Spring turkey season starts next Monday, April 20, and runs through May 10. While veteran hunters have been preparing for months, persons new to the sport (or just think they might want to try it with a hunting friend) have two new options, according to the Missouri Dept. of Conservation.

1) Hunter Safety Education Online. Hunter safety education is available online.  The written part of the test is studied for and the test taken online. At that point, you register for a field day at one of the Conservation Nature Centers, and complete the hands on portion of the training. This helps time-strapped wannabe hunters to complete part of the training at their own pace, and without devoting an entire day to the effort. This is not just for turkey season; if all field days between now and May 10 are filled by the time you complete the course, (they were not at this writing) you will be all ready for other hunting opportunities later in the year.

2) Apprentice Hunter Authorization. This $10 authorization is not a hunting permit. It does authorize you to purchase such a permit without hunter safety education certification, but restricts you to hunting with a companion who is, and is at least 18 years old, or born before 1967.  This authorization lasts for two years, as which time you will have to become certified to continue hunting.

For more info, go online to mdc.mo.gov/regs/permits.htm.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under MDC Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.