Local Youth Graduate Hunter Education Course

For the first time in three years in-person hunter education has resumed in Cascade. Seventeen students, ranging from 10 to 15 years of age, successfully completed this year's class by passing both a written test and practical field exam. Students participated in classroom learning for 2 and a half hours after school Monday through Friday where they learned the safe and proper handling of firearms including loading and unloading, crossing a fence while carrying a firearm, and the safe loading of a firearm into a vehicle. Students also learn different hunting skills and techniques, ethics, survival skills, and wildlife management. In the field trial students go on a realistic mock hunt just outside of town where they have an opportunity to show they know and can perform the skills they learned in class. Upon successful completion of both the written test and field trial students conclude the course with an opportunity to fire a .22 rifle in the Wedsworth Hall target range under the supervision of certified instructors. In Montana children as young as 10 can participate in the Montana Mentor hunting program where they are allowed to hunt deer under the supervision of a licensed parent or guardian. Students can participate in the mentor program twice, before they are required to complete an in-person course and field trial, which upon completion allows them to participate in all Montana hunting activities. The 10 and 11-year olds that completed this course will be much more prepared to safely participate in the Mentor program. Those that are 12 and older now have full Montana hunting privileges.

This course is free of charge and would not be possible without the generous time donated by several volunteers. Special thanks to Cory Loecker, Tom McElroy, Daren Blaylock, Justin Blaylock, Scott Clinger, Ashton Mohar, Boo LeVeque and local game warden Adam Gearing. The next course offered in Cascade is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2024.