Get Ready To Hunt: Montana Youth Hunter Education Classes Available Now

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - With the general rifle hunting season just weeks away, there are still opportunities for Montana youth to take hunter safety classes through Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks.

I spoke with FWP Education and Program Manager Vivaca Crowser about who must take hunter safety classes.

There Are Still Youth Hunter Safety Classes Available from FWP

“If you were born after January 1 of 1985 in Montana, you're required to take hunter education before you buy a license,” began Crowser. “Some states have other requirements, so we run into that too, where people are headed elsewhere, and you can take our class, and other states will honor it, but just make sure to check the requirements for where you're going. The completely in-person classes are free if you do the combo where you take part of your coursework online, then there is a cost just to cover the program that we use for the online piece, but it's pretty small. I think it's around $25 and then in person, it’s completely free.”

Crowser described the options still open for aspiring young hunters.

Young Hunters Can Learn In-Person and Online

“Students have a couple of options,” began Crowser. “You can take an in-person course, completely in person and those classes are free. We still have several left in the west-central Montana area. There’s one in Bonner, we've got one in Missoula, and a couple down the Bitterroot between now and general season opener. The other option is to take your coursework online. There's a small fee for that, and then after that, you still have to take an in-person field day that's about four hours long.”

Crowser described what hunter safety students will learn.

“We spend the majority of that time with the basic rules of firearm safety,” she said. “We're going to spend time handling firearms. We use inert firearms to teach all those skills, but time just covering very important basic safety requirements, such as whether you're getting in and out of a vehicle, getting prepared for your hunt, or out there in the field. We're also talking about things like hunting ethics, wildlife identification, an introduction to the rules and regulations so you can take it from there and get more familiar yourself.”

READ MORE: Top 5 Hunting States in the US: Montana Makes the Cut!

The General Hunting Season Opens the Last Saturday of October

Crowser laid out the specifics of the general rifle season.

“The general hunting season always opens the last Saturday of October,” she said. “It's a little later this year, so it's going to run then all the way through December 1, so that later we still have a little time. But there are other hunting seasons going on between now and then, too. There's a great hunting season date card on the Fish Wildlife and Parks website as well, where you can pull that up and see all the other backcountry and archery and bird seasons that happen, but that general season is from the end of October through the very end of November.”