Hunter safety education "class" tonight....

Had the pleasure of taking my hunter education class today.... 8 hour one day internet class in Commerce City. If anyone else from here was there maybe you can back me up on this? I'd love to hear your opinion, maybe I was in a worse mood then normal because I have a cold or maybe they were really as dumb as I thought.

30 minutes into the class the instructor who I affectionally referred to as Elmer Fudd said, and I quote, "an old pump shotgun that no longer works is the best self defense weapon you can have. Keep it unloaded and if you hear someone breaking in, just say loudly that you are getting your gun and then rack your (non-functioning) shotgun. If the bad guy still comes in hold it by the barrel and swing for the teeth, if he blocks it you should have an aluminum baseball bat nearby, not a wooden one. Use it to swing at their knees". At that point I almost walked out of the class, and it took an enormous amount of self restraint to not mention that if the would be attacker continued in odds are you and your entire family are now dead because he's probably drugged out with a functioning weapon of his own. I also wondered why a wooden bat wouldn't do?

Continuing on....

His wife (who worked for CPW) was demonstrating how to hand over a rifle and demonstrated checking the chamber and looking down the barrel, then holding the rifle with the action open so the person you were handing it to could see down the barrel too. I thought that was kind of awkward but whatever... I watched the person in front of me muzzle sweep 5 or 6 people trying to hold the rifle so the person she was handing it to could see down the barrel. When it was my turn I asked why it wasn't sufficient to open the action, check the chamber, and hand it off and let that person check the chamber while holding it so they don't muzzle sweep a bunch of people like what just happened? to which she replied, "the rifle could fire". I asked how she expected a rifle to fire with the action open, with there being no round in the chamber and no contact with the bolt or firing pin? She told me "you never know".[Bang]

I also learned you should never walk around with a holstered loaded sidearm because they fire on their own also.... and I forgot to mention the story about the "accidental discharge" when the wife (who I remind you works for CPW) didn't know how to unload a lever gun and fired a round feet away from her husband into a bush... to which he chuckled about. Then he told us about all the tickets he received for not properly unloading his .22lr, and also hunting without a 3 round plug in his shotgun.

Are these seriously the best people they could find to teach hunter safety? I'm not sure the instructor understood the proper terms for different parts of a firearm... Gave me a puzzled look when I said the word "hang fire", and I counted the word "clip" at least a dozen times when they were referring to a magazine. [Mad]

I was afraid to go to the live fire portion in fear of being shot by one of the instructors, luckily I was one of the first people to fire and get the hell out of there. [panic]Not sure I want to be doing any hunting on public land if this is the type of people they are "educating".

I was hoping for a feedback card at the end of the class but no dice on that either... [Rant2]


<rant off>

I suggest you send the above post and other pertinent details (such as instructor names and location where you took the class) to CPW. I'm surprised by the poor quality of the instructors because it's a pretty big PITA to get qualified to teach hunter safety. But I have no recent knowledge of how they do the class since I took my course when I moved here in 89. It was 2 days and taught by DOW officers.

What BG said x 10.
These people have taken the responsibility of teaching others. They have an obligation to the students, themselves, NRA/DOW and society to educate them FACTUALLY and CORRECTLY.

A flawed and ignorant education is worse than no education.

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Originally Posted by Bailey Guns

I suggest you send the above post and other pertinent details (such as instructor names and location where you took the class) to CPW. I'm surprised by the poor quality of the instructors because it's a pretty big PITA to get qualified to teach hunter safety. But I have no recent knowledge of how they do the class since I took my course when I moved here in 89. It was 2 days and taught by DOW officers.

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this^^ I got mine in 1983 it was taught by dow as well and was a professionally done course from what I remember, my son is going to get his next weekend so he can apply with us this year I think after this I will go and sit in. I'm a rso and work at the range they shoot at to finish the class, everything I hear is the instructor is top notch so I'm not worried to much, but I assure you none of that shit will fly in any live fire situation I'm around for.

I thought the class I took at the DOW office was sub par, but wow. That's bad.

My family (wife/kids) finished ours today at a different location in the metro area. The instructors did well, and even knew not to muzzle sweep anyone and never looked down the barrel in any demonstrations. They have a standard of opening the action, checking for a round visually and physically if you desire, then handing off the weapon to another person. I was getting tired of the personal opinions and them getting off on rants and stories that really didn't keep the children involved in the class. One of our instructors was an "Intern" type who has been practicing teaching for a while. A few times he called them Bullets instead of cartridges or ammo/ammunition. They made a good point to not call anything a "CLIP" and made note of that in class. The intern person does need to work on his country bumpkin personality a bit.

Our class was three hours on Monday/Wednesday with live fire on Friday and all of today as a class, 8am - 5pm.

I did listen to a class friday night while waiting for our range time. One instructor was showing off his concealed carry piece - North American Arms 22 Magnum pistol, and how LOUD it was, scaring everyone at the range. Some other BS I can't remember.

Oh, and the range time, they discovered my child should probably be shooting Left Handed and Left Eye dominant. Very forceful that he change now and shoot now left handed after many years of shooting right/right. He did shoot well left handed, but I'm a little peeved they forced him to do this "NOW" not some other time.

I've also decided the instructors are obviously teaching because they feel some POWER in doing it. Our instructor was never wrong, any correct answer given to their question was corrected so they looked "more right".

I thought about emailing/calling someone. I need to look at my card to get a last name.... They only mentioned it once and used first names the rest of the class. Sounds like I definitely got the short end of the stick for instructor quality. I was really interested more in field cleaning the animal anyways, but there wasn't much of that either.

Sure hope you didn't pay money for that shit, because if you did you got ripped. Were they NRA???? Report their dumbasses, that was just wrong....

I took mine ten years ago becuse when I moved here I could not find my old hunting licenses from the state where I came from. So instead of trying to get gradfathered I just took a class. Well worth the money I spent on it. It was given at Sportsmans Warehouse and the guys were good. I learned alot about Colorado hunting...

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Originally Posted by gnihcraes

Oh, and the range time, they discovered my child should probably be shooting Left Handed and Left Eye dominant. Very forceful that he change now and shoot now left handed after many years of shooting right/right. He did shoot well left handed, but I'm a little peeved they forced him to do this "NOW" not some other time.

I've also decided the instructors are obviously teaching because they feel some POWER in doing it. Our instructor was never wrong, any correct answer given to their question was corrected so they looked "more right".

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I feel for your son. I am cross dominate too. Fortunately I am also ambidextrous. Rifles with scope I shoot lefty most of the time. Open sights I try to shoot with both eyes open, but still cock my head over a bit. With a bit of practice he will shoot well with either hand. When I carry my primary weapon it right hand, just because I am a faster draw with my right. I guess I need to drill more with my left.

One of the best safety lines I ever heard was from the TC that taught my Instructor classes: "when it comes to safety you don't have the right to remain silent"

my hunters safety class was great. It was at the Sports Castle downtown. it was 3 nights I think and then one day of shooting. we learned fire making, survival, hunting laws, game Id, etc. DOW officers were the instructors then. 1982. Then we went to the Arvada rifle and pistol club at 58th and wadsworth and shot a brick of ammo each. I had been shooting for years at that point and the instructor also caught that I was left eye dominant. I switched and it helped tremendously.

I was a master hunter safety instructor until I quit teaching last year and we would never had done or said the things fud did in your class. You need to report him to the hunter ed office at CDOW.

tom

Wow that is horrible, I would definitely contact someone and let them know of these instructors, they should NOT be instructing people if that is the info they are discussing

Unfortunatly a lot of instructors out there teach stuff that they don't know themselves. I would have asked for my money back.

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Originally Posted by BREATHER

I took mine ten years ago becuse when I moved here I could not find my old hunting licenses from the state where I came from. So instead of trying to get gradfathered I just took a class. Well worth the money I spent on it. It was given at Sportsmans Warehouse and the guys were good. I learned alot about Colorado hunting...

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+1 I took mine about 2 years ago at Sportsmans Warehouse in Thornton and it was great!

Some of the comments related by the OP are nonsense and bad instruction and should be reported to the CPW. Mark Cousins runs the program at CPW. The comment about self-defense firearm choices marks a rather stupid instructor both from the advice and that it isn't part of Hunter Education material.

However, some of the material the OP argued about is what we are supposed to teach, especially the method of handing off firearms to another.

thanks for the encouragement guys on the left eye right eye thing, I just wasn't a fan of them pushing it right now during hunters ed. Seemed odd.

Damn, that is horrible. Definitely report that shit. Why in the fuck would someone who has lots of tickets against them be able to teach a hunter safety class is beyond me.

My team never "forces" anyone to shoot left or right handed. Sometimes we suggest changing sides on someone with a eye dominance issue. But even then, the person/youngster has to basically show us the need usually by crowding a head over the comb to get their opposite eye lined up on the sights.

And if we think that someone has that issue, why the heck wouldn't we suggest it?

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Originally Posted by spqrzilla

My team never "forces" anyone to shoot left or right handed. Sometimes we suggest changing sides on someone with a eye dominance issue. But even then, the person/youngster has to basically show us the need usually by crowding a head over the comb to get their opposite eye lined up on the sights.

And if we think that someone has that issue, why the heck wouldn't we suggest it?

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im glad they suggested it to me. i was probably destined to be left handed. my parents, like many others, forced me to be right handed. i used to fail penmanship in school. after the instructor told me that he believed I was left eye dominant, my shooting improved and I knew that my penmanship problem was probably tied to actually being left handed. I am glad he helped me.