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Hunter
Safety Certification Course 2004
Sanctioned
By Texas Parks & Wildlife
| July 17
At 7:03am Timm Getts and I arrived at the class meeting room in the Texas Farm Bureau headquarters in Waco. In short order the course attendees began arriving. Once agian, this was a mixed group consisting of youth (both boys and girls) as well as adults (men and women). We checked in with the course instructor Jim Gardner.
Jim Gardner is one of Texas's finest Texas Hunter Safety Instructors as well as the pilot for the Texas Farm Bureau. Every year, Jim invites me to participate in the Texas Hunter Education certification program, sanctioned by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept., that is held in Waco, Texas. I know Jim from the Wildlife Alliance for Youth event and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's Youth Shooting Sports Events. He is one of the hard working volunteers who do everything he can to help introduce wildlife conservation, the shooting sports, and hunting to tomorrow's hunters. My job at this event is to help as needed and to cover the archery and bowhunting parts of the program. This year I asked Timm Getts to help me out and he was definitely an asset to the day's events. Jim Gardner had previously introduced the topic of Hunter Education and cited it as a movement to improve hunting. Today there are Hunter Education programs in all 50 states and over 22 million people have graduated from state programs since 1949. In Texas everyone who was born after 1971 must have the certification so they can legally hunt. An interesting point is that Texas is one of the safest states in the nation in terms of hunting accidents. A video was shown named "Our Hunting Heritage." It showed hunting and wildlife opportunities in the state and made several excellent points about our rich history of hunting and it's traditions and values. The sportsman's role as a Wildlife Management tool was introduced. During the early years of the U.S. there was an abundance of game and hunting was common and important to the american family. Once an animal was harvested nothing was wasted. It became food for the table and clothing as well as tools. In the early 1900's laws were passed with the intention of protecting wildlife. Deer and other animals were protected by law, people could not hunt them, but predators such as bears, wolves and mountain lions were annihilated by government hunters. Arizona soon saw their mule deer herd explode from 4,000 to over 100,000. In 1924 and 1925 heavy snows food shortages 50,000 deer died of starvation and disease. Similar die-offs occurred in Pennsylvania, Colorado and many other states. Wildlife managers learned from these disasters. Nature's way is to produce surplus wildlife each year. That way enough of them will survive to reproduce the following year. More babies are born than will survive. And when excessive populations occur disease and starvation follow. Today the goals of wildlife management include by the "wise use of our natural resources." Wise wildlife management allows hunters to be a tool to control the harvest of the surplus and keep the herd healthy. Then Jim discussed Hunter Safety & Responsibility. One of the issues addressed was that we are in a new era for hunting. Today, only 10% of the population hunts, 80% are unconcerned or disinterested, and the remaining 10% is against it. The people who oppose hunting are led by groups which are well organized and funded. And they are aggressively working to ban hunting by legal means. Generally, hunters are not part of an organization but every hunter can still do their part by representing hunting positively when they are around the 80% that don't hunt. Hunter Safety & Responsibility was discussed. It is important to realize you are responsible for your own safety as well as those around you. The #1 leading cause of hunting incidents is due to a "Hunter's Lack Of Good Judgment". Responsible hunters always check every firearm to see if the chamber and magazine are empty and that the action is open until ready to be fired. Never point the muzzle at anyone or anything you don't intend to shoot. Handle firearms, arrows and ammunition carefully. Jim then discussed what the "zone of fire" is and two attendees helped him demonstrate what each one's zone of fire was. Controlling your emotions is important. Don't drink alcohol or take medication when handling firearms or bows and arrows. Game Warden Ronnie Yates was up next and he reviewed and discussed the Texas game laws. NEXT: Part 2, Archery, Bowhunting & Primitive Arms |
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"Hunter
Education is a movement to improve hunting." Jim Gardner.
