OUTDOOR CORNER: ATTENDING MISSOURI HUNTER EDUCATION CLASS IS A MUST

It may be the middle of summer but it's not too early to start making plans for the upcoming hunting seasons. You may be planning to travel out of state to hunt this year. You may be making plans to hunt the "early" seasons in Missouri for dove and teal (more on those next month). Regardless of the "what and where" of your hunting plans, now is a good time to make plans to attend a Missouri Hunter Education Class.

With a few exceptions, any person born on or after January 1, 1967, must successfully complete an approved Hunter Education program before they can purchase any type of firearms hunting permit in Missouri. A person must be a minimum of eleven (11) years old to receive certification.

Missouri's Hunter Education Courses are taught by trained volunteers and Missouri Department of Conservation employees. The course consists of ten hours of classroom work that includes a written exam.

Topics covered include chapters on firearms and ammunition, hunting traditions and ethics, the hunter and conservation, safe firearms handling, hunter responsibilities, and hunter preparedness.

These topics are covered by trained instructors that utilize slides, films and other teaching aids that make for an interesting course for both the young and old. All hunters, even those exempted from the mandatory regulation, are encouraged to sign up and attend a course.

Those hunters that successfully complete the course are issued a Missouri Hunter Education Certification card. This card fulfills the mandatory hunter education requirement not only in Missouri, but also in all the other 49 states and Canadian provinces. This certification is a lifetime certification and does not have to be repeated.

The Missouri Hunter Education Course has four main goals. These goals are to develop hunters who are safe with firearms in the field and home, respectful of other people and property, law-abiding, and aware of the importance of hunting and the role it plays in the management of our wildlife resources.

The history of hunter education programs in the United States dates back more than 50 years and began with basic training firearms safety. Hunter safety was a program started during the post World War II era of the 1940's. The program was developed by sportsmen and hunters themselves in response to an increase in hunting accidents.

Missouri's first formal hunter safety course was created in 1957 and was a voluntary course. The course continued until the early 1970's, when the Hunter Safety Course was expanded and became the Hunter Education Program.

The Hunter Education Program was a course that evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of hunters. Problems such as destruction of wildlife habitat, anti-hunting attitudes, and increased closure of private lands were addressed by adding chapters on wildlife management and hunter responsibilities. These topics, added to the basics of safe firearm handling, changed the Hunter Safety Program into the expanded Hunter Education Program.

From 1957 to 1987, more than 400,000 Missourians voluntarily attended Missouri Hunter Education courses. Then in 1988, Missouri enacted a mandatory hunter education requirement for all firearm hunters born on or after January 1, 1967.

At present, there are at least 15 classes scheduled between early August and mid November at various locations in southeast Missouri. For details on a class near you, contact your local conservation agent or the southeast regional MDC office at (573) 290-5730 ext. 0.

If you are one of the ever-growing number of archery hunters, you might want to make plans to attend a Bowhunter Education Course that will be conducted in Perryville on August 12.

While not mandatory in Missouri, approximately a dozen states currently require completion of the course prior to bow hunting. This course will satisfy those requirements. For complete details on the class, contact either David Hoff, volunteer instructor, at (573) 547-1751 or Perry County Conservation Agent Eric Abbott at (573) 547-7142.

Gene Myers is a Missouri Department of Conservation agent in Cape Girardeau County.