introducing youth to hunting

[Ian johnson]

my 12 year old cousin came down from virgina to go hunting with me, he has never hunted before in his lfe, last summer I got him seriously into trad archery, we went rabbit hunting today, it was really wet so I did not bring a camera, we were each on one side of a big brush pile and I was trying to jump one his way, instead it came my way, unfortunently it was too fast and I did not get a shot, that was the only one we saw, tomorrow he is coming with me to go deer hunting in a blind we built today after rabbit hunting, I think he is hooked now, he cant wait to come next year so he can be the one shooting deer, he lives outside of washington dc in fairfax(I think thats the town) and is looking for a place to take the states hunter saftey course, any of you virginia tradgangers know where he could take it?

thanks
Ian

[Killdeer]

He lives near me, and I would be pleased to have him and a parent as guests at my archery club, NORVA. We have target butts, broadhead targets, field and 3D ranges.

There is a place on the VDGIF website where you can search for classes. I searched, and found none within 50 miles. Since this will be for next year, your cousin has lots of time over the spring and summer when the classes will be kicking in again. There is an Izaak Walton League out near Centreville that hosts them (I took one there once) as well as the Bull Run Shooting Center, in the same vicinity. (I took one there too.) My gun club, Fairfax Rod and Gun, hosts them (I took one there...) and I am sure that there is one over at Fort Belvoir. I will look further into the schedules, if you wish, or bow out having supplied this information.

Here is the link to the VDGIF site:

 http://www3.dgif.virginia.gov/ClassSchedule/Outline.aspx?dept=Hunting&text=t

Killdeer