You can take the girl out of West Virginia, but you won’t take West Virginia out of the girl. Lucy Ours-Taffoni was raised on the banks of the South Branch of the Potomac and from the age of six was following her dad, granddad, and brothers up and down the hills of Grant County hunting and fishing.
“My great-uncle killed a 10-foot brown bear and had it standing in the office of his oil company,” she said on Ram Trucks West Virginia Outdoors. “I was about six when I started looking at it and asking,’When can I do that?'”
Lucy reined as Miss West Virginia in 2000 and admits it was an interesting background when the camera crews from the Miss America Pageant visited her home in Petersburg and learned the ridge running bloodlines of this mountain girl.
“A lot of those young women loved the outdoors and loved to fish, but I’m pretty sure I was the only hunter,” she laughed. Now 13-years later and a mom, it’s still in her blood.
“They find out I love to eat venison, wild turkey and fish and I don’t have too many asking me to bring casseroles to get-togethers,” she said. “But it’s a neat topic of conversation when I meet people. The woods makes me happy, shopping malls give me high blood pressure.”
Lucy hunted South Africa with her dad last year. She took her family on a vacation to British Columbia for a hunting and fishing trip. But her most recent adventure is probably her greatest to date.
Lucy spent five days hunting New Zealand as a guest of Eva Shockey. The hunt was filmed and will run on an upcoming episode of Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures.
“It just worked out and before I knew it I was in a New Zealand Airport,” she said. “Hanging out with Eva Shockey. It was great getting to hang out with a girl who loves to hunt and seeing what she does for a living.”
It didn’t take long for things to develop. Hunting with Kiwi Safaris, the party immediately found a red stag which caught Lucy’s eye.
“We stalked this stag for a little bit early morning. We got up and he was pretty close, it was a nice exciting stalk to get up on him,” she said. “Everything worked out perfectly.”
Eva’s next pursuit was after a Tahr. The animal reminds you of a mountain goat, but with gray fur and required a little more shoe leather.
“It’s an incredible animal when you see where these animals live and how tough they are. A lot of people compare the hunt to a mountain goat in B-C.” she said. “Four people, breathing hard, climbing halfway up a mountain–it was probably two hours just to get set up and get to where we needed to be.”
Lucy knew her tags were filled because each game on the pole is another check out of the checkbook. However, she’d seen a nice fallow deer and made a quick call home to husband and former WVU linebacker Matt Taffoni. He gave her the all clear on spending some extra cash and the fallow will soon hang in her trophy room as well.
All three hunts worked out perfectly for the TV show. An air date for the program hasn’t been determined. Bitten by the bug, Lucy wouldn’t mind trying her hand at her own show some day. She admitted she’s long been inspired by the work of legendary host Brenda Valentine.
“I was like ‘WOW, that’s what I want to do for a living.” I love everything that woman stands for,” Lucy said. “Yeah, God willing I would love to pursue this. There’s nothing that brings me more enjoyment than to be outdoors and making it a family activity.”