OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Pick up any magazine like this one, query “big bucks” on any social media outlet, scroll “hunting stories,” on any online hunting site, and you never need search far to satisfy your hunting fix. But I bet it’s rare to see a search engine blown up by requests for Hunter Safety Instruction. Okay, spoiler alert, I’m not making that search either, and I’ll go out on a limb and predict the four gentlemen I’m about to interview, all Hunter Safety Instructors, will share a chuckle, too, at the thought. So call the subject mundane, but as long as we’re here you might be happily surprised, as I was, to discover what an impactful role these instructors play.

Let me introduce you to some practiced ambassadors devoted tirelessly to sending new hunters afield with clean slates on which to build and fortify responsibility, ethics, safety and knowledge. Without such principled volunteers it is fair to ask, and more than rhetorically, where would we begin?

Dennis Smith, a friend and neighbor, 60 years old, has taught Hunter Safety Courses for more than a quarter-century here in upstate New York. Knowing my affiliations