Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunter's Safety Course

. Lot of emphasis on having a nice day afield even if you don't take any game. Now that is fine I always enjoyed all my time outdoors but too many days like that will soon see the prospective hunter staying home playing video games. [/quote]


Think that is subliminal support for our deer management problem?
Or, may have something to to with falling license sales?

the ones they teach in PA is pretty good. they even show the effect of a 44 mag to the calf. fuggen gruesome pic. at the end they shot pumpkins and water melon with high powers. every instructor was a gun guy and experienced hunter. but then again, this area has probably one of the highest percentage of hunters and gun owners anywhere in the country.

and fyi, i don't unload my gun to cross a creek or fence. if you can't cross a creek or fence without falling or dropping your gun, stay home.

Few people as knowledgeable as a Pennsylvania hunter.

Just ask any one of them.




Clark

thanks

Been trying to enroll in one for several years.
Can't seem to find a real, live human, teaching the course.

What do they do if they meet a bad guy in the woods or parking area?

For the field day, they'd beg for mercy.

They made it very clear, there is to be no ammo brought to the field course. That includes spent cases, or a shotgun shell or spent shotgun shell even if you are going through the course with a rifle. That is an immediate fail.

Both kids insisted we take Mom's car for this field day because they know there is ammo floating all over that truck and they didn't want to risk it.

Wish there were more here piping in as instructors. Been at it for about 27 years getting every award that can be handed out. If one has a complaint, take up teaching. We don't empty our arms just because someone else approaches. Loading/unloading are the most dangerous phases of firearms handling. We absolutely wear out: muzzle control, knowledge of the firearm's status (loaded/unloaded), no trigger until on target, and full knowledge of the target's identification as well as what is in front or behind.

In Oregon we do conventional class room courses, an option of at home study, or any of about 3 online courses. With the latter two, however, students must attend about an 8 hr field day that includes a review of actual firearms handling, our live fire course, and passing the state mandated written exam. Presently about a 50:50 split between home/online and our conventional hands on course. The hands on course runs about 18 hrs total.

Some of the best feedback ever comes from parents reporting that "my kid chewed my ass because I......"

My wife would kill me if I volunteered to teach a course.

Got a few years to go anyway, my daughter is 8.

Sounds like things have changed a bit in the 25 since I took the class. Be interesting to see what its like today.

Sounds like your instructors made quite the impression although it'd be tough to fail the course because of what's in your truck.

KC, you may be interested to know that over the last two years CO has updated the curriculum. They had an overall program review by HE instructors from other states and IHEA. The biggest thing to come out of it was a standardized curriculum and the four basic rules of firearm safety are a key part of that. So they should have been not only teaching them, but calling them "the four basic rules of firearm safety."

This is not related to your post but as far as clearing the chamber whenever you meet someone, I've never heard that mentioned or advocated. And as far as unloading your gun when you cross an obstacle, that's part of just about every course out there, The reason is so simple anyone can understand it--accident statistics.

When I used to teach HE there was one test question/answer that was wrong, I argued with state coordinator and he said it was right.

I told my students that is was wrong.

The gist was when you come to a gate on a property where you are hunting . . .

Their answer was "you should close it".

Barring some yahoos on the property, the property owner/manager knows whether they want it open or closed and you leave it like ya found it.

Help your state agency, teach a course or two . . .or 10.

Question is VERY important and should be there, but with the correct answer and I tried to argue common sense with him, but then he used to the local 2-300 acre farms.

LouisB:

Yes. Leave gate like one finds it unless instructed otherwise by the property owner. About 5 yrs back a local lost around 50 head of stock when a gate was closed leaving them without water.

Used to be a test question here in Oregon, but it was removed with the last revision. We're getting revised texts and tests again this coming year. I hate change, as I'll have to rework my PowerPoint lessons.

All I remember was muzzle down when embarking or disembarking...something to do with the rotors .

I've been a certified instructor since 1986, but haven't taught much for the last 10-12 years. Georgia allows you to do the course on-line now. Most of the instructors are volunteers. Some are paid DNR officers. Not everyone is good at standing up in front of people and teaching even though they may be very knowledgeable. Others were frankly not very good and tended to want to share their opinions rather than just the facts. I'm sure some students left some classes underwhelmed.

I've worked with a lot of different people over the years. No 2 classes are exactly alike. Depending on the type of questions we'd get from students we would sometime spend a lot more time than we really wanted to on some topics and had to rush through other parts to make up time. But all of the important stuff was covered. There was always a lot more we would have liked to share but with limited time to cover all the basics simply couldn't.

Funny i don't think that's so cringeworthy. if I meet someone in the field and approach them or stop to talk , I always open the chamber on my rifle/shotgun. There is a lot of momentum in bird hunting to allow only break action guns and require them to be open unless the dogs are on point and you are in position to shoot. That's pretty ridiculous imho. I think it's mainly coming from the Sporting clays and preserve hunters who pick it up from reading fancy English shooting magazines and fancy themselves as Lords of the manor. Obviously not someone that is used to rough shooting with or w/o a dog.
I'm a fan of hunter safety courses and don't think iT would be a bad idea that you have to have a hunter/firearms safety card to purchase a firearm. After all most people don't grow up in rural farm settings where the family gun was kept behind the door and everybody's father grandfather and uncles were hunters and taught them to shoot when they were tykes.Sorry if that offends some but you can't drive a car w/o passing a drives test.

Bird hunters and fly fishermen. Always good for a laugh.




Dave

1minute:
Good morning, I hope this finds you and yours well on the last Sunday of September.

Since you asked for Hunter Safety Instructors/Examiners to participate I hope it's okay that I'll give a BC perspective.

Here there's a mix of folks who are teaching the course for a sideline job or into semi-retirement and people like me who do it through a local club as a volunteer.

I've been a provincially certified examiner and have coordinated the course run by our local club since '89. I was at a meeting and said it was a poor showing for a club that didn't put on a Hunter Safety Course - we were considering not doing one as I recall - and the president at the time, who is now a good friend, growled out, "Is that the sweet voice of a volunteer I hear?"

As it turned out, it was!

We do 7 nights of class time at 2 hours a night. Two of those nights are firearms handling with dummy ammo and deactivated long arms. We also do a range night which is optional, but most students come. There's a written test which you have to make 75% on to pass and then a practical gun handling portion in which you can only get 6 demerit points or you retake on another night.

In BC we're just starting to see the online course, but you still need to go to a certified examiner to take the written and practical part of the exam. The only exceptions to taking the practical are if you've taken the PAL - Possession Acquisition Licence course here in Canada. Funny thing is that I used to instruct the PAL course too and was there at its inception. They absolutely took the firearms handling portion from our BC course as far as long arms are concerned.

Anyway that's how it's done here - oh, if you don't unload crossing the fence in the practical exam you fail and get to come back for a retake.

All the best to you and yours and good luck on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Except the 2nd doesn't say chit about driving cars, and it didn't consider hunter safety courses.

Here you can take the course online if you are an adult. But youth have to attend in person. I believe there is a minimum number of hours required either by law, or decree from the FWP.

Don't get me wrong, there were good things in there. But as a whole, there was enough misinformation, factually incorrect direction and poor judgment shown in what they require that it's frustrating.