A suprise at hunter education class

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On Monday, my 12 year old son started Hunter Ed classes. The first night's topic was hunter ethics. Most of what was talked about was common sense - ask to hunt on private land, cover the carcass in the back of the truck, etc. But what suprised... no, blew me away, was that both the instructor and the book said that hunters should always store their firearms out of sight because seeing a gun out in the open, or in the back of a pickup window, or, heaven forbid, openly carried while not in the field, would offend the non-hunter. :shock:

Now, I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want to carry your 30-06 into the local burger joint on your way home.... unless you canget atable near a corner to lean the rifle up against. But the book and instructor made no distinction regarding handguns. And NOT having them in a gun rack in the back window??!! That's down right UN-Idahoan!!

Once my son has his hunter ed card in hand, I intend on saying something to the instructor and writing to IDFG about it.

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I want to raise money so that idaho's concealed carry and open carry laws will be
printed in the hunting regulations..

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Correct the instructor and clarify for the class that what is being taught is not law.

Fuzzy feelings be damned!:cuss::banghead:

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MarkinIdaho wrote:

On Monday, my 12 year old son started Hunter Ed classes. The first night's topic was hunter ethics. Most of what was talked about was common sense - ask to hunt on private land, cover the carcass in the back of the truck, etc. But what suprised... no, blew me away, was that both the instructor and the book said that hunters should always store their firearms out of sight because seeing a gun out in the open, or in the back of a pickup window, or, heaven forbid, openly carried while not in the field, would offend the non-hunter. :shock:

Now, I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want to carry your 30-06 into the local burger joint on your way home.... unless you canget atable near a corner to lean the rifle up against. But the book and instructor made no distinction regarding handguns. And NOT having them in a gun rack in the back window??!! That's down right UN-Idahoan!!

Once my son has his hunter ed card in hand, I intend on saying something to the instructor and writing to IDFG about it.

Click to expand...

I can see the logic in not displaying them in your vehicle windows, but not for the reasons you mentioned. I have gun racks in my truck! I dont leave firearms in them unless I am with the vehicle or in the field and thats for the preservation of my expensive firearms not to prevent anyones feelings from being hurt!

We used to leave our rifles in the gun rack (living in liberal Sun Valley even) when we went to school! Then again, the opening week of hunting season was considered a holiday and the entire school took the week off too. Things are changing

I would think that is a pretty egreigous statement if its printed in the handbook.

I dont remember seeing that when I attended the class with my youngest boy a few years ago. I have to say I have had two sons go through that class and I attended both times. The first instructor was a former Marine and he was great! He taught me a few things and I enjoyed it so much I attended it again with my 2nd son. To my dissmay the guy was borderline senile and couldnt even finish his own sentences. That was terribly dissapointing. So much so I called the director and talked to him about it. Basically they said that the instructors are volunteers so they didnt want to say anything (theres logic)

Hmm

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I remember in high school teachers used to tell me that not too long ago (figuratively) they could bring their rifles through school, and they even had a locker in the office for you to keep them. After school students would grab them and go hunting.

Do that these days and god forbid you draw 12 SWAT teams from neighboring counties.




But as for OC being "rude" or unacceptable to the public, frankly it has gotten to the point where people have become too afraid of firearms. And more so what I do with my firearms is none of their business! You should have told him to "come over here and turn around so I can hit you in the back of the head". :banghead:


"Depussification."

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Hubby_MC wrote:

Now, I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want to carry your 30-06 into the local burger joint on your way home.... unless you canget atable near a corner to lean the rifle up against. But the book and instructor made no distinction regarding handguns. And NOT having them in a gun rack in the back window??!! That's down right UN-Idahoan!!

Once my son has his hunter ed card in hand, I intend on saying something to the instructor and writing to IDFG about it.

I can see the logic in not displaying them in your vehicle windows, but not for the reasons you mentioned. I have gun racks in my truck! I dont leave firearms in them unless I am with the vehicle or in the field and thats for the preservation of my expensive firearms not to prevent anyones feelings from being hurt!

We used to leave our rifles in the gun rack (living in liberal Sun Valley even) when we went to school! Then again, the opening week of hunting season was considered a holiday and the entire school took the week off too. Things are changing

I would think that is a pretty egreigous statement if its printed in the handbook.

I dont remember seeing that when I attended the class with my youngest boy a few years ago. I have to say I have had two sons go through that class and I attended both times. The first instructor was a former Marine and he was great! He taught me a few things and I enjoyed it so much I attended it again with my 2nd son. To my dissmay the guy was borderline senile and couldnt even finish his own sentences. That was terribly dissapointing. So much so I called the director and talked to him about it. Basically they said that the instructors are volunteers so they didnt want to say anything (theres logic)

Hmm

Click to expand...

When I had a vehicle that could have a window rack, I used it all the time. When I'd leave the truck to go in the store or what ever, I'd typically put them behind the seat to prevent a breakin.

When I was in high school (a long, long time ago Brian), we regularly went to school with the rifle or shotgun, or both in the window rack - so did the teachers. Heck, I had a science teacher one time ask if I wanted to go up Alder Creek to see if we could find some deer! The first day of deer and elk season were always "holidays" from school... neither the teachers or the students would have shown up if they didn't give it to us.

This is our second experience with hunters ed. This time around is much better than the first where the instructor was a moronic assh*le. I don't know that I will say anything until after my boy is issued his hunters ed card.

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Surprising to me that someone in a state as gun friendly as Idaho would make a statement like that. Did he just relocate from the PDRK?

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having spent most of the 90's in malad, idaho, our school district treated hunting season and potato harvest season like holidays... we would get a week off for each.
i graduated in 1995 and at that time students were still bringing guns to school.
my FFA teacher would take us out shooting, we would raffle guns to raise money.
I didnt know what gun control was..lol




also..... go to

www.officer.com to see the self defense footage of bonner county deputies taking out a armed robber...

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The good ole days of taking a firearm to school..... I had to ride the bus and one day I took my 30.06 rifle with me. The bus driver took the weapon, ensured it was empty, removed the bolt and handed both back to me. I got to school and headed straight for wood shop to drop off the stock and then to metal shop to drop off the the rest. It was a proud moment when I took it back home and showed dad the final results.
Deer season use to be only three days long and we took those days off from school as well.

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Shoot... I remember a few years ago walking into a cafe in with my Winchester in a sling over my shoulder. I wasn't the only one in the cafe that way; just about everyone was.

Of course this was in Hunting territory. No one wanted to leave the guns in the truck because EVERYONE knew there would guns in there. After all it's hunting season.

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I recently went through the class myself and remember that being taught. I disagree with hiding the gun andI also disagree with hiding the game. The course taught that hunters don't want to create a bad impression, but I think hunting is the one time in which we should be allowed to let our hair down (so to speak). I think especially when there are animal rights nazis in the public it's especially important that the kill be proudly displayed, lest the liberals get the wrong impression about Idaho.

The course also taught all guns should be unloaded upon leaving the field. It reminds me of a movie in which a hunter returned to his home and didn't realize his family was being held hostage. He saw his wife first who asked quietly "Is your gun still loaded?" Of course it wasn't so he was unable to save his family. I propose a different rule. Don't ever be without a loaded gun. Period. There's nothing "safe" about an unloaded gun.

Etiquette changes depending on the setting. I was always taught muzzle control, to make sure that the muzzle never ever pointed at another human being. Imagine what a shock it was in the Army where we all held our M16's haphazardly while we're sitting indian style, standing, whatever. Those weapons were pointed every which direction. Someone even thought it was funny to point his weapon at me intentionally. Though the weapon was unloaded, I took it from him and used it to slam him against the wall. The point was made.

So in conclusion, some safety rules are genuinely for the purpose of public safety, others are only hedges against liability. It's important to understand the motive of safety rules.

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Cover the carcass...hmm...now that's interesting in light of the enforcement/investigative nature of F&G officers, based on my experience. I've been asked at a mobile / roadblock game checkpoint why I had the deer carcass "hidden" under a tarp and misc. camp gear - what I was trying to hide/why was I trying to hide it (all legal, tagged, etc., and after the usual questions and all, got to re-cover it and re-load all my gear back into the truck - no real harm done, so no foul). I've been "blue-lighted" and pulled over after passing a game check-station because F&G were sure there was an animal carcass under the tarp in the back of my truck - but it was pretty clear when I showed them the lumber I didn't want to get wet wasn't a deer or an elk. And boy was it a pain for a buddy of mine who killed a mountain goat in North Dakota, had the head mounted and the meat (goat meat? yuck!) processed and frozen there, and was bringing it back when he was pulled over - also for passing a check station without stopping - because his tarped load "could have been an animal, and he could have been hunting in Idaho since he was driving a pickup." It took the local prosecutor refusing to take their case against him to convince them (a) they lacked probable cause to pull over pickups with tarped loads in the back just because it was hunting season and there could be an animal in the back and (b) they couldn't cite the guy for not stopping at the check station because Idaho has no interest in tracking or keeping any record or statistic whatsoever in game lawfully taken in another state.

I don't line my hat with foil, but I think there's more to their desire we cover animal carcasses with a tarp - I think they're still fishing for some angle onprobable cause to justify otherwise baseless vehicle stops. Nosing around and finding a "hidden" rifle further confirms the vehicle owner may have been hunting, which gives them enough to conduct a lengthier delay, vehicle search, and field interrogation, no? After all, F&G does get the majority ofits funding from tickets and hunting/fishing licenses and tags,because they do not get state budget appropriations.

Just my $.02 - keep the change.

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The secret is the balance. Have the deer carcass covered just enough so that F&G can see that it's a deer, but the public cannot. By public demand, thousands of cattle are herded onto a kill floor and slaughtered with a powder driven bolt. These cattle never stood a chance. But God help us if a hunter, by sheer craft, takes a deer in the woods. We hide the cattle kill floor from the public, so we should hide the game too, lest the public be offended.

I have a different idea. Let's be so flagrant in displaying our guns and our trophy bucks that those who don't like it can move back to the respective blue state they came from and Red Idaho can lose its purple tint.

And that's my