Since August 23, and meeting three times a week, the Crookston Gun Club, in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and various sponsors around Polk County, has been holding a Hunter Safety Training Course for people ages 11 and older.
The Club holds the training course every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., where they teach their participants how to use their firearms safely, along with survival tips in the wilderness. “Whether they hunt or not, it doesn’t matter. Our purpose is to teach them how to be safe around firearms and store them safely at home,” Crookston Gun Club Youth Activities Coordinator Steve Videen explained. “They also get into survival tips, such as if you get lost, what do you do. Some first aid, and then we go into other types of hunting, be it with handguns, archery, or muzzle loaders, and basically, they learn to enjoy the outdoors.” Videen explains that each day the participants come in, the Club splits them into groups and complete various activities the Club has prepared, such as Live Fire, where they shoot .22 rifles at targets, completing scenarios with tree stands, and some shoot, don’t shoot deer hunting scenarios to teach them to observe what goes on around them and if it is safe for them to fire their weapons at a target. Other activities include spring and fall turkey hunt scenarios, blood tracking, fence crossing, wildlife identification, orientation, duck hunting scenarios in boats, how to properly case and place their firearms in ATVs and other vehicles, and learning fire zones. DNR conservation officer and game warden Tom Hutchins also comes to the Club to teach them how to use the hunting regulation books, how to read the timetables, and what’s legal in terms of transporting a firearm. At the end of the day, the participants all gather in the Clubhouse and clean all of the firearms they handled under the supervision of teachers. The Club provides everything they need for the class, including weapons and shells, to ensure that the participants use guns that work properly and make a safe environment for them to learn.
At the end of the course, on Saturday, September 3, the Club will have a Field Day and Test where they will complete the field exercises they had practiced throughout the previous two weeks and take a written test to receive a pass with a registration number that they can enter on the Department of Natural Resources website to print out a Firearm Safety Training Certificate. The certificate will allow them to hunt outside of Minnesota or purchase a Youth Hunter Hunting License. “The biggest thing we look for on the Field Exercises is how they handle a firearm, are they goofing around with it, waving it around, that type of thing? If they are, they’ll be reminded a couple of times, and if they continue to do it, they’ll be told to leave. They’re done. When it comes to live firearms and real bullets, there is no mistake or second chance. If you do not do what you are instructed to do, you’re asked to leave,” Coordinator Videen explained. “I always like to tell the kids that it’s only 50 questions for the quiz, and I’ve had one student in the years I’ve been doing this fail the test, and that student did it intentionally because they didn’t want to be there.” For any participants that have issues reading or taking tests, Videen says that the Club has people that will help those participants with their tests, such as reading the test questions aloud or working with them individually to make sure they understand the questions.
Videen mentions that the course is excellent for high school students to participate in if they’re interested in joining High School Trap Shooting, and they are required to have a Firearm Safety Training Certificate in order to participate on the team in April. While it may be too late to join the course held at the Club, the DNR has other ways students can get their certificates. “The DNR has gone online with some of those programs, and if you want to take the class online, it’s for ages 12 and up, but you still have to have a Field Day, and they are few and far between. For people ages 18 and older, they can do a virtual Field Day on a computer. Because of what’s been going on, they’re using COVID as an excuse for it, but they lowered the age to 14,” said Videen. If you wish to do an actual Field Day with the real equipment, the Crookston Gun Club will hold another class in May and an online and real course in August.
If you have any questions about the DNR Hunter Safety Training, you can contact the Crookston Gun Club Youth Activities Coordinator Steve Videen at 218-289-2115 or stevevideen@yahoo.com.
