By Sheriff Fred Lamphere
NVN-The Newell, Nisland and Vale area had a HuntSafe class May 9th and 11th.
This was a very large class with 28 total students from the area.
The first day is an evening class that consists of mainly classroom instruction about firearm safety hunting and outdoor Laws and Regulations.
Saturday starts off with wildlife identification.
The class is and has been held at the Vallery ranch southwest of Nisland. Randy and Rhonda have hosted the class for more than three decades at their hunting lodge. So, there are many mounts for the students to observe in the wildlife identification part of the program.
There are many sections of training including practical exercises. Such as firearm positions for shooting and fence crossing that allows the students to actually go through the proper steps of crossing a fence safely while out hunting. After about 10 hours of training the students are tested on their knowledge.
Once the testing is completed, part of the instructor team is checking the tests while the other part of the team is having the students shoot firearms. The students get to shoot shotguns and .22 rifles. Part of the shooting is to test them on what they learned about handling firearms safely and proper conduct while doing so.
Once everyone was done shooting a short follow-up and review is done with the student and they are then awarded their HuntSafe certification cards.
This class had a very average high-test score. With the lowest score being a 94! As a member of the Instructor Team this makes us all very proud. These young hunters did a great job and will make excellent future sportsman
The HuntSafe instructor team consists of Randy Vallery, Ed Culver , Fred Wells, Fred Lamphere, Mike Koelker, Aspen Swan and Butte County Conservation Office Jacob Schwint.
On another note, Instructor Fred Wells was awarded Instructor of the Year by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. Congratulations to him. He is awesome.
