hunter safety course

[GRIMJIM]

Here's a link in case anyone wants to take the hunter safety course.

http://dnr.state.il.us/safety/map.htm

I'm taking my 13 year old son to one and will take it too as long as I'm there just in case I want to hunt out west.

[Cement Man]

Thanks for posting GrimJim.  When I lived in the suburbs I used to be an instructor.  (25 years ago) I now belong to Morrison Sportsmans Club and a few years back we enlarged the clubhouse to accommodate hunter safety training.  I remember the impressive statistics relating to the success of hunter safety education in making hunting a safer sport.  Hunting in general is statistically one of the far safer sports from what I recall.  The press seems to jump on it when there is an incident related to hunting, but it is one of the safest otdoor pursuits.  I also think that young folks that are hunters are generally great kids and hunting ethically is a great experience and character builder. 

I understand our governor is also stopping pheasant stocking for controlled pheasant hunting on state preserves.  In this day and age, I guess we don't want kids out hunting with Dad anymore.  Better for them to have their noses glued to their gameboys or the internet fantasy world.

I hope you and your son enjoy the course.  Hats off to you.  Its a great thing to do together.

[S.B.]

The DNR could do better in scheduling these, also. When we have a class in Livingston at Dwight, we usually have around 100-125 kids and as many parents as can attend but, the number of classes per year are going down for the last several years? My point being, it's very hard to handle that many children, in a class situation like this but, we manage.
I attended an instructors seminar last year and learned Illinois is going to require a bow hunter education class for bow hunters in the near future?

[torpedoman]

seems that the state has discovered a new source of revenue. Bow hunter safety class.LOL

[Cement Man]

Torpedoman,

The classes are free and taught by volunteer instructors, so there is no revenue for the state.  I'm not sure why bowhunting safety couldn't be rolled into the regular course, but I don't think bow hunting safety is a bad idea.

[S.B.]

It will be mostly distance estimation and tree stand safety and that's what the team I teach with was looking into, incorporating into a regular hunters safety course.

[Cement Man]

That treestand part is good for sure.  I had a real close call a couple of years ago with a ladder stand (dumb, dumb, dumb on my part) and one of my friends who is a very experienced bow hunter, had a terrifying experience a few years back as well with his climber (same root cause as mine - dumb, dumb,dumb).  Maybe we ought to take the class over, or show up as examples of what not to do.

[S.B.]

I think the figure they gave us was something like 65% of all hunting accidents involved tree stands? Very high percentage, anyway.For more inform about this program follow the link below. Also, Il. is considering doing hunter safety on line, in the future? Evidently Blago has plans for the money in DNRs budget?

http://dnr.state.il.us:80/SAFETY/bowhunter.htm

[Glanceblamm]

I think the figure they gave us was something like 65% of all hunting accidents involved tree stands? Very high percentage.

S.B.
I think that you have called this right and one cannot be too careful. Falls are not restricted to just us old, clumsy guy's. A fair amount of hunters in their 20's who are in very good health and physical condition will unfortunately suffer from falls in the future. It is a great tragedy that some of these cases result in the victim becoming a paraplegic.
I used the tree stands for 22years with no mishap's. Best thing that I can offer when using them is to Take Your Time and use the Safety Belt. My last four years of hunting have been done strictly from ground blinds. It is not that I don't trust the tree stands anymore but rather that I can place one in good locations with good shooting lanes and see no disadvantage.