Donald "Duck" & I set up the archery station. 

Parks & Wildlife presented a program on wildlife management and firearms safety.


At the archery station, I began with, "Archery is the oldest shooting sport. . ."

" it came right after the club & the rock."

Donald Duck shows them correct form.

Then it's their turn to shoot, for the first time.

Ready, aim, fire. . .

Pull !!!

The entire group.

It continues to amaze me how little today’s youth know about wildlife and wildlife management and how many of today’s youth have never handled a gun nor a bow nor spent one day in the woods hunting. One way the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has found to combat this is by holding Youth Shooting Sports Events. These events are designed to promote conservation education and introduce the shooting sports to our youth as well as promote hunting. They are not competitions but an attempt to give young adults the opportunity to participate in a variety of shooting sports. 

Recently your host Robert Hoague offered his expertise to help Texas Parks and Wildlife at one of these events. As you can see from the pictures he was a hit. A Shooting Sports Event is held to place those kids in a "hands on" situation where they were able to learn how to handle guns and archery equipment safely as well as learn the facts about hunting. These young soon to be shooters rotated through five stations including archery, sporting clays, .22 rifle still targets, .22 rifle swinging targets, and muzzleloader after listening to a presentation on conservation. 

At 8:30 a.m. the high school students arrived full of excitement and trepidation not knowing what was to come. Four different schools from the surrounding area came to the event, the farthest driving nearly an hour to get there. Only a handful of these kids had ever shot a bow, a shotgun, or a rifle before. After being introduced to the Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and volunteer instructors, the students listened as the Aquilla Area Manager Jose Cano gave them a little history about the Aquilla Wildlife Management Area. Next on the agenda was Technical Guidance Biologist Mike Krueger presenting a program on wildlife management. Mike’s slideshow illustrated the life history of white-tailed deer as well as demonstrated wildlife biodiversity and explained where the revenue to manage the state’s wildlife resource’s comes from. Last on the agenda, Hunter Education Instructor Charlie Wilson, who travels around the state with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Sporting Clays trailer, made sure they all knew how to safely handle the equipment they were about to use. 

The group of 62 kids were then divided into 5 groups. Each of these groups went to an initial station; archery, sporting clays, .22 rifle, or muzzleloader. They received an orientation, instruction, and then each kid shot numerous times. 

After 45 minutes each group rotated to the next station, participating in each of the shooting sports. The last session of the day each kid returned to the station they liked the best. Archery and Sporting Clays were the two most popular. 

It is great to see their enthusiasm for learning about these shooting sports as well as wildlife management. The first of this type of event was held on the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area in South Texas in 1996 . Now they hold two a year. I would love to see these programs put in place in every state across the nation. Youth today have many misconceptions about wildlife and hunting. Programs such as this help give them the facts while they are having fun. 

If you are interested in putting on one of these in your area e-mail me at Misty@deerhunting.net.