Free hunter education courses are now open for registration with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. In-person, instructor-led courses are available for anyone age 10 or older, led by trained volunteer instructors.
They provide hands-on training on hunter and gun safety like how to pass guns back and forth, and how to handle different actions using inert firearms, which are real firearms that do not have a firing pin.
They also teach being a responsible, ethical hunter as well as outdoor skills like building fires.
Anyone who wants to obtain a hunting license born after January 1st, 1985 is required to obtain the certification.
Students aged 10 and 11 will be able to hunt as an apprentice but will not be fully certified until age 12.
Dave Hagengruber, Communication & Education Program Manager for Montana FWP Region 4, says that it isn’t just first time hunters that participate in the course.
Expecting around 100 students, Hagengruber says many of them want to learn how to handle different firearms safely.
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Hagengruber says, “Whether it's a pump action shotgun, a lever action rifle, semi-automatic, a bolt action, a brake action, a double barrel - they have a chance to learn all of those. So it’s something they might encounter, and they'll know how to operate it. They'll know how to be safe, how to check and make sure it's empty. So, there's a lot of people that take the class that probably don't ever end up hunting. But when they run into a situation where they're going to be around firearms, they're comfortable in the future, for the rest of their lives”.
There is also an online course available for registration, but both the in-person and online courses will end with a mandatory field day at the FWP Region 4 Office on Saturday, September 14th.
During the field day, students will practice the safe hunting skills they’ve been learning with artificial hunting scenarios and interacting with game wardens.
Hagengruber explains students will decide “if it's a safe opportunity for a shot or if it's one they look at and go, ‘No, that's not a shot I would take. It's not safe because there's a building behind it or you can't see what's over that hill’. Those are the important skills, the safety skills that they have to have as hunters”.
The Hunter Education course will be held in the evenings at the Paris Gibson Center in Great Falls from September 9th through 13th. Students must attend all classroom sessions to be certified.
Space is limited for the hunter education courses and advance registration is required. To learn more or to register for one of the courses, click here.
