By Bruce Urben, President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s October, 2020 Newsletter edition.
Sunday, September 20th was a special day for twelve hunter safety students from northeast and northern Wisconsin. The Green Bay Chapter of WWA sponsored a Hunter Safety Field Test day at Pittsfield Trap Club near Pulaski, WI.
Prospective hunter safety students in Wisconsin have two alternatives to become certified. Attend an in-person class to get the ten hours of safety instruction, or complete the class online. As we announced last month, all in-person classes have been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, so an unusually large number of students have completed the course online. After successful completion of the online test, all students under age eighteen must attend a face to face field test. WDNR tells us that there is a backlog of 6,500-7,000 students currently waiting to complete their field test so they can be certified to hunt in Wisconsin. So many students and not enough available hunter safety instructors!
Through a relationship developed between WWA and several certified instructors from northern Wisconsin who were willing to volunteer their time, WWA was able to coordinate a Hunter Safety Field Test course at Pittsfield Trap Club. Registration for the course was only open for several hours and the course quickly filled.
Students came from northeast Wisconsin and as far away as Wisconsin Rapids to attend the class. It started promptly at 10:00 am on Sunday and ran until 5:00 pm, culminating in a mandatory written and field test!
All twelve students were instructed by three certified hunting safety instructors with a combined experience of almost one hundred years. Dr. Robert Workinger (St.Germain, WI) led the group along with Dan Mrotek (Marshfield, WI), and Larry Hutchison (Marshfield, WI). The students were taught all aspects of hunter safety, including tree stand safety, firearm handling of all types, reading a blood trail, safely crossing a fence, zones of fire, habitat carrying capacity, hunter ethics and how to obtain permission to hunt on private land.
Students all had the opportunity to show off their safety skills and fire live ammunition on the trap range as well. WWA also provided three volunteer, assistant safety instructors with Bryan Urben, Jake Koebernik and myself to assist in the teaching process.
The instructors did their job well! All students passed the testing, none lower than 92% in both tests. Two students actually scored perfect scores in both tests!
A huge thank you goes out to the Pittsfield Trap Club Association for the use of their facilities, and especially to the three hunter safety instructors that volunteered their time and drove up to three hours to teach the course. Without them, this class would not have been possible. This fall we will have twelve new hunters in the field, some of which we know are planning to hunt waterfowl!
We made a dent in the backlog, but could use many more classes to fit the need. If you or your local chapter is interested in coordinating a class, please feel free to call me (Bruce Urben 920-660-2773) and we can discuss how to get going… it is not hard and the results are truly rewarding.
I want to also acknowledge hunter safety instructor Larry Hutchison. Larry has taught hunter safety to thousands of students in his thirty-five year career. Sunday, September 20th was his last hunter safety class, as the oldest hunter safety instructor in Wisconsin is retiring. On Sunday, Larry passed his orange hunter safety vest to one of our assistant instructors as a challenge to continue to carry the flag! Thank you Larry for thirty-five years of service to the hunting community. You certainly made a difference.