Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunter Ed - NY, some observations

If the instruction is sheit,classes are hard to get into, and the procedures are dumb.......volunteer to teach a class.

I can't comment on NY but the amount of time spent in class and the inclusion of the Pittman-Robertson act is a good thing in my opinion.

In CO our class is 12 hours including the written test and live fire, which is 10 rounds with a bolt action .22 LR. All we're looking for is safe firearm handling. We cover a lot of different stuff, some of which can save a life like survival and some of which (safe firearms handling) is mandatory if they're going to be handling firearms in the field. Plus small game, waterfowl, big game, how to recognize good habitat, regulations, our draw system, ethics, shot placement, field dressing, care of game in the field, and on and on.

Youngsters in our classes almost always have the required attention span. I think I've taught close to 1K students and I can't remember one not passing the test and it's 50 questions. We had an 8 year-old get 100%. If they can't pay attention for the short time we have 'em then we're either doing something wrong or you have to wonder if they're mature enough and ready to hunt.

Because it requires that they be able to manage a deadly weapon.

As far as Pittman Robertson, no, they don't need to remember the name of it, when it was passed, or the amount of the excise tax. What they do need to know is through it, license fees, and Dingell-Johnson, hunters and fishermen pay the freight for wildlife and habitat management, whereas PETA and HSUS pay zero for it.

That is invaluable information if they ever get into a discussion with an ignorant teacher or classmate who's an anti.



This has nothing to do with the length of the class, it just means you have crappy instructors. We can't get to all the stuff we'd like to teach, and there's no fluff in the curriculum. In fact, when we're done on the last night, lots of students stay after the class to ask questions and get advice on stuff we couldn't get to.



My sentiments exactly.

Uh, Spot...I think it's time for you to put all that sh_t down and pick up your smokepole...there's hope.

nice pitcher

I've been teaching HS for over a decade. Nearly 2K graduates so far. Things changed dramatically when the State passed a "no minimum" hunting age, where prior it was 12 years old. Now we have kids as young as 7 taking the course - and we HAVE to take all comers. The State didn't change the test or the book to accommodate these younger kids, so we took it upon ourselves to adapt the course for easier, see, touch, use sort of learning.

We do not charge a dime. We teach in a team setting with different stations so the kids get a completely "hands on" approach instead of someone reading out of a book. These 20 minute stations include: live fire shooting trap with youth Rem 11-87 20ga 7/8 oz loads, .22 rifle, .22 pistol, archery with youth Genesis bows, they learn to climb a ladder stand with a harness and Prussic, cross a fence and creek with a gun-both solo and with someone else, muzzleloader demo, some rudimentary First-Aid, how to handle a compass, watch a real deer gutting video, hear from someone who's fallen out their tree stand along with vid and xrays, hear from a Conservation Officer about the law, and hammer in the 10 Commandments of gun safety.

It all takes about 3 evenings with about 3-4 hours each. THEN, we do the comprehensive test review. We're more concerned that they apply it and do it right than a test score.

We all hope these kids turn into lifetime hunters and rifle looneys, but this is not the time or place to try and teach about ballistic coefficient and all that blather.

This.

They'll ruin a kid for life, especially the small ones. They get rocked by that recoil and they never want to shoot again. We use gas 20 gauges with light 7/8 loads. There are times as an RSO during live fire that I'm actually hanging onto the receiver for these kids to reduce weight and recoil for them. Some are simply too small and shouldn't shoot until they get a little bigger. No kid HAS to shoot in our program. WE encourage it, but don't force it.

I can't image this question has been asked before

Hence da picture

Question is are you sighted in for 45 yards, or 200 - the answer is "YES"

Last fall we had the kids lined up along the firing line to take turns shooting 10 rounds of .22 cal. Among them dad, son, middle school age, and daughter, quite a bit younger, but just a tiny little thing, not very tall skinny as a pole, cute as a bug's ear.

The boy did fine and I look over and see dad with the little girl, and he's trying to talk her into shooting, she was not enthused. Dad ended up going first and after that actually got the girl to agree. Few minutes later, I look over and there is the girl against the back wall with dad, shaking her flushed red face from side to side.

I asked dad what happened and I guess the very first shot an ejected shell went down her cowboy boot and that was it! LOL We passed her because she isn't required to shoot anyway, and she did pass the written portion. I gave her a few little shooting trinkets and a few sets of fresh ear plugs. She left with a cautious smile, but I'm not sure when she'll let her dad take her to the range again.

Having an 8 year old go through Hunter's Ed is akin to taking them shopping for their prom dress/tux.

I agree completely. I am a former HS instructor, I quit when the state started making us take anyone who could walk in the door. We tried requiring parental participation for anyone under 14, but even that got shot down.

After siting through two Hunter Ed courses, two bowhunting ed courses and a trapper ed course with my two kids I was tempted to get certified. I didn't have time when the kids were young. My experience was the same as the OP's, I heard some interesting stuff . My hat is off to you gentleman here who are donating your time to teach people the right way.

Agree fully with that, but Oregon too has no minimum age requirement. If 9 or less, however, they must have an adult at their elbow throughout the course. I try to discourage the super young, unless it's a bright kid that's simply champing at the bit to get out there. I'd venture our student manual is written at about a 16 year old level, so one has to spend a lot time defining terms like projectile, discharge, anatomy, etc.

In almost every instance it's a dad that is pushing the extremely young. We do have a mentoring program where kids can go and shoot on the accompanying adults tag without having done Hunter Ed.

Kids, however, can not hunt on their own big game tag until they hit 12 years. One of my greatest frustrations is I've been trying since 1975 to pull one of Oregon's bighorn tags. I've had two 12 year old students draw with their first application. Life's just not fair.

You would expect hunters education to teach people about 20 MOA rails, which point the scope down so you can still zero your scope.

Heck for that, there are plenty of normal hunters that don't know which way sight planes work anyway.