she has harvested with her bow. Bear, caribou, moose, whitetail, turkey, mule deer, gators, hogs and a wall full of animals from the Dark Continent hang proudly in the Cianciarulo home. But Vicki says there are still a few animals that have stayed out of the reach for her. Vicki hopes to someday bag a grizzly and an elk with her bow.

Vicki shares common ground with must of us bowhunters in the fact that she loves everything about the sport. "Being able to sneak into an animal’s home territory without being detected, the time spent with people in camp and the time spent in the woods" are some of the things I love the most about bowhunting states Vicki.

Vicki stills faces challenges in bowhunting such as spotting and stalking an animal like an elk. Vicki says "I am getting better at it, but I get really nervous about messing up the hunt by moving at the wrong time, so I don’t move at all. Of course that can mess up a hunt also, because you then don’t get a shot."

With all the trophies that hang on her walls and all the accolades that have come her way Vicki is the proudest of her littlest trophy, her son R. J. One of the most genuine aspects of this successful bowhunter is the fact that behind that high tech bow is a wife and mother, not unlike many other women that bowhunt. Vicki goes to great lengths to take R. J. on their hunts when that is possible and no doubt is molding a future bowhunter in the little man. Besides the responsibilities of managing a household Vicki is also President of the business, helps in the editing of the television show and videos. Vicki is also busy working on the pilot for a new show from the couple that will have different types of hunting and weapons on it. It will be called "The Choice."

Vicki has a few major goals that she would like to try and achieve this year, getting an elk with her bow and winning a The Outdoor Channels Golden Moose award would be a couple of things that Vicki hopes to achieve in the future. The Archer’s Choice TV show has been nominated for the Golden Moose Award which is something to be proud of. With very few shows that actually have the hunter, editor, director, and producer as the same person it is understandable why an award of this caliber would mean so much to Vicki. To take a product, any product from start to finish is a great accomplishment in its own right, to take hundreds of hours of raw video footage and then turn it into entertaining television is worthy of acknowledgement.

Growing the sport of bowhunting has been and will remain to be one of Vicki’s most important goals. It has been said many times by many different people women and children are the future to this sport. "I realize that hunting/bowhunting are primarily a man’s sport, trust me, every camp I go to reconfirms this. But women hunter numbers are on the rise and with all the new technology out there our numbers should keep going up" says Vicki. With positive women role models like Vicki I think our sport is in good hands and will continue to grow and develop.

writen by Lisa Metheny