Deutscher Jaeger

I agree that parents or guardians should pass on their learned skills to their children, including shooting and hunting and fishing. I did with my two. The ever growing problem is that more and more parents do not shoot, hunt or fish. How do you reach out to those? Those children will only be exposed to shooting or hunting if one of their friends, relative, or other acquaintance shows them with data and deed. And even if you do, that does not mean they are all eager to sign up. New York State has several weekly summer camps they run every year. I teach all the hunter education classes at Camp Colby in Saranac Lake, NY for 7 weeks. This camp is for 11-13 year old. http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/1877.html It is not a mandatory class for any camper and they need to volunteer and get their parents permission to take the class. The class is always full! I do my part, but NYS needs more instructors. Do you want to volunteer? Just go to any DEC office and sign up for the instructor course.

My take is that we first need to get more people introduced to shooting in general. Get them to see what happens when you hit a clay target with shot or a .22 bullet. As those newbies get used to shooting, some may transition towards hunting. The good part is that even if they do not migrate to the hunting scene, they just might continue to use and accept firearms, which is not a bad thing in today's culture. I am a NYS Hunter Educator for gun and bow and it is surprising to see what makes up my classes. I get many parent/child participants as well as an average of 40% women in my classes. Getting into public schools to teach any type of gun use for targets or hunting is an uphill battle for many reasons. Local Fish and Game Clubs can be the perfect springboard for sponsoring classes.

Nice video......