Remember when......

[LRSickle]

Do you remember when you got your hunter safety?
My dad taught hunter safety for more than 30 years. I got to meet many of the COs that came to the meetings and met them out in the field too. I remember getting my blue card with my dad's signature on the back and thinking this is better than a drivers license. My dad bought me and my five siblings a brand new Marlin .22 when we passed our tests. I wish I knew how many rounds I put through that gun. I had that cherished rifle up until my ex hid it and several other guns from me. I think she still has them. I remember taking that gun to school on the bus to show my teacher! He showed the class my new gun and congradulated me for passing hunter safety in front of the whole class!
I just thought I would ask if you all remember when you got your hunter safety, and what hunting meant to you back then?

 

[theflyonthewall]

I definitely remember when I got mine.

I had been shooting since I was just out of diapers. I was the only sibling who was practically obsessed with doing anything and everything that my dad did. So when I was about 3 yrs old, he set up some trash bags full of crumpled newspaper in an apartment that we lived in and pulled out a Daisy Red Rider. It wasn't accurate for sh^t, but it got us started.

Later on when we moved back out to the country, I got my first .410. It was a lot like most kids' first .410--a H&R. I still have the picture of that first squirrel that I ever killed---with that .410 while hunting by myself.

Anyway.....Hunter Safety was getting started in Missouri about this time and I was already hunting on my own. My dad told me that if I wanted to continue to hunt on my own, I had to pass the course. I was the youngest one to have taken the course according to the instructors that were there at the time. I think I was five at the time.

What makes the course itself so memorable was when I "messed up" an instructor's example that he was trying to make. He handed me a shotgun and told me to look it over, shoulder it, swing it like I was on a bird, etc....Well, I did all that, then asked him what he wanted me to do next. He said to just set it down. Looking at him very puzzled, I asked what that little exercise was for. He said "ya see, most people that I ask to do that, eventually point it at someone accidentally and I get to point that out to the class. But since you never pointed it at anyone, that idea's dead.....lol."

I laughed and was extremely proud at the same time. I'd learned the lesson of muzzle direction about the same time I learned how to color with crayons. I don't think that anyone was as proud of that little boy (me) anymore than my dad was though. I sure do miss him.............

 

[royinidaho]

Yep! I remember when I got mine.

It was during a week long Harrisville, Pennsylvania conservation camp. All kinds of learning experiences. Was fun. Shot an Olympic Team member's 38 S&W. Couldn't hit squat. Drank 2 quarts of choc milk during the last day's softball game. Go sicker than a dog. Great memory. Local game warden taught how to trap fox. Of course, I didn't learn as I never caught any fox. Plenty of muskrat, coon and possum though.

That was the summer of 1954. Still have the faded ragged card stashed with my important stuff. Holey good squat!!!! That was 57 years ago. Where'd the time go. Blink! and its gone. . .

 

[zuba]

I don't have to remember back quite so far, I took hunter safety in 1996. My instructor(Don Katzner) ran the waukesha rifle and pistol club. He convinced me to try shooting smallbore rifles. He was a patient guy and pointed out everything I did wrong. I ended up shooting there for about 4 years, placing pretty well and even winning a few state shoots. After I stopped shooting there I would run into him at gunshows and he was always letting kids shoot the bb guns and trying to introduce kids to shooting sports. He had been teaching hunter safety since 1966 and taught over 4400 students. He passed away in 2002, I am still using the .270 brass he gave my dad in the rifle my 11 year old nephew used in this years WI youth and regular seasons. I think I can blame him for my interest in shooting very accurately