Game to learn about hunting

Earlier this week, the Hunter Information and Training Program (HIT), part of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), held its annual course-planning workshop for the Valley at the Grouse Ridge shooting facility north of Wasilla. HIT includes the three hunter education (HE) disciplines: basic, bow hunting and muzzleloading. Other training scenarios are included in HIT, but the HE section represents the major workload for staff.

Every year, instructors and ADF&G staff meet to plan out a course schedule for the coming year and get instructors to sign up to teach the courses. I’ve been an HE instructor for about 20 years and I always enjoy the meeting — seeing old friends, learning what’s new within the HIT program from staff, hearing a rundown of courses and students certified, and committing to teach a couple of HE courses in the coming year. The steak dinner is good, too.

I don’t have exact statewide numbers, but something like 3,350 students were enrolled in Alaska HE courses in 2012. The number of volunteer instructor hours statewide in providing these classes was more than 6,000. According to Jerry Soukup, the HIT program coordinator, this amount of teaching time would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if ADF&G paid people to provide this service. That’s a significant donation toward keeping costs in check.

I have almost final numbers for the Mat-Su area; two more classes are yet to be held this month. There were a total of 37 classes provided: 23 were basic HE, 12 were bow hunter HE, and three were muzzleloader HE courses. A total of 527 students in the Valley took an HE class in 2012 and of those, 325 students (62 percent) enrolled in the basic HE courses, 182 (35 percent) in bow hunter HE, and 20 (about 3 percent) in muzzleloading HE.

I won’t break down the volunteer instructor hours by course subject, but 782 hours total were donated by Mat-Su instructors for HE courses. The program seems to be meeting the needs of the Valley hunting public for HE certification.

If you’re interested or in need of receiving an HE certification for any of the three courses, you can opt to either take a regular course or go through the program online. All three courses are available online through ADF&G’s website. However, there is a catch to the online version — after you go through the program and pass the online test, you will receive a page to print out showing you have successfully completed that portion of the course. You bring that printout to a scheduled online HE course to complete the shooting proficiency and field course requirements to receive your certification.

The two versions of the course are not interchangeable: an online student showing up for a regular course will be required to take the complete course that day, essentially negating all their online work and fees, or a regular course student will be sent home if they show up for an online course day since they will not have the required paperwork and test completion printouts. The short version — know which class you signed up for and follow through with those parts required by the version you enrolled in.

To register for the regular course, stop by ADF&G in Palmer, sign up for the course of interest, pay your fees and take your information and study materials packet home and begin preparing for the class. Everything for the online course is done — where else — online using your credit card for fees.

Alaska is the only state without a full statewide requirement for hunter education. Read the HE section in the hunting regulations booklet for an explanation of Alaska’s requirements. The Alaska HE certification is recognized by all the other states as fulfilling their HE requirements. If you’re under age 65 or so, chances are you will be required to have a HE certification to even buy a hunting license if you hunt out-of-state. A lot of Alaskans do, surprisingly, so know before you go to avoid any awkward surprises.

The finalized 2013 HE schedule for all courses in the Valley in all three disciplines should be posted online at the ADF&G website by Dec. 21.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) mentioned last week is a youth shotgun activity related to, but not a part of, the HE program. They are instituting a handgun program also. To learn more, stop by their table at the SCTP gun show at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center tomorrow and Sunday.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.