you can train all day every day and still NOT be a good hunter... some people have a natural instinct for it and require very little if any training to be a good hunter...

whose definition of good are you going to use??? how good is "good" and where do you draw the line... do you not think that some first time hunters, with no guidance, using only the common sense that was given to them, can't be ok hunters their first time out????? can you quantify hunting ability????

I'm playing devil's advocate here mostly cuz as is mentioned above, who here really wants ~more~ govt controls over something we've been fighting to keep (and so many others are fighting to ban)????? fact is that it is unrealistic to even want a proficiency test, it is expensive, and impractical... peer pressure is the best tool... use it to your advantage...

though I've got to admit, a small part of me is sitting here listening to this going "how friggin arrogant can some of these folks be?"... defining a hunter and labeling someone not worthy and etc... be careful guys, attitudes like this might actually shrink our ranks and give us less of a voice against the anti's... we should be welcoming these people into our ranks instead of blindly ragging on them as inferior people for not subscribing to your exact qualifications of what a hunter is and should be... kinda like how the harley riders used to berate the rice riders, they've found there is more strength in numbers and they all share the same desires even if they act on them in a slightly different manner....