I attended a mandatory bowhunting certification course today in order to get my archery licence. The class was 9 hours long, yes, 9 hours. Out of the fifty people in attendance, No more than two or three have the ability to kill a deer over fifteen yards. Everyone passed.
We spent a total of a half-hour outside going over shooting, tracking, and distance estimating. That makes ten minutes for each. In the shooting, only one person other than I shot a group of less than 15 inches at 15 yards, and everyone passed. A handful of people did not even hit the two foot by two foot bag with three shots.
Three hours were spent talking about tree-stand safety, two hours spent discussing ethics, one hour about broadheads and why mechanicals were unethical, and the rest of the time repeating what was already talked about and some miscellaneous information.
Shot placement and how to actually shoot a bow consisted of no more than 20 minutes total.
I guess I am just pissed that it was a complete waste of my time, and that there are a ****load of people who passed that are going to go out in a few weeks and wound a ****load of deer. I have spent probably 9 hours online researching and on this forum, and have learned a hundred times more in that time than I did today.
Three Instructors. One shot a recurve, one shot a longbow, and one shot a compound. All were very knowledgeable and had strong ethics. I dont know what the hell went wrong.
If your instructor actually taught you that mechanicals are unethical.....he's a hack.
Careful passing judgement on others' shooting abilities. It's a long season.
Good luck.
Normally I wont pass judgment on others shooting abilities. I know that they could have done much better given more than a few minutes of instruction on how to actually shoot and place shots.
the coarses are not usually based on your ability but general knowledge about safety and ethics.the gun coarse is the same way they don't have you shoot at targets and get a certain score to pass
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"The believer is happy. The doubter is wise."
I attended a mandatory bowhunting certification course..........
In the shooting, only one person other than I shot a group of less than 15 inches at 15 yards, and everyone passed. A handful of people did not even hit the two foot by two foot bag with three shots.
Three hours were spent talking about tree-stand safety, two hours spent discussing ethics, one hour about broadheads and why mechanicals were unethical, and the rest of the time repeating what was already talked about and some miscellaneous information.
Shot placement and how to actually shoot a bow consisted of no more than 20 minutes total.
I guess I am just pissed that it was a complete waste of my time, and that there are a ****load of people who passed that are going to go out in a few weeks and wound a ****load of deer. I have spent probably 9 hours online researching and on this forum, and have learned a hundred times more in that time than I did today.
Sorry for the rant, I just had to tell someone.
So let me get this straight, the instructor actually voiced that he thinks mechanical BH's are unethical, and why, but he didn't think that the shooting of the group was a disgrace to BOWHUNTING???? Somebody needs some ICE, because he bumped his DAMNED head!!!!
IMHO, for a NEW BOWHUNTER, the course would be beneficial. For a seasoned veteran, who has quite a few years under his belt, and understands bowhunting pretty well, it may not be quite as beneficial. I haven't taken the full course, but I completed and on-line test, and it wasn't bad.
I attended a mandatory bowhunting certification course today in order to get my archery licence. The class was 9 hours long, yes, 9 hours. Out of the fifty people in attendance, No more than two or three have the ability to kill a deer over fifteen yards. Everyone passed.
We spent a total of a half-hour outside going over shooting, tracking, and distance estimating. That makes ten minutes for each. In the shooting, only one person other than I shot a group of less than 15 inches at 15 yards, and everyone passed. A handful of people did not even hit the two foot by two foot bag with three shots.
Three hours were spent talking about tree-stand safety, two hours spent discussing ethics, one hour about broadheads and why mechanicals were unethical, and the rest of the time repeating what was already talked about and some miscellaneous information.
Shot placement and how to actually shoot a bow consisted of no more than 20 minutes total.
I guess I am just pissed that it was a complete waste of my time, and that there are a ****load of people who passed that are going to go out in a few weeks and wound a ****load of deer. I have spent probably 9 hours online researching and on this forum, and have learned a hundred times more in that time than I did today.
Sorry for the rant, I just had to tell someone.
Wow, you present a very good argument for the elimination of bow hunting. This is the kind of thing PETA has been sayig for a long time.
I took the NBEF certification course to fufill the requirements of getting a nonresident bowhunting permit for New York. The instructors were traditionalists. Nothing wrong with that, other than they're knowledge base about modern equipment dates back to about 1989 or so. And 20yrs ago, probably 99% of the available mech broadheads probably were crap.
They did the old buckskin penetration test to prove how poorly mechs penetrate. I really, really wished I had a Snyper or Tekan in my quiver. That would of skewed the results just a little.
A shooting skills proficiency is NOT part of the course. In fact, my group didn't even shoot.
I'm hesistant to be too critical of my instructors, however.They'rethe ones who sacrificed their free time and did the work to put the course together. I'm sure all members in my group gave our instructors plenty of constructive criticism in the course evaluations.
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Bowtech 82nd, 26.5"draw, 54lbs
HHA Optimizer Lite
QAD Hunter
Maxima 250's
300fps, 59lbs KE
Bowhunting Certification course a JOKE.
