Hunter ed

My daughter and I decided to sign up for the local hunter education classes put on by the Indiana DNR. Saturday we sat in a 5 hour class that discussed different styles of hunting guns and also the difference among pistols (revolver and semi-auto).

So far it seems pretty generic, although they tell you what to know for your test that will be administered after the second five hour session next Saturday,the hands on consisted of safe passing of a weapon between two persons, and safe carrying of a hunting weapon, wearing an FAS when sitting in a tree stand, different styles of tree stands an ground blinds.

Our local sheriff came in and discussed some different gun laws that pertains to hunting as well as when it is okay to open carry, really hitting on this Walmart, Walgreens, stc. "banning" open carry. Now in the past, a couple of officers for different departments have told me that signs forbidding weapons (except in federal buildings) is unenforceable, or more specifically that most police officers do not acknowledge the weapons ban by businesses BUT, once the business tells you to leave, you MUST leave, for whatever reason,and if you refuse, then you can be charged with trespass. This sheriff told us if they tell you to leave because of your visible weapon then you can be charged with carrying a weapon in a forbidden location....he said, "just carry it concealed, they have not banned weapons outright, just don't want to see them".

I do not have to have a hunter education course to hunt, but Jade does, and I am all about keeping up with current laws and regulations so although I said it's been pretty generic so far, I recommend taking the course (free if you take it in person, $20 if you take it online), I still forward to the next class, and glad that Jade and I are taking the course together. Going to push my oldest son to sign he and the oldest grandson up for a free class soon, Bass Pro will have free classes on the 21st and 22nd. My grandson has in the past said he wanted to deer hunt and it would be a good bonding experience for them ( Josh was born a month before the requirement for hunter ed was established in Indiana), and get both their noses out of their phones.

We have a very weak class, meaning there were only about 20 people signed up, mostly younger Amish kids just old enough to take the course without an adult with them, but there is a couple English dads there with their sons. The instructors said it used to be that it was difficult to find seating for all the folks who signed up for classes the first 25 years or so, but now they cannot fill a class, the seating capacity for this session was 50. And they have taught classes that were mostly court ordered persons caught poaching or caught breaking some other laws or just being unsafe when carrying their weapons and observed by DNR officers.
One class they taught several teenagers who had loaded up together with other teens from three different counties that would just drive around shooting the biggest bucks they saw and just leaving them lay, some in front or side yards of peoples homes, and they had killed about twice as many deer than what the DNR and state police recovered, and not even one set of antlers or head taken, they just were out to kill as many deer as they could.

Around here they hold the classes so infrequently, it's hard to get a seat. But they are free. They had a 'virtual hunt' system set up with various deer targets (laser rifle and video.) Pretty much you got a red light any time you tried for a quartering shot rather than a full broad shot, or if most of the deer was obscured by underbrush (always be 100% certain of your target!)
The fun part though was, it was held in an Audobon sanctuary in spring when I went. Nothing like 40 people in a field with orange plastic shotguns (that could be loaded and unloaded with plastic rounds) practicing field of fire, proper carry, and climbing over fences. Got a lot of very odd looks from the "beautiful people" visiting the park. LOL!

I'm not sure what the next class will be, but I'm doubtful if there will be any sort of target shooting, even virtual in this room it is basically the size of a school class room, maybe slightly larger (and they want 50 people in a class), there next session is being held in the Bass Pro in Clark County.

The Bass Pro is located in what used to be a mall, and there was a movie theater in the mall, and Bass Pro utilizes that theater for classes such as this, they possibly have the room there (funny thing, Bass Pro kept the little "hunting" play area that the Mall had, you walk around with toy guns shooting targets). They could definitely use that hinting area to set up their game targets for a walk through "hunt". Interesting, I wonder if I can go to their sessions too?

Too difficult to get my daughter up in time to get to Bass Pro for those classes, LOL she may be fun hunting with. She works IT at Jewish Hospital but is studying late into the evening to become a professional hacker for companies who pay people to find weaknesses in their systems before they get hacked. I hope she is well rested and ready to get up early when we do go hunting, I surely don't need her tired and sleepy with a gun, I'm carrying all her ammo though, she isn't getting a single bullet until she sees a deer, lol, We'll be hunting from a ground blind, not climbing into a stand.

Here in my part of PA, the classes fill up pretty quickly. i had a difficult time finding a close one to get my daughter in and ended up missing the first two rounds of doe tags because i had to book it so far out. To date Ive taken the course 5 times. Once for myself in the 80's, once with my ex brother-in-law when he was a teen, once with my own boys, and once a piece with my step-kids. Ive taken it in two different states, PA and ME and found many differences. its definitely worth taking, even if your not a hunter. in Maine there was a few hours dedicated to survival, compass reading, etc. PA is far more about weapon safety.