On Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Old Saratoga Muzzle Loading Club in Stillwater, which is about half a mile from the Saratoga National Cemetery, our instructor team will be conducting a gun safety course for 50 people wanting to be certified to obtain their hunting license. Fifty!

On Sunday, Sept. 23, at the same location, we will be conducting the same course for certification to obtain a bow hunting license. This session is also scheduled to have 50 people in attendance and, as I write my column for this week, both courses are booked solid.

Of the total 100 people registered, there is an overlap of about 20 to 30 percent, meaning that we will train, test and certify as many as 70 to 80 people to be licensed to hunt for the very first time. It may not seem like a lot to you, but remember, we are only one instructor team. On Saturday, there will be four of us and on Sunday, three of us will continue the process.

But, there are instructors all across the state doing exactly the same thing as we are. Hundreds of instructors will be conducting courses from the tip of Long Island to Niagara Falls and from Plattsburgh to Binghamton. 

Most courses will be held in the den or the basement or the garage of the instructor’s home. It is recommended that each course have a minimum of 10 students. Now, suddenly, you can see that there are hundreds if not thousands of new hunters being certified. 

Most courses will run for two or three, or maybe even four nights, to reach the required 10 hours of instruction before testing and certification of those attending. Our team conducts a one day, all-day course to condense the process and by teaming up, we are able to expand classes to at least 50 students.

Every year I am amazed during the sign-up process. Wide-eyed teenagers come to my home with one parent or the other to register for the course. Many times, one of their parents may also be registering to take the course and obtain their license as well. I see the excitement in the eyes of the young people and pride in the eyes of the parents.

The entire process is filled with anticipation and expectation of the adventure and the time together that is ahead for those entering our sport for the first time. I get such a kick seeing particularly the young people who hand me their birth certificates like it was a ticket to Disney World.

Their arm stretched out as if I was on a coiled spring not knowing if it’s yet the time for me to take their “ticket” from them. I get more “yes, sir” replies to my questions from these kids than I ever did when I was in the Army and I get a real charge when a young mom brings her new teenager to sign up and then tells me that she too wants to take the course. I could reach out and hug every one of them for sharing the experience with their child.

If you are a mom or dad and have been on the sideline when your child scores a touchdown, hits a home run or sings a solo in the choir, you know the rush you get. Well, how about being right next to your youngster - shoulder to shoulder - sitting in a tree stand or a ground blind with bow or rifle or camera in hand and you watch a deer approach.

You whisper in his or her ear and point to the deer as it ever so slowly nears your position and you see your child’s eyes widen and get bigger and bigger hoping they don’t fall out of their sockets as the deer walks impossibly quiet under your feet right next to the tree holding you 15 feet up off the ground.

Then, in an instant, in a flash of speed, it’s gone, spooked by who knows what. A sound! A smell! Who knows! Then both of you let out this “Whoooh!” and feel your heart beating so fast you would think you just ran a four-minute mile.

Then you look at your child’s face and there’s this grin stretching from ear to ear, so big and so broad that you fall into it yourself and find that you too have a smile on your face so big in might break your jaw.

That, my friends, is what hunting is all about! That is why we “old guys” teach this course! That is why we want so badly for the law to be expanded to reduce the age of licensing from the current age of 16 to 12 or 14. Experience with me, or far better, with your child, what I have described and then come and tell me that hunting isn’t a fantastic “family” activity.

Find a family who hunts together and see how they share other things together. One of the hunt clubs in which I am a member was started in 1943 by seven men including four brothers. We are bow hunting with two of the original brothers now in their 80s and still going strong, a handful of their sons and now at least three of their grandsons.

For almost 65 years, there has been a continuous linkage of father to son. Hunting is not about guns! Hunting is not about killing animals! Each are certainly a part of it, but it’s the early mornings, the smiles, the nights around the wood burning stove, the laughing, the cussing and the “good ole boy” back slapping companionship with friends you trust with your life. That’s what hunting is all about. See you in class and I’ll see you outdoors!