Woods & Water: Hunter safety course offered
I know it’s hard to think about hunting with the weather as hot as it is, but with hunting season just around the corner it’s about time to start thinking about hunter safety.
If you have a son or daughter you will be hunting with you this fall or if you are planning a hunting trip out of state, now is the time to register for the first hunting safety course this fall.
To take the course you must be at least 9 years of age on the day of the course. Since more and more people are traveling out west each year on hunting trips, we encourage parents to attend the course with their child. Many states require completion of a hunter safety course for all ages, whereas Tennessee only requires it for those hunters born after Jan. 1, 1969.
The course consists of training in areas such as wildlife management, home firearm safety, first aid, and knowledge of firearms and archery, muzzleloaders and other useful information. The course will be held Aug. 11-16 at 6 p.m. each night at the Warren County Administrative Building.
Ed Griffin will be the instructor and the class will be limited to 50 students, so you must preregister by calling Ed at 473-4316. A live fire exercise will be held on Saturday morning to conclude the class.
The course is free of charge and students need to bring a pencil and their social security number to the first night of class. For more information, you can call me at 686-8972, e-mail me at [email protected] or call Ed at the above number.
New hunting and trapping guides being distributed
The 2003-04 Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guides have been printed and will be distributed to license agents across the state. Each of the agents should have a supply of guides by the first week of August. The hunting seasons and regulations will also be posted on the TWRA Web Page www.tnwildlife.org.
Included in the guides are Tennessee’s hunting and trapping season dates and limits, as well as rules and regulations governing the taking of game animals. Also included are locations and regulations for TWRA’s wildlife management areas (wma), public hunting areas, and refuges.
TWRA urges all hunters to pick up a new guide and review it so that they will be aware of the changes for the 2003-04 hunting season. This year most of the changes proposed by the Agency affected changes for bear, deer, and fall wild turkey hunting. The most significant changes were as follows:
• Legalize the use of crossbows during any muzzleloader or gun season. Only qualified handicapped hunters may use crossbows during archery-only seasons.
• Increased the bag limit on each muzzleloader hunt in 10 Middle Tennessee counties to 4 deer no more than one antlered.
• The same 10 counties in Middle Tennessee that have the increased muzzleloader harvest will allow 3 antlerless deer per day during the first segment of the gun/muzzleloader/archery season.
• Made all of the Unit B archery-only deer season either-sex.
• Add 13 counties to the fall wild turkey hunting season and in several Middle Tennessee counties there will be two hunts (Nov. 15-21 and Dec. 15-19) for quota permit holders.
• Added two days to the Unit A gun/muzzleloader/archery deer season.
• Moved the January Young Sportsman hunt one week later.
These and other changes will be listed in detail in the 2003-04 Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide that will be available soon. The information is available now on the TWRA web page at www.tnwildlife.org.