I agree with several of you all about there NOT being education courses for bowhunters. Even though there are a few "Idiots" out there, not all beginners are idiots. Lack of knowledge about something does not make one an idiot. These type of posts makes all of the new guys/gals afraid of posting. This applies to all of the forums here. Seems to me that there has been way too many "cut-downs" of people. I know for a fact that just about all of us knew nadda, zilch, nothing about bowhunting the first time we picked up a bow. Did that make us idiots? I don't think so. Trial and error, trial and error and trial and error is the main teaching tool. Just as the aniimals we hunt, they make a mistake the first time, they may get away with it. The second time, they learn and remember. I am sure that any one of us could take another from this forum to his/her work, and have that person try to perform the same job duties that are done. 99% would be so called "idiots" when put into an unfamilar enviornment, and the table would switch when done vice-versa. When does it stop.

As far as bowhunting safety courses, I don't think so. Do we really want more regulation? I don't.
Where would the age limit begin? Here in Missouri, there is an age limit on the mandatory hunter's safety courses. If you are younger than a certain age, then you have to take it.

I have been hunting since I was 5. My grandfather, father, and uncles taught me right from wrong, and I live by it. But, since I was born after a certain date, I had to take a hunter's safety course, but, my mother, who has never shot a gun or even been hunting just to ride along, can LEGALLY go to Wal-Mart, buy a gun, some ammo, and a license, and go out in the timber. I think that education of hunters is a good thing, but should be for everybody, if not, voluntary.

Hunter's safety courses cover a broad range of what to do/not to do situations and ethics. We don't need more regulation.

Most of us had made a shot on an animal, and the unthinkable happens due to an unforeseen limb, yardage miscalculation, ect., and prolonged death is unevidable. Do we want our fellow hunters hollering about how much of an idiot we are? What if they don't believe the story you tell of the invisible limb, bad yardage judgement, and call for us to hang it up and take a course? We wouldn't like it at all. We have all made bad mistakes, and whether the others think it is so basically obvious that they would never make the same mistake, we all need to get a grip, step back for a minute, and think that maybe, just maybe, the one that made it really doesn't understand it, and needs to be taught without being made to feel like an ass.