Conservation Officer Mike Hruza discusses Minnesota hunting rules and regulations with the June Class
Tomorrow night, after attendance, Bemidji area Conservation Officer Stacey Sharp will be giving a presentation on the reasons for the need for firearm safety training, the reasons for laws, rules and regulations, and the hunter’s responsibilities. He will also answer any questions you may have about Minnesota hunting regulations during this time so come prepared with anything you have always wanted to know or understand better.
After Officer Sharp’s presentation and question and answer period, we will review, correct, and discuss your homework assignment (Student Manual pages 66-72 and 90-102, as well as the Hunter Image, Ethics, and Responsibility worksheet pages 88-89).
We will discuss the five stages of a hunter (shooter, limiting out, trophy, method, and sportsperson), as well as discuss the characteristics of a responsible hunter, the hunter’s code, and to whom the hunter is responsible to present a positive public image.
We will complete the Hunting Dilemmas, worksheet pages 85-87, which we started doing as a group discussion project in class on Monday. Review the situations we have not covered yet in order to provide some solutions to the dilemmas.
From there we will move into the Personal Preparedness section and discuss what you will need as well as be aware of should you encounter an emergency situation in the outdoors. We will talk about mental and physical condition, the Rule of Threes (3 seconds, 3 minutes, 3 hours, 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 blasts), survival skills and survival kits, first aid, hypothermia, and heat exhaustion.
We will review and correct the Rule of Threes blue box on page 92, and you should use the yellow box on page 93 to help you complete a list of the items you will include in your Survival Kit. Remember, you need to turn in to me a list of items incIuded in your survival kit, and include another copy of the list in your survival kit to help replenish any supplies you use in the future. We will also watch the instructional video on Personal Preparedness called Survival, and answer the questions related to the movie on worksheet page 102.
Then we will spend the last half hour of class time with hands-on practice with your firearms. We will review and practice the six field carries (sling, shoulder, trail, elbow, cradle, and two-hand ready) and the four standard shooting positions (standing, kneeling, sitting, and prone). At all times, we will continue to practice the proper way to pass and accept a firearm from a hunting or shooting partner.
