I think the answer lies in between prophman and Cody.

It' s more important then Prophman thinks and less important then Cody believes.

I' ll be going with my son on March 16. I' ll give my honest opinion shortly after that.

Hunter ed classes should be required in my opinion and heres why.

First-Some don' t need it and some do cause common sense ain' t very common. Some boys are brought up by mentor or a father who teaches them what they need to know. Whos gonna decide who does and doesn' t need it? Simple answer is require everyone to do it. Don' t like testing out of it for my second point.

Second-Nobody knows everything. So by making a class manditory you make sure to the best of your ability everyone knows all the essentials. It serves as a level because everyone knows that there are rules and everyone knows them. You don' t have to worry as much about Billy Joe Bob on the hill living some sort of mountain law and shooting at you for taking his spot.

Third-You have a bunch of people running around with guns and I feel we do need some sort of safety course primarly for my first point.

My last point is this. I think there is ethics in these courses that are taught and should be taught more. Hunting is some in danger of being ousted and its mainly due to lack of ethics. I don' t care as much if a guy can hit a target constistently at 300 yds or track a deer 5 miles as much as if he has ethics on the hill. We need to be aware of the little things we don' t think of and a class can give us that. What if you shoot an animal and it runs on private property? What do you do? A fight broke put last year because a land owner mistook tracking hunters as trespassers. Last year a guy killed and gutted a moose close to local mountain restaraunt and the story made local headlines, thats great publicity for hunting. People will kill deer and drag them through other peoples driveways. People cut the heads off and leave the rest. They take bad shots and leave wounded animals. These are things that are destroying our image and a class should be manditory to teach these things. In Utah you can no longer hunt the Wasatch Front area bordering Salt Lake City without a special course because of the above reasons.

somebody yell at me when you get back from the class and post on it Charlie P i dont want to miss it. i keep trying to think of a way for us to sort out the people that need it and the people that dont. i cant think of a single way to tell you the truth. though rather_be_hunting brings a good point to my attention that i have overlooked. the image of hunters. this is something i hadnt considered until right now. beginning to think that maybe it is a necessary evil if hunting will survive. Ahhh im losing the battle! i myself have let doubt enter my mind. i still hate the idea of a class, but necessary maybe? i dont know anymore. hopefully ill never have to go to a class but i aint going to let a stupid class stop me from hunting. maybe a lecture on ethics and complicated things and then a quick test accompanied by a book for reading before the class. done and finished in less than 3 hours? i believe i have been defeated. while i dont think most people need it there are a lot of morons out there.

Well my son' s class was last Sunday, he passed with flying colors.

My opinion still hasn' t changed, it has a purpose, but they didn' t teach my som anything that I hadn' t already taught him. The people that taught the class were very professional, and did a great job. Should everyone have to take one? Yes.

Here is something that I found very interesting. A couple DEC officers came in to explain some things about the law. They said it wasn' t the greatest idea, but they had no problem with a father letting his son/daughter shoot a deer and tag it with the adults tag. As long as the kid wasn' t carrying their own gun, they would never ticket the Dad.

thanks for the update. i find the father/son/daughter thing interesting though. i can sort of see why.