This weekend I took my oldest daughter and a guy from work for their hunter safety course. The class was full and there were lots of kids and some women taking it too. Everyone learned stuff including me. Now my daughter wants to go hunt grouse with a 22 so I need to get her out practicing and this fall we'll go scare some up.

H-bug, that's super cool!  I love seeing young people get involved in hunting, shooting, and fishing.  They are the future.  

Mike

I put that class off for years, one reason being I was exempt around here. Another that every time I scheduled to do it with my son Jeremy as a teenager he found more pressing thinkgs to do. He is not a woodsman, many reasons but mostly allergies.
 
This fall my adopted oldest Adrian (adopted at 28 years) and I were checked by the game warden and were told and ticketed that he was required to have the class. Now we had not dodged the class for him but had checked and been checked by game wardens, including special state park hunts, that he had grandfathered in by a few days.
 
Anyway the method to take care of the ticket was to successfully attend the course within 90 days of citation. That was a piece of cake. I have to say the instructor we had was well informed, a good presenter and fast with some good humor. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and did pick up or refresh one or two things. I am now also licensed in case I get to go to the states that require the safety course regardless of your age.
 
Best joke heard in the two days was:
 
INSTRUCTOR "OK...So what is the first thing you should do after shooting a deer?"
 
A SMALL CLEAR VOICE FROM THE BACK OF THE ROOM "Turn off the spotlight!"

I really need to take a hunter's safety class.  I keep thinking I won't take one until I've got some shooting lessons under my belt, but I'm betting it would be valuable even before I start shooting.  Plus I just think it would be interesting.
 
GSG

Thanx guys.
 
GSG, in this class they didn't care how well you could shoot. They were just concerned that you could handle the firearm safely.
 
Alboy, At the very begining of the class the instructors said that if you ever saw someone handeling a firearm in an unsafe manor that it was your responsibility to say something. So yesterday he had a Kentucky long rifle and with it's but in the ground he kept leaning on the end of the barrel and placing his arm over the muzzle. Well, no one said anything. Finally he said something to the class for not saying anything to him. I told him that we were testing him to see how long it would take him to say something to us for not saying anything to him.:D He didn't buy it, but everyone laughed.

QuoteINSTRUCTOR "OK...So what is the first thing you should do after shooting a deer?"

A SMALL CLEAR VOICE FROM THE BACK OF THE ROOM "Turn off the spotlight!"

I got a good belly-laugh out of that one. :D
 
I've taken all of the "Hunter Ed" classes that Alaska has to offer. Not because I particularly wanted to, but because it was required for specific hunts - archery, ML, and shotgun only. Mostly I just grit my teeth and keep my mouth shut. Now that I have taken all those classes, and demonstrated my 'proficiency' with the arm in question, voila`, the state has bequeathed the title of "Master Hunter" on me - it even says so on my state hunting ID card. I feel so proud.
 
In order to hunt in Germany, when I was 16, I had to successfully complete a 40-hour course. That was genuine hunter education course. We were taught the hunting customs of Germany, and the life history of all the game animals. "Ethics" (ptooey) was never even remotely discussed. There were rules, and one followed the rules. Period. I still have those the materials provided and my notes from that class. It would work as well today as it did 40 years ago. Had to do a similar course to get a fishing license.
 
Paul

It sounds odd to me that people have to have a course in hunter education. I never had to do anything like that. I didn't even have a license until I was out of the Navy. Nobody in the hills when I was growing up had a hunting license. We didn't need one to kill anything and it didn't make me a better hunter after I got a license either.    ............Paul H

Good for you Hunterbug. Getting your daughter started in hunting is one of the best things you can do for the sport of hunting and fishing. Also it will help keep the State Conservation programs going through the participation by our future generations. Some of us arn't going to be around for ever and we need all the new blood we can get.
 
So much for my soap box, this is like "preaching to the.......................(help fill in the word for the blank mind of mine)

Mountain Mafia,
 
I think the phrase you're looking for is "preaching to the choir".  
 
GSG

Great outing!
I like hearing about youngsters interested in hunting & shooting....:D

I've met HB's "hunter bug" - she's gonna be a killer. In more ways than one.
 
Paul

I forgot to mention, at the begining of the class they showed a video of two 14 year olds one of which takes the 22 when the parents aren't home and they go out into the woods shooting. Well, you guessed it, he slips and falls, the gun goes off and hit his friend who dies. One kid in the class passed out, one threw up and one almost passed out. It wasn't super graphic or anything but it sure got thoes kids attention.

I saw that video at our Hunters Ed here in Georgia, I've seen worse on daytime tv