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By Nina Crowder
The Tri-Community is very fortunate to have an Arizona Game and Fish trained and authorized Instructor Reuben Barragan. He once again conducted the Arizona Game and Fish Hunting Safety Course this weekend with 22 participants. People from as far as St. David came to attend this course, which was held at Mammoth Elementary and the Lions Club Shooting Range.
Barragan enjoys teaching and helping our youth so that they can be safe and learn the proper ways to handle guns, bows and arrows and the equipment involved. He hopes that the youth will learn and be prepared and responsible when they are around guns. Reuben enjoys hunting and shooting and has been taught the proper way to do so he hopes to pass along these abilities and promote safe and knowledgeable conduct. Reuben also emphasizes the importance of wildlife management and laws and regulations.
The purpose of Arizona’s Hunter Education Program is to promote safe hunter conduct. Any individual nine years of age and older may complete a hunter education course offered through the Department. To hunt big game youth under the age of fourteen must complete hunter education. While you must be ten years of age to hunt big game, you may complete Hunter Education at the age of nine however, the hunter education card and certificate does not become valid until the child’s tenth birthday. The Arizona hunter education program is not just for children or hunters. The educational program is a valuable experience for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and has an interest in conservation.
Some of the class contents consist of: responsibility, safety skills; conservation, fair chase, fair share, hunters ethics; planning and preparation, maps and compasses, survival skills, coping with extreme weather and basic first aid; firearm safety, function, handling and shot selection; basic muzzleloading, bowhunting, handguns, use of boats in hunting and use of off highway vehicles; wildlife conservation, management and identification; marksmanship, rifle and shotgun shooting, hunting strategies, vital shots and care of game; Arizona hunting laws and regulations and licensing.
If you wanted to attend this event and were not able to, please check the Arizona Game and Fish website for future class dates at azgfd.gov. Reuben Barragan plans to hold another class in San Manuel soon. Reuben would like to graciously thank Community Schools for the use of Mammoth Elementary, the Lions Club for the use of the shooting range and Arizona Game and Fish for the use of guns. It takes everyone working together to make events like this one successful.
Arizona Game and Fish Officer Reuben Barragan sets some targets for a recently taught gun safety class in Mammoth. (Nina Crowder photo)
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