Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hunters Safety Instructor

I've decided to become a hunters safety education instructer. the paper work is on the way from the Washington Fish & game. I'm excited about it. It will be a good hobby and a great way to help introduce others to hunting. My wife suggested so I found who to contact and went from there. Is anyone here a hunter safety instructor? Do you enjoy it? How often do you teach classes, any other info would be appreciated. thanks,,,,BEARHUNTER

Bearhunter,<P>I'm not an Instructor, however, I just wanted to commend you on your decision to share your knowledge with potential hunters. Its not simply about teaching safety at these seminars. The instructor has a chance to share his/her thoughts on conservation, respect for others, fair chase, harvesting and cleaning techniques, compass and GPS reading, and some applications of matching proper cartridges with game. <P>I think an instructor can be influential to both younger and older participants.<P>Take Care & Good Luck,<BR>~rossi~

Bearhunter, I have been an instructor since 96. It is indeed a great way to give something back to the sport. We teach a class all most ever month at the gunclub we belong to. We teach extra classes in the high demand months like March(just before the deadline for the draw) and Oct and Nov. I t is a great feeling to launch a new hunter into the world. best wishes to you. BTW I am a senior instructor now it will be another year or so before I can make it to master. tom

Bearhunter .... I took the Hunter Education course in 1987 and have been an instructor since 1989. As you would expect, it requires some sacrifice, and can be frustrating at times, for a multitude of reasons, but overall, I enjoy it and feel it is worth every bit of the effort expended, and then some. Most of your students will be kids, of course, and I think the great majority of them appreciate what we do. You will forever after be cheerily greeted and hailed from afar by people that you may or may not recognize, and usually can't remember the names of .... gives you a good feeling inside, and it's for a good and important cause, besides. (Often, I just hear someone holler "MUZZLE CONTROL!", from a passing car.) Yeah, I definitely recommend getting involved with Hunter Education, and I congratulate you, and thank you for doing so. It's great to find instructors who are there because they care, and not because they have a need to be admired. (Hope you never meet one of those.) Cheers! ~ Dan

Pumpgun, -- does this mean we get a free course at the Slam? Boy, hotel for a tent, coal stove for heat, stove with oven for baking, shower with hot water, good grub, biscuits with gravy, elk out by the outhouse. Who could ask for more?? What are the dates, who can come, how do we make reservations, what does it cost?? -- no

Sonnie, did you get my email this morning? tom

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. It's nice to hear positive things. This will definitely be a good outlet for me. thanks again and take care,,,,BEARHUNTER

Bearhunter, I will give you another opinion on this. Not bad but for me very frustrating. I became a HSI around 1988-89. Prior to that there was only a written test and 4 evenings of class before the test was given. <P>The descrimination laws are so strong in Washington state that it was extremely frustrating to run the classes for me. <P>If a student did not speak or read a word of English by law we had to find an interpreter for them( at our cost). We could not properly grade the tests which were not written in English, and the interpretation of the answers if in any doubt had to get marked correct to prevent a law suit should we end up failing them. <P>There is no minimum age! you can bring a kid into this who is 7 years old and has little reading comprehension skills. You must read the questions to them and write their answers down for them. Again they will pass because what they "intented" and what YOU wrote could be room for debate and a law suit. <P>The live fire was introduced shortly after that to thin out children who were to young to fire a gun. They could not bring their own rifles and had to use factory ammo and our Hunter education shotguns and rifles for safety reasons. They were required to shoot a .243 and a 20 guage shotgun 3 times each. They did not even have to hit the target they were just required to shoot 6 times. <P>Now you ask Why would anyone bring an 7 or 8 year old to hunter education school to get the license? Well that is simple: every licensed hunter gets to apply for the exclusive special tags. Which at the time included lion tags. Every hound hunter's kid was in this school. So was every guy who wanted a watershed elk permit, or a chance at big horn sheep, goats, and Moose. <P>This was the main reason. Which we were told was the reason when we would ask the parent! Now the really sick part for me( as if it was not sick already)<P>Little 80 pound johnny stands barely able to hold the 20 guage shotgun and shoots at the clay pigeon missing by about 30 yards and then drops the gun and falls back starting to cry. The dad starts yelling at him to "be a man" get up there and shoot again. The kid is horrified and bawling his eyes out. Remember he does not have to hit anything just shoot 6 times! He fails if he will not shoot and the dad knows this. The dads don't hesitate to scream at these poor kids in front of everyone! When little jonny fails and they walk away you can hear the dad call him a little Pu$$Y !<P>Sorry folks but I was nearly jailed for beating the crap out of a guy for this and since that time I have never taught another class! Just not in my nature to watch father after father verbally abuse their own children for not getting the license so Pop could have another applicaion for big game permits.<P>Word got out that the last thing we did was mandatory live fire and most dads prepared the kids before showing up. However to this day I have heard my friends doing this complain about the same thing. I wish I had Saeeds 577 T Rex and maybe the dad would like to take a few shots with it to show how tough he was! <P>Sorry for the rant, this post dredges up a whole bunch of deep rooted anger for me. jj

JJ, if you replaced HSI with Little League, your post would have been a perfect rant of mine from my Coaching days! Man, I was so close to beating the crap out of a few parents and coaches I had to walk away from it completely. I was actually glad when my son got out of sports, sad to say, because of the BS I saw at so many events.<P>On the flip side, I went to my daughter's hunter ed course with her and it was excellent! The instructors were actually the State coordinators for the program. They teach one class a year in our area so they can guage if any changes or improvements need to be made. There were about 50 guys and 2 girls in class and my daughter came in 2nd with her score. The class was excellent as was the instructors. However, I was disappointed we weren't able to work in a live-fire as then my daughter would have come in 1st in her class! [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img]<P>I was also surprised that there were no young kids at all in this class. I think the youngest was about 13 or so. Sounds like you had the area from hell to teach. - Sheister

Guess we are not so lawsuit crazied here in Colorado when we flunk someone the DOW stands behind us. The live fire in Colorado is using 22 riles. I have had some fine young people in our classes as young as 8 that did better than some of the adults. tom

JJ,<BR> Thanks for the honesty. unfortunately sometimes when we try to do something good, negative [bleep] happens. I have coached little league(like sheister mentioned) and was so discouraged and pizzed I could barely keep hold of myself. I think we might have a few similarities as I don't follow the turn the other cheek way of thought at all. Can I give you a call and pick your brain a little? thanks again guys,,,,BEARHUNTER

JJ,<P>Interesting insight. Its not surprising that self serving motives appear to surface when tags loom. But at the expense of your young ones self esteem? Shame on these parents. <P>Its plain to see how you could easily heat up over viewing something like this JJ.<P>Take Care,<BR>~rossi~

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JJHACK:<STRONG><BR>The live fire was introduced shortly after that to thin out children who were to young to fire a gun.<P> They could not bring their own rifles .... <P>Now you ask Why would anyone bring an 7 or 8 year old to hunter education school to get the license? Well that is simple: every licensed hunter gets to apply for the exclusive special tags.<P>Little 80 pound johnny stands barely able to hold the 20 guage shotgun and shoots at the clay pigeon missing by about 30 yards and then drops the gun and falls back starting to cry. The dad starts yelling at him to "be a man" get up there and shoot again. The kid is horrified and bawling his eyes out.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>JJ,<P>What is the minimum legal age to hunt with a firearm out there? It seems ridiculous that tag eligibility is based on such unrelated criteria in your state. I would first see what might be done to change that. We have very few students under age 11 in our classes, simply due to the fact that there is no reason or incentive for younger people to be there. (Must be age 12 to carry a firearm, or to be issued any type of hunting license.) <P>We strongly encourage students to bring their own firearms to class. All that do so are given some one-on-one instruction with it, hopefully increasing their knowledge, safety and confidence level. It also makes the course more fun, more interesting, more personal, and therefore, more meaningful to the students.<P>Regardless of the legal complications in ANY area, I see no justification for subjecting our little future hunters to the pain and humiliation that you describe. We sure don't want to discourage kids from taking up the shooting sports. BTW, we don't allow parents to be present at the range during the gun handling portion of the tests, although they are welcomed and are encouraged to attend the classroom sessions. Students are required to fire .22 rimfire rifles only, and of course, are not graded on marksmanship skills. The student's attitude and demonstrated safe gun handling skills are far and away the determining factors as to whether he/she passes or fails. We occasionally let a student graduate even though he failed the written test, depending on which questions were answered incorrectly, providing that we feel he has demonstrated safe gun handling skills and acts in a mature and responsible manner.<P>When we have students with learning disabilities, weak reading skills, etc., they are given additional one-on-one instruction outside of the regular classes. If the student doesn't give up, we won't give up on the student.<P>There is always a shortage of good instructors. With all of your knowledge and experience , you could be an immense help in furthering "the cause". Hope you decide to give it another go. Cheers! ~ Dan

It's a great feeling working with HS. I assist a certified instructor and love it. In WI, a student must turn 12 yrs old in the same calendar year they take the course. Our club sponsors both a live shoot and a field test. Both are optional here.I'm happy to say I've never had any problems with parents, but I could tell stories about my football caoching days...<BR>Doug

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by teacher:<BR><STRONG>In WI, a student must turn 12 yrs old in the same calendar year they take the course.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Hi Doug,<P>Actually, unless the law has changed recently, that's not quite true. (Although we would like people to think that. [img]images/icons/wink.gif" border="0[/img] ) It is true that a student must turn 12 yrs old (minimum) in the same calendar year they take the course <I>in order to receive a free small game hunting license along with their Hunter Education Certificate.</I><BR>If push comes to shove, we can't legally refuse to accept a student on the basis of age, but we haven't had any problems with that here, either. Fortunately, we don't have to deal with some of the stuff that faces instructors in some other states. We have a few public school teachers here that are teaching the HS course at school, during school hours ... really a nice deal for the kids. Good to see you posting again, and glad to learn that you're doing the Hunter Safety thing! ~ Dan