Hunting Safely

A steady rain fell as parents shuttled kids enrolled in the Troy Hunter Safety class to their field day held at the Troy Shooting Range on Saturday morning. By 9 a.m. more than 20 students huddled under the protection of the open-air structure and waited for instruction.

After three days of classroom study, it was time for the students to venture outdoors and put into practice the lessons they had learned.

Instructor Alan Osborn has taught Hunter Safety for about eight years and his 11-year old twins Abigail and Brett Osborn are in the class. “From my perspective, safety, ethics and responsibility are what we’re trying to pass on to the students. We really do very little with rifle marksmanship; it’s all about handling a gun responsibly and safely and how that can affect not only them, but other people around them,” Osborn said.

According to statistics from the National Safety Council, gun-related fatalities have steadily decreased over the years from 1,409 in 1992 to preliminary data showing about 600 in 2012, a 57 percent decrease in 20 years. And in the National Shooting Sports Foundation 2014 report they show that hunters suffer from about the same number of injuries per 100,000 participants as bowling.

But if an accident does happen while hunting, the results can be deadly. Education programs such as Hunter Safety are credited with bending the trend towards fewer firearm mishaps.

So the first thing covered during the field course was the rules of the firing range. Instructor Dave Helmrick stood up on a large rock, coffee cup in hand, and went through the posted rules one-by-one.

Throughout the day, instructors would share worst case scenario stories that had stuck in their minds over the years. The first was a story of a father and daughter.

Thinking he was doing his daughter a favor, a dad loaded his daughter’s rifle the night before going hunting and put it in the gun rack behind the driver’s seat. As the girl excitedly retrieved it when they got to their destination she grabbed the rifle and the trigger was pulled. The bullet struck her father in the head and the girl sat with her father as he died. The students fell silent and pondered the magnitude of the true story.  

Next the students counted off by fours and broke into groups lead by Jim Jones, Gary Britton, Helmrick and Osborn. Each group was shown several different kinds of rifles and shotguns and discussed how they functioned. Several students shifted their weight from one foot to the other, hopped up and down and rubbed their hands together to keep warm.

With guns in hand, the groups spread out across the shooting range to practice safe carrying techniques and fence crossings. “The statistics that were shown in class there are three or four places where accidents are most common and one of them is fence crossings,” Osborn said. “Proximity to a vehicle or people in close proximity to each other are situations we try to stress the importance of.”

Whenever students handed each other rifles they were encouraged to say “thank you” so it was clear they were ready to receive the firearm safely.

Osborn made sure his children were not in his group so they could get a different perspective than the one they get at home and wouldn’t rely on him for special treatment.

Sarah Osborn, Alan Osborn’s eldest daughter, didn’t join the class for the field course because she was preparing for prom that evening. She took Hunter Safety a couple years ago and afterward became a junior instructor after filling out an application and taking another test.

She’s had good fortune hunting deer the last two years and harvested a pig in Ohio, but has yet to see an elk in the wild. Next year Sarah Osborn hopes to not just see one, but to successfully bag one.

“I really like being outside, exploring and getting to see all the different animals. I really like cooking so I also use the animals for food,” she said.

Her first year hunting she was in position on a few deer where she could have taken a shot, but chose not to. “That was fine,” said Alan Osborn. “It’s better than rushing and making a mistake.”

“This year I took a shot I was happy to take because I was up on a bench and was shooting down about 325 yards. I had to shoot prone to steady myself because I was shaking way too much, so I took my time,” Sarah Osborn said. The shot hit the deer in the heart so she only had to track the animal a short distance.

Shooting positions was another subject covered during the field course on Saturday. Bellies, bottoms and knees were smudged with dirt and grass in the process.

Passing on an appreciation of the outdoors, encouraging ethical values and teaching his children to be safe around firearms are all reasons Alan Osborn said Hunter Safety is important. “Firearms are a good way for a young person to learn responsibility, as long as it’s managed,” he said.

His twins couldn’t verbalize why they are interested in hunting, but are both looking forward to hunting with their father in the near future. Brett Osborn said his dream hunt would be in Australia and Abigail Olson wants to hunt in Africa one day.

Alan Osborn’s father was also a Hunter Safety instructor in Ohio. “He became one probably in my mid-teens, about when they started the program in that state,” he said.

The students also got a chance to shoot targets on the firing range and take up to five shots on the trap range, if the kick from the 20-gauge shotgun didn’t deter them before their limit. Several students were able to hone in on the orange clay target even though it was their first time trying the sport.

Alan Osborn utilizes the meat from the animals he hunts, but that’s not the main reason he hunts. “It’s more for recreation than anything. I’ve been able to hunt a few different species in several different locations. It’s a different mentality than photography; you’re just in a different mindset when you do it. I enjoy the challenge of being out in the woods and performing a different role,” he said.

With only one more class before the written test on Wednesday, Brett and Abigail Olson have been studying together, taking turns reading each paragraph.

The rain and chilly temperatures continued all day at the Troy shooting range, giving the next generation of hunters a genuine feel for the weather they might encounter in their future hunting expeditions in Montana.

By the time the class came back to town the Kootenai had turned to a brown-green and most students were soaked and chilled to the bone.