Hunters safety course

[Red Bull]

I want to start hunting and I haven't been since I was under 18 and on my families property in Iowa. So I guess its time I get a license and get my son off the XBox and shooting some real stuff. I need some advice where to look for these classes. Should I take my son, he's only 12. How much money and time am I looking at?

[Sniper23]

The classes are usually free. Look here for available classes http://www.tn.gov/twra/huntered.html
I would definitely take your son so you both get it done and out if the way. It is required by TN that anyone over 10 years old that's not hunting family owned land to have the class.

[monkeylizard]

[quote name='Sniper23' timestamp='1353291860' post='847925']
It is required by TN that anyone over 10 years old that's not hunting family owned land to have the class.
[/quote]

Over ten and born after January 1, 1969. Old fellers get a free pass.

The regular classroom classes are free. You can do it online for a fee. Either will require a live-fire test*. In the classroom setup, you'll do the live fire at the end of class. In the web setup, you'll need to find a live-fire event and go do that. Basically you'll print out a certificate from your web course and take it to a scheduled TWRA live-fire event where you'll get your official safety course card.

On the link Sniper23 provided you'll find a list of both classes and live-fire-only events if any are scheduled. Remember that the people who teach the classes are hunters themselves, so you may have limited class opportunities right now since the teachers are all out doing "field research".




*The "live fire" conisists of loading a single-shot .22 rifle and hitting a paper plate sized target at about 15-20 feet with iron sites. It's more about safe operation than accuracy.

[R4MBO]

The only cost you will have is if you take an online portion of the class and then spend about 4 hours at a site to take the test. My schedule is pretty busy and doing the regular 10 hour live class didn't work for me.