On Sunday, May 4, my wife Heidi and I went to the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club shooting range in Lower Nicola. Heidi came along to take pictures and I went to volunteer with the field day for the hunter education course students.
It is a long-standing tradition of the NVF&GC to spend one day of the four-day hunter education course at the shooting range to provide the students with practical, hands-on experience in handling and shooting a variety of firearms and calibres.
This is a welcome change for the students who had been learning hard in a classroom setting about firearm safety, wildlife conservation, wilderness survival, wildlife identification, hunting and environmental laws plus a variety of other topics.
The field day at the range begins with a lecture about firearm safety procedures and shooting range etiquette. Then it is on to the introduction and demonstration of the various firearm types and ammunition before the students are given the opportunity to shoot the available variety of firearms under close supervision and with the assistance of the volunteer hunter educators.
It is important for any hunter and sport firearm shooter that he/she gains personal experience with all the different types of firearms and how they operate and that is the reason why the NVF&GC organizes this popular field day in conjunction with the course. The event ends with a sausage grill party where everybody gathers around the campfire with friends and family.
The B.C. Hunter Education Course (CORE) is a mandatory requirement for any B.C. resident wanting to become a hunter and is only one of many programs the NVF&GC participates in on a volunteer basis.
There are many other hunter and angler programs, such as the upcoming Children’s Fishing Day, held on Father’s Day, but also wildlife and habitat conservation activities that the club organizes throughout the year.
All the participating club members volunteer their time and cover their own expenses, such as the costs incurred by putting on events. To raise money, the NVF&GC hosts from time to time fundraising events that have become a popular staple of our valley’s event calendar.
Speaking of fundraising events, this reminds me that, as reported in my last column, on May 24 the NVF&GC is holding a big fundraising event at the Merritt Desert Inn. Tickets for this event are $20 dollars and are available at the Ponderosa Sporting Goods store or at Nicola Valley Outdoors.
Heidi and I will be at the event and I hope to see many of my readers there too. In a phone conversation with Paul Komonoski, president of the NVF&GC and CORE examiner, he told me that on Tuesday evening, May 6, all 17 hunter education students have passed their written and practical tests with flying colours. My heartfelt congratulations go out to all of them and I welcome them into our hunting fraternity. These new hunters carry on our conservationist, nature and wildlife stewardship heritage, passed on from one to the next generation, into a bright future.
