GUNS/BARMS

[Matey]

Young and old alike benefit from hunting safety classes

By DOUG COOK
The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT VALLEY — Taking and passing an Arizona Game & Fish Department-sponsored Hunter Education Class isn’t only singularly important for developing mature adult men and women for the outdoors. It’s also beneficial for children and teens who have developed an affinity for this brand of recreation.

Local hunter education lead instructor Steve Sams of Prescott Valley said that there are a couple of key reasons for completing the course.

Arizona Game and Fish Department hunter education instructor Woody Farnsworth teaches his son Tanner how to shoot a .22-caliber rifle during a class at the Usery Mountain Shooting Range in Maricopa County.



After obtaining a certificate, hunters who want to travel to other states to hunt can do so legally. Adults can also earn a bonus point for Arizona Game & Fish’s permit draw.

“Basically, you get an extra draw if you have successfully taken the hunter education program,” he said.

Based on all of his years of teaching hunter education, Sams estimates the average age of children who have enrolled in his classes is 11, while adults typically fall in the 35-year-old range.

“Usually about half of the class is adults, but it’s a pretty good mix of youngsters and adults,” he said.

Sams encourages the parents or other members of a child’s extended family to attend the classes together so that everyone’s on the same page.

At Sams’ hunter education class that starts this Saturday at the Prescott Fire Center, he will have 35 students and 60 total people, parents included, in attendance.

“We try to get the students to participate in every session,” Sams said.

Nine volunteers, most of whom are certified instructors, will help Sams in running the class. He recruits experts to teach such fields as archery, first aid, primitive firearms and wildlife management.

“We’re changing instructors all the time, and when you get the person with a passion for that particular subject it keeps the kids’ interest level up,” Sams said.

As a lead instructor, Sams not only teaches but tracks registration, fills out and processes applicable paperwork, types and distributes public service announcements, and makes arrangements for all of the class’s facilities and equipment, among other things.

He said a majority of students pass the class and that he has only flunked pupils for displaying a bad attitude.

“I have failed some students because they just were not responsible enough for me to certify,” Sams said. “I’m evaluating students on their attitude and their ability to recall the material that’s been presented.”

Sams and his instructors are inclusive of everyone. They work closely alongside children with learning disabilities, reading questions and assigning personal tutors to them.

“If there’s a person who’s deaf or blind, then we notify the state office and they’ll get somebody up here that can sign, or whatever we need, to be able to meet the requirements of that individual youngster,” Sams said. “That way, we make sure nobody is denied the opportunity to participate.”

Instructors hand out evaluation forms at the conclusion of classes so that participants can critique the courses. The questions include, for example, how the students first came to know of the class, what they would like to see changed, and their favorite and least favorite aspect of it.

“I don’t know about statewide, but in my classes we have had about 99 percent strongly support what we’re doing and the content of the class,” Sams said.

To acquire additional information about Arizona Game & Fish’s Hunter Education Program, including a current schedule of classes around the state, log on to the Internet at www.azgfd.com.



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