Passport to Texas

Heidi Rao, demonstrating firearm muzzle control.

Firearm Muzzle Control Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Developing and reinforcing hunter safety skills must be a lifelong pursuit for every hunter. The first principle when hunting with a firearm: always point the muzzle in a safe direction.

This is basic safety.

Heidi Rao is a Hunter Education Specialist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. She says even when alone in the field, hunters must remain aware of muzzle direction.

There could be other hunters or even a building near where you’re hunting. And you never want your firearm pointed at anything other than your intended target.

Until you’re ready to shoot, keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction with the safety on, and your finger resting outside the trigger guard.

When you are hunting with two or more hunters you need to be aware of where the other hunters are at all times. You really must talk and let the others know where you are.

The way you carry your gun matters.

You always want to carry your gun in a way that there is no way possibility for the muzzle to be pointed at any other hunter.
One of the safest ways to carry your firearm is known as the two-handed carry or the ready position. This carry also provides the most control over your firearm and it gives you a quick setup for a shot.

Find hunter education videos on the Texas Parks and Wildlife YouTube channel.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our show.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Hunters at sunrise.

2018 Resolutions for Hunters Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas Resolutions Week

Today: resolutions for hunters. Hunter Education Director, Steve Hall, provided a list of resolutions that, when followed, will make it even more rewarding to be a hunter in Texas this New Year.

Attend a hunter education course and recommend the training to anyone who wants to learn more about firearm, hunting and outdoor safety as well as game laws, ethics and responsibilities.

Be safe and obey the laws such as always practicing proper muzzle control, staying within a safe zone of fire and brushing up on game laws and regulations each year through the Outdoor Annual.

Practicing your shooting skills before you leave for your hunting trips; learn proper shot angles, shot placement, distance estimation and vital zones of the game you hunt.

Take care of your game from “field to table”; learn how to properly field dress, transport, butcher, freeze and prepare your favorite wild game meals.

Take along someone new to hunting on your next trip; expose them to the joys of the outdoors and to taking their own healthy, organic meat for the table.

Become a hunter education instructor and give back you knowledge, skills and proper attitudes towards the hunting heritage and a brighter future for hunting and shooting sports.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Hands on Hunter Education

Prepare for the Season with Hunter Ed Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Being a successful hunter begins with hunter education.

Anybody who handles firearms or goes hunting or practices shooting sports should take hunter education.

Hunter education is mandatory for those born on or after September 2, 1971. Steve Hall oversees the program at Parks and Wildlife. The course both prepares hunters for the season, and keeps them in good standing with the law.

The number one ticket we write is for no hunter’s education.

Andrew Alexander is a Texas Game Warden out of Bastrop County.

We write a lot of those [citations]. And the main thing we want there is—we don’t want them to pay a fine. We want them to take the course. They have 90 days to take the course and get their certification. Show proof to the judge, and then that citation will be dismissed.

The Texas Hunter Education program is primarily focuses on younger hunters, that’s not true of all states, which is important to understand if you hunt outside of Texas.

All fifty states require hunter education. We’re reciprocal with all of those states. And the ones that get us the most are the Colorado bound hunters who have to take it [if they’re born] on or after January 1, 1949. So, we get a lot of adults in our class that have it to have it to hunt in Colorado that may not need to have it to hunt in Texas.

Find hunter education information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife Restoration Program Supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

How to Sight Your Rifle Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Bring a properly sighted rifle into the field this hunting season. You may have your own method, and here’s another to consider:

With an unloaded firearm, make initial adjustments on the scope by bore sighting with a device or the naked eye. Yet, a shooting range is where real adjustments occur.

Practice with the same ammo you’ll use when hunting. Different brands and cartridge weights vary in performance. If you sight in your firearm with one kind of cartridge but hunt with another, you risk missing your target.

At 25 yards and using a paper target with a one-inch grid pattern, shoot three rounds, aligning the scope’s crosshairs at the exact center of the target. This three-shot group will reveal how far off center your scope is set.

Based on the average of your shots, use the scope’s dials, to make adjustments. For vertical movement adjust the elevation. For horizontal movement, adjust left and right, called windage. At 25 yards, you can adjust for windage, but for proper elevation, it is best to move the target back to 100 yards and shoot three more rounds.

Depending on the average distances you shoot at game in the field, you may want to center your group either at the bulls-eye or at one inch high at 100 yards.

Find a sighting demo video at passporttotexas.org.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Firearm Safety Begins at Home Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Experienced hunters and gun owners understand the importance of firearm safety.

Basic firearm safety begins with firearm safety in the home.

Steve Hall, hunter education coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife, says Project Child Safe is a program that helps firearm owners maintain high standards of safety in the home.

It’s a long-standing program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and it provides free gun locks to anyone that needs to secure their guns in the home. So, we’ll be able to offer those through Hunter Education, through the Game Wardens, and through many outlets in Texas, because of a donation by the Cabela’s Outdoor Fund to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Hall says Parks and Wildlife will distribute free gun locks to parents when they become available later this summer.

We should be receiving locks this summer in preparation for the busy hunter education season starting late July-August. We’ll have information on those locks [on the website] once Texas parks and Wildlife Department receives them.

Texas Parks and Wildlife offers hunter education classes throughout the year to help would-be hunters—and even non hunters—how to handle and store firearms safely.

Find Hunter Education classes on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.