Hunter safety in Colorado consists of two 6 hour classes taught by 2 60 year old men and a hand gun-toting woman attended by 30+ people 1/3 of which are kids, 1/3 of which are college-aged guys who take notes on things such as "don't point the muzzle at your hunting partner" and "getting dirt on your meat is bad", and 1/3 of which are middle-aged, short, balding men who attempt to answer (invariably incorrectly) every rhetorical question the instructors ask, which averages about 35 per minute...give or take.
The highlights of the course included 1.5 hours of instruction on which of the 20 guns the instructors brought were their favorites, several videos on how to shoot your hunting partner, most of which were blocked by one of the instructors who literally kneeled directly in front of the TV the entire time, and an hour of survival instruction during, which the half-paraplegic instructors told us of all the times he has been in survival situations, that hypothermia doesn't have anything to do with cold it is just when your body temperature gets too low, and that you have to practice with magnesium fire starter so you know how to use it but that you should never practice with it because it burns too hot.
The second session is tomorrow, during which we at least get to shoot. Hopefully I won't have to use the gun on myself....
How'd it go? Think you'll be able to head into the woods this fall, knowing what you know now about your hunting peers?
ReplyDeleteday 2 was worse. it started with the instructor informing us that the best place to keep your guns is in a locked safe, unless you are him in which case the best place to keep your .38 special is under your pillow. this was followed by numerous stories about how fucked up it is that you can still be sued in civil court for shooting an intruder even if you are cleared in criminal court, especially if you shoot the fleeing intruder in the back.
ReplyDeleteother highlights included the passing out of species ID booklets that had the range of grizzly bears extending through Colorado into New Mexico, a very nice description of how the Division of Wildlife determines quotas- they determine carrying capacity and don't harvest a single animal below that-and a rant against national parks that are bad because our instructor "never saw a system in which animals take care of themselves, without harvest every herd will overshoot carrying capacity and go extinct."