I'm doing a short web article on hunter safety courses and would like some feedback from whoever is willing here (I won't use your name).
Do you find them worthwhile for young or new hunters? Why or why not? What would you say are the top 3-5 things to look for in choosing one? Any info/thoughts appreciated.

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JanH

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i think they are very important. youth hunters in montana are required to have a hunters safety ID card to get tags. My hunters safty course was about a week and then there was a day we did in the field and everyone braught a gun (no ammo allowed) and they set up decoys to show different hunting situations, how to properly tag animals etc. Its fairly common your going to see other peolpe hunting, and its important everyone know the basic safty rules and how to handle their weapons.

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They are very important! Unfortunately not all parents teach their kids gun safety and the importance of ethics in the woods. The game commission teaches it in Pa so of course you have to listen to them talk about themselves for an hour too but overall its good for the kids.

Absolutely! They are very important. even if you grew up in a hunting family, they can still give you skills and training you may have missed. I learned how to use a compass on a map from my course.

Now whether people take that knowledge and use it wisely is something else, but at least you know better.

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Raven Gunsmith
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Thanks! Am working on a short overview for a hunting dog site - helps to have quotes and other things to put in with it!

I think for young and new hunters its great. For me, I took the course over a weekend in 2001 (all day Sat, half day Sun), it was mainly common sense. They also covered using tree stands and climbers and at end let everyone shoot at a clay pigeon.

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---- Roy ----
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hunter safety courses are very important....we dont need trigger happy yahoos runnin around the woods.i learned an aweful lot when i got mine

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what makes you think a few day course is going to keep trigger happy yahoos from running around the woods.
people go to school for 13 years and plus if college educated, and they still do stupid things.
Yes they are important but unless you have morals, commensense and ethics that are instilled upon you by older wiser hunters with the same qualities they don't ammount to all that much.

In FL our hunter safety course is a 4 day class instruction and 1 day with rifle, shotgun, muzzle loader, and bow target shooting. This test is reckognized in all 50 states, Canada and Mexico. It is required to have a hunters safety card in almost any state west of the Mississippi River, and is likely to be required in Canada and Mexico. I enrolled my son and had to accompany him, so I took the course as well. I'm glad I took the class, because I am cleared to hunt in any state and two countries. It won't prevent hunting accidents, but it does serve as a helpful reminder.