IL Hunter safety course

[Vizsla Vince]

Just got back from the course w/ my daughetr & nephew... Three hours last night & 9 hours today!! And I've already taken the course!!!
I'm glad I got the kids through it, but, Man oh man was it BORING!! The instructors were pretty bad... There was one grumpy old man on a power trip & liked to yell at people for getting distracted, his wife who couldn't put a sentence together that made any sense, hours of boring stories, etc, etc, ... The younger guy was pretty good. He seemed like the only one really interested in teaching anybody anything.
The younger guy pulled my daughter (9) aside to gently explain to her that the reason the old guy was yelling at her was that he wanted her to be safe. I told him I appreciated that( not really believing it).
I wishthey had the instructors my oldest & I had three years ago... They were entertaining as well as educational.

[uncle matt]

As an IL instructor myself I am sorry about your experience.

I sent you a PM.

[IL-Cornfed]

LOL! Yep, it sounds like you took the same class I did with my 2 boys in May!!! []

I couldn't believe how un-professionalour"intructors" were. We had one old guy that was stuck in the 50's and didn't seem to know jack-squat about anything modern and then we had one 20-something year old kid that seemed to "educate" the class by telling them about all the laws he's broke!!! [:-]One example was the story of his telling the kids how important it was to make sure you gun is patterned...... he proceeded to tell us that one time they had to pattern his buddies shotgun by shooting into ICE during a late season duck hunt!!! I wanted to walk up in front of the class and slap him! [:@]

What do ya do though??? It's all volunteers so unless you want to do it yourself we obviously don't have much of a choice. I just thought that intructors would be policed a bit better than what they obviously are.

[salukipv1]

I don't remember that being my experience, I thought it was 2-3hr classes or something. At the time I didn't know much, knew how to handle a gun, but wasn't so informed to know who know what etc...

As far as the screaming....I've come to realize that's not the way to educate someone, I want to know WHY I shouldn't do something, not simply "Don't do that!". Also when being screamed at, especially kids, I think they or at least I remember shutting down, kinda just saying like, ya ok, to make them go away, rather than actually learning the point of the message that they were trying to make.

So hopefully your kids have that safety card now, and you can continue to teach them the how's why's and what nots... without screaming at them.

[uncle matt]

ORIGINAL: IL-Cornfed

LOL! Yep, it sounds like you took the same class I did with my 2 boys in May!!! []

I couldn't believe how un-professionalour"intructors" were. We had one old guy that was stuck in the 50's and didn't seem to know jack-squat about anything modern and then we had one 20-something year old kid that seemed to "educate" the class by telling them about all the laws he's broke!!! [:-]One example was the story of his telling the kids how important it was to make sure you gun is patterned...... he proceeded to tell us that one time they had to pattern his buddies shotgun by shooting into ICE during a late season duck hunt!!! I wanted to walk up in front of the class and slap him! [:@]

What do ya do though??? It's all volunteers so unless you want to do it yourself we obviously don't have much of a choice. I just thought that intructors would be policed a bit better than what they obviously are.

What the class "is" depends on the Master Instructor. I think I am fortunate to be under the guy who is my MI. We hear horror stories and they are beyond our control and fall in the laps of the region coordinators.

The last class I did, there was a much lder guy there with his grandson. I noticed he seemed to be eyeballing me ALOT. I thought, "Man this guy don't like me.", "This guy obviously doesn't agree with a thing I'm saying." I am very interactive with the kids and thought this guy really has it for me!

After my segment, he caught me, shook my hand, thanked me and told me I was very good and did a great job involving the kids.

I wemt home with a real sweetfeeling in me that day.

[mulvany]

Mine safety class was not that bad. I was eight, so I don't remember it much. Just wondering if there was anywhere or anyone that had info on finding a hunter safety class? Trying to get my wife into hunting and she asked what she needed to do, so I am looking for a class. Thanks

[uncle matt]

Here ya go. You can find a class here.......

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