Colfax Sportsmen’s Club hosts internet hunter’s ed field day
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A STUDENT helps bring a Styrofoam deer back to the storage trailer, after it was used to show vital areas and was the subject of a blood trail tracking exercise, during the Sept. 21 Hunter Education Internet Field Day Class at the Dunn County/Colfax Shooting Sports Complex. —photo submitted
Hunter Education students came from across Wisconsin September 21to attend the first Hunter Ed Internet Field Day ever hosted at the Dunn County/Colfax Shooting Sports Complex, reported Jim Nosker, lead instructor for the event.
While some students came from the Colfax, Elk Mound and Boyceville areas, drives of 50 miles or so were more common for the 25 students enrolled. The furthest anyone traveled for the day long class was from the shores of Lake Michigan. Because of the limited number of instructors available and the amount of material that had to be covered, class size was limited to 25. Nosker said he believes they could easily have registered 75 or more students.
While most of the day was spent on firearm safety, some time was devoted to tree stand safety and trailing wounded game as well.
To be able to attend an Internet Field Day Class, students must first preregister through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) web site. Then they need to enroll in, and successfully complete, one of three DNR approved Hunter Ed internet courses. Costs of the internet courses range from $13 to $25. Students have to bring proof of having passed the course, along with a $10 DNR course fee, to the Internet Field Day Class.
During the Internet Field Day students go through a series of raining sessions designed to reinforce what they’ve already learned during the internet course. After that they take the same written and hands-on test that students from traditional Hunter Ed classes take. To pass their scores must be 80% or better.
While shooting is expected to be part of a traditional Hunter Ed course, that’s not the case with the Internet Field Day, Nosker said. The way the day is structured by the DNR, time isn’t available for live fire. However, since the hands-on testing is a one-on-one situation, it creates a bottleneck that results in downtime. During that testing period, range safety officers from the Colfax Sportsmen’s Club staffed a rifle bay and provided the students with an opportunity to shoot .22 rimfire rifles.
During the slack period caused by the individual testing, students were also taught various knots useful in the outdoors, including the prusik which is used on safety ropes while climbing in and out of elevated stands.
Nosker said that even though students were expected to have handled firearms before they attended the Field Day Course, not all of them had. That meant that instead of just reinforcing what the students had learned during the internet class, instructors had to teach them how to physically handle a tool they’d never picked up before. Students commented that learning about firearms during the internet course was not the same as actually picking them up and operating them as they did on Saturday.
Another problem with the Internet Field Day Class, Nosker opined, is that there is no age restriction to enrolling. Yet all of the material during the day is presented at a sixth grade level and the tests are designed for those of that age or older. The result is that those under the age of 11 have a difficult time and face a higher likelihood of failing.
Nosker said that over the years it’s been his experience that most 10 year olds have trouble passing the traditional Hunter Ed class and that those under 10 do not pass. He said that after having run one Internet Field Day Class, age also seems to be a limiting factor for it.
Colfax Sportsmen’s Club, the class’s major sponsor, provided a lunch at no charge to all of the students, as well as any parents that spent the day at the range, and the instructors. The local course’s other major sponsor for years has been Woods Run Forest Products, Nosker said.