HUNTS
Hunts courses underway for 2017
130 new hunters trained last year
by Jim Peffers, HUNTS National Co-ordinator
Well, summer is almost over, already. Wild, wet and windy weather seemed to be the norm for a lot of places over the holidays. Despite that, I managed to get out for a tahr hunt and a wallaby shoot, so can’ t complain. I hope other HUNTS instructors managed to get out as well. Most of the figures for 2016 have come in, which saw around 130 people graduate from HUNTS courses around the country. That’ s 130 more trained members of our organisation.
The“ HUNTS season” of courses for 2017 is already starting for some branches, to get their trainees ready for the red deer Roar in March / April. In conjunction with basic HUNTS courses, there will be more regional induction courses coming up for provisional HUNTS instructors, the on-going review of the HUNTS manual, and website development.
One of the things I am reminded of each time I visit a HUNTS course, or run one for our branch, is the wide range of people who undergo HUNTS training. At one end of the spectrum, we have the young ones( 1218 years) just getting started( often with Mum or Dad alongside); at the other end of the spectrum we sometimes have trainees in their 60s. Some of the latter are wanting to“ get back into it” after some years of“ life” got in the way. The Thames Valley branch even had a tetraplegic trainee on its last course( see page 24), demonstrating the“ can-do” attitude of that branch. This wide variety of trainees, I believe, shows how valuable the HUNTS programme is to New Zealand. It is open to anyone, subject to some criteria set out on the HUNTS tab of the national website.
Regardless of what demographic people come from, they all have one thing in common: a thirst for knowledge about hunting. It may be that they are just after one or two pieces of the hunting jig-saw that they are missing( e. g. river safety, bushcraft and survival), or they may need comprehensive training. Whatever it may be, the best thing about knowledge is that it doesn’ t weigh anything. Hunters can take it with them wherever they hunt, and adapt it to their situation.
One of the foundations of the programme is hunter ethics. I have covered this subject in a previous article, and why ethics are important to the NZDA in general and HUNTS in particular.
Another foundation of the programme is safety – in particular, adherence to the seven basic firearms safety rules. Safety is one reason why each trainee is supervised on their final hunt during the course: to ensure they are safe, make safe decisions, observe the rules; and to increase their chances of ethically shooting and recovering a game animal.
During the Roar this year I implore all HUNTS graduates( and other hunters too) to take heed of the lessons learned during their course, in particular the seven basic rules, and most of all rule number 4: Identify your target beyond all doubt. Stay safe, hunt safe, return safe. Keep your powder dry. Jim
22 NZ Hunting & Wildlife 196- Autumn 2017