How To Register For A Hunter Education Class In Your County

Hunter Education Plan

Hunter and Trapper Prophylactic and Responsibility

Important COVID-19 UPDATE: Hunter Educational activity Programme staff are non in the role every day. For prompt service, email us (hunter@dec.ny.gov). Please do not call and leave a voicemail if y'all have access to email; this volition help prevent delays in service.

The Hunter Education Program teaches future hunters and trappers how to be safe, responsible, and ethical. Later successful completion of a hunter education course or a trapper didactics grade, students will receive a certificate of qualification necessary for purchasing a get-go-time hunting or trapping license. Bowhunter education and waterfowl hunter pedagogy courses are also bachelor.

In-Person Hunter Didactics, Bowhunter Education, Trapper Education, and Waterfowl Hunter Instruction Courses Details

Choose a course below to review course content, requirements, study materials, and to find a form.

All in-person courses are free and taught by DEC-certified instructors. Although primarily offered for first-fourth dimension hunters or trappers, anyone is welcome to nourish a Hunter Teaching Program course, whether information technology is for a refresher, you lot have an interest in the topic, or you lot took the online course and want hands-on experience.

*In-person courses are offered throughout the yr, nevertheless well-nigh of the courses are taught between March and September.

*Exercise not wait until just earlier the hunting flavor to take a course. In-person courses fill quickly, so it is important to sign up early.

Hunter Education - Required for first-fourth dimension hunters using firearms or archery equipment to pursue big game, pocket-sized game, turkey, waterfowl, and migratory game birds.

Bowhunter Education - Required in addition to the Hunter Educational activity course (above) when using a bow and arrow to pursue deer and carry only (not crossbow). If bowhunting for other wild game, this course is not required only recommended.

Trapper Education - Required for kickoff-time trappers pursuing furbearers.

Waterfowl Hunter Education - Required to proceeds admission to select State and Federal lands (Wild fauna Refuges) open to waterfowl hunting.

Crossbow Hunting Qualification - Required for hunters using a crossbow to pursue large game, minor game, turkey, or unprotected species.

Online Hunter Pedagogy and Bowhunter Education Courses

An ONLINE HUNTER EDUCATION COURSE is now available.

An ONLINE BOWHUNTER Education COURSE is now available.

Other State Certificates

New York Country accepts Hunter Teaching Certificates from other states when purchasing a New York hunting license.

Document Requirements in Other States and Countries: To verify whether a New York Land Hunter Education Certificate is accustomed elsewhere, visit the International Hunter Education Association (leaves December website) to find certificate restrictions and requirements in all other states and countries. Many states and countries will require you to show your hunter education certificate and volition non have your hunting or trapping license every bit proof of a certificate.

Replace a Lost Certificate

Due to COVID, staff are not in the office every day. For fastest service, email us (hunter@dec.ny.gov). If y'all practise not have electronic mail, telephone call one-888-HUNT-ED2 (1-888-486-8332). Please supply your proper name, appointment of birth, type of class y'all took (hunter instruction, bowhunter teaching, trapper educational activity, waterfowl hunter instruction), and when and where yous took the course. Certificates dated earlier than 1980 cannot be found or replaced. If you need a document and yours cannot exist found, yous will need to retake the class.

Hunter Condom Nuts

The four Rules of Firearm Rubber

Care for every firearm every bit if it is loaded.
Always keep the cage pointed in a safe management.
Go along your finger off the trigger, and outside the trigger baby-sit, until you lot are ready to shoot.
E'er be sure of your target and what is in front end of it and behind it. One time you pull the trigger, you cannot take back the bullet!
Vesture hunter orange or pinkish.

Hunter Orange and Pink

Photos of hunter in human vision and in deer vision
Human being's vision compared to a deer's vision.
Deer cannot tell cherry-red or orange from greenish.

Any person hunting deer or behave with a firearm or a person who is accompanying someone hunting deer or bear with a firearm MUST wear a minimum of 250 square inches of solid fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink material worn in a higher place the waist and visible from all directions; OR a minimum of 250 square inches of patterned fluorescent orange or fluorescent pinkish (the pattern must be at least 50% fluorescent orange or l% fluorescent pink) worn above the waist and visible from all directions; OR a hat or cap with no less than l% of the exterior consisting of solid fluorescent orange or fluorescent pink material visible from all directions.

All other hunters are non required by law to article of clothing fluorescent orange while hunting in New York. Still, December highly recommends ALL hunters wear a fluorescent orange hat, vest and/or coat while hunting small game or big game.

Deer and Other Game Animals Don't See Hunter Orange

Deer do non have red-sensitive cone cells in their optics, and can't tell orangish from green and chocolate-brown.
Deer have different sensitivity to diverse wavelengths of lite than humans. Deer encounter curt wavelength colors such as blue (and even ultra-violet, which humans cannot meet) brighter than humans do. However, deer are less sensitive to longer wavelengths such as orange and pink, so these colors look darker to deer.

Wearing Hunter Orange Saves Lives

a hunter in orange suit and one in dark suit in the woods
The two hunters in this moving picture (one wearing camo and the other
hunter orange) are invisible to deer if they don't move.
Who would you lot want to exist if there were another
hunter nearby, and a deer betwixt you?

Hunter orange, too known as fluorescent orange or blaze orange, should be worn to make a hunter more visible and prevent other hunters from mistaking them for an animal, or shooting in their direction.

Hunters who article of clothing hunter orangish are 7 times less probable to be shot. For example, during the past ten years, not one person who was wearing hunter orange was mistaken for game and killed in New York. On the contrary, big game hunters who were involved in firearm-related incidents were not wearing hunter orange.

Hunting From Tree Stands

Every year, hunters are seriously injured, paralyzed, or killed falling out of tree stands. Falls from tree stands have go a major cause of hunting-related injuries and fatalities in New York.

In 2020, DEC investigated 13 tree stand incidents. One of the incidents was fatal. All 13 incidents involved a hunter who was non wearing a harness or the harness was non attached to the stand up or the tree at the fourth dimension of their autumn. The proper use of tree stands, full-torso harnesses, and lifelines will help to foreclose these injuries and fatalities.

Tree Stand up Safe Tips

Read the manufacturer'south instructions and warnings before you use your tree stand and check your stands (including straps and chains) every season. Replace any worn or missing parts.
Use a full-body harness with a lifeline and stay continued from the time you leave the ground to the time you get dorsum downwards.
Be enlightened of suspension trauma. Be sure the harness has a foot strap to relieve harness leg pressure.
Use a "lifeline" or safe rope that is secured at the base of operations of the tree or stand and to the tree just above your caput when sitting in the stand up. Attach the tether from your full-body harness to the lifeline using a carabiner and prusik knot, which easily slides up and down the lifeline, keeping you connected at all times.

Hunter using safety straps
In one case you are safely in your stand, and your tether is attached to the tree, enhance your equipment into your stand. E'er use a haul line, such as a potent rope, to raise and lower your unloaded gun or cocked crossbow or bow with quiver up the stand. Do not tie the haul line effectually the trigger or trigger guard on a firearm. Raise a firearm with the muzzle pointing down.
Let a reliable person know where y'all will exist hunting and when you will render. A map showing your stand location makes it easier for others to find yous if you lot do not return on time.
Conduct emergency equipment, such as a knife, cell phone, flashlight, and whistle in your pockets at all times (not in your pack hanging in the tree).

Fitness For Hunters

Hunting is a physical sport. Every hunting flavor is marred by hunters who suffer heart attacks and strokes. Walking while carrying gear, spotting, and shooting at a deer and dragging a carcass tin crusade more stress than the center can handle. That'southward specially true if y'all are non physically active, smoke, accept loftier blood force per unit area, elevated cholesterol, or other health problems. It is a skilful idea to start edifice up your endurance before hunting flavor. Only you don't take to railroad train like a marathon runner. Any activity that gets you moving effectually, even if information technology'due south just thirty minutes each day, can start strengthening your middle and lungs so you tin have a safe hunting season.

Hunter Safety Statistics

December documented ix hunting-related shooting incidents (HRSIs) during the 2021 hunting seasons, one of which was fatal. This is the lowest number of HRSIs recorded since tape-keeping began more than than lxx years ago.

7 of the nine HRSIs that occurred last year were ii-party firearm incidents, and two were cocky-inflicted. All 9 hunters were experienced. All of the incidents could have been prevented if hunting rubber rules had been followed.

There were ten elevated hunting incidents (EHIs) reported in 2021, including ane fatal. EHIs involve hunters who fall from tree stands or elevated platforms. Only ane of the 10 hunters who fell in 2021 was wearing a safety harness, however the harness was not attached to the tree when the hunter fell.

For more information on HRSIs and EHIs, run into the reports below.

Reports

Appreciation goes out to the DEC Ecology Conservation Officers who conduct professional investigations of each hunting-related shooting incident and elevated hunting incident.

You can view and print the 2021 reports by clicking the links below.

2021 Hunting-Related Shooting Incidents (PDF)

2021 Elevated Hunting Incidents (PDF)

Teaching in the Hunter Education Programme

Hunter Education Program instructors who volunteer their time to teach others about the safety, responsibleness, and ethics of hunting and trapping help to keep these valued traditions alive today. This page offers information for prospective instructors.

Become an Instructor

Consummate a Hunter Education Plan Teacher Application (PDF) to join other volunteer hunter and trapper educators. Your participation helps teach and go on the American heritage of responsible and safety hunting and trapping. If you submit your application electronically you should receive a confirmation email reply within 48 hours. If you do not receive a confirmation please call to confirm that we received your application.

Qualifications

Be at least eighteen years of historic period
Exist of good moral character
Laissez passer an initial background history check and continue to pass random background history checks
Have good communication skills
Hunting feel preferred, only not required

Requirements

Completion of instructor preparation and apprenticeship
Teach at to the lowest degree ane course per yr
Nourish a refresher class every ii years

Pistol Let

Generally, a hunter education course does not authorize you to obtain a pistol permit in New York State. Please check with your canton clerk'south part or canton sheriff'southward office for more information regarding pistol permits.

Equal Opportunity

Courses are available to all individuals without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, or inability. Complaints of discrimination should be sent to the Function of Equal Opportunity, U.South. Department of the Interior, Part of the Secretary, Washington, D.C. 20240.

More well-nigh Hunter Education Program:

Hunter Education Courses and Certifications - Required for beginning-fourth dimension hunters using firearm or archery equipment to pursue big game, small game, turkey, waterfowl and migratory game birds.