WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Trailfeathers Apparel

New Haven, Vermont - April 17, 2009

A bright Spring day is just waiting to be enjoyed, but first, Randy Butler is headed down to his basement to get to work. Sawing and sanding, the carpenter is a hobbyist gunsmith who makes flintlock rifles and other muzzleloaders. He says, "It's a lot of fun using them."

But Butler's guns are not just sports equipment. He explains, "It is more than a rifle. It's almost like a ring that joins us."

He likens his guns to a ring that joins him to his wife Wendy. Her workbench is just past his. Wendy Butler is also into shooting and hunting, and designs a line of women's hunting apparel she labels Trailfeathers.

Wendy Butler says, "When I put on hunting clothes made for a man, they don't fit properly."

The business is a tribute to her late mother, Marilyn Grice, another big game hunter. Butler says, "I think she would be very proud. I think she'd be thrilled."

On Grice's treks, she saw a need for a dramatic redesign for hunting clothes for women: pants with zippered crotches that let wearers go to the bathroom without totally undressing. Wendy Butler says, "It does work very well!"

Sales reps hope to spread the Trailfeathers designs, with their warm, comfortable, wind-blocking fabric, around New England and beyond. But the company founder admits it's hard to sign up new accounts for an upscale niche line in this economy.

Butler adds, "I also hear people, especially in the Middlebury area, saying 'I want to support my local economy. I want to buy things that are made in the USA.'"

When it's finally time for Wendy and Randy Butler to make the most of their backyard, using his guns and her clothes, we wondered who's the better shot? Wendy Butler chuckles, "A couple weekends ago, Randy was!" But her husband blushes, "Wendy typically is!"

Sparks and black powder under a blue country sky are the reward for this couple's hard work on their "Made in Vermont" gear that brings them closer together and closer to nature.

Wendy Butler says her mother wanted to see more women get into hunting. Her Trailfeathers line for women is available at Vermont Field Sports in Middlebury and online.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont