Mentor License Removes Hunting Hurdle
By DAVID RAINER
When the Alabama Legislature passed the bills that increased fees for hunting and fishing licenses on the last day of the regular session, a provision in one of the bills eliminated a hurdle for some first-time hunters.
The mentor license was created to offer those who have reached the age of 16 the opportunity to hunt without completing the hunter education course.
Obviously, there is a catch. The new provision in the license law allows people of license-buying age (16 and older) who haven’t completed the hunter education requirement to purchase a restricted license to hunt with a properly licensed hunter as a mentor. The license will indicate ‘supervision required,’ which means the new hunter must be within normal voice control – not over 30 feet – from a properly licensed hunter who is at least 21 years old.
“We have instances every year where someone wanting to go hunting hasn’t completed the hunter education course,” said Barnett Lawley, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR). “Up until this point they were precluded from going, even with their fathers. This restricted license allows those people to hunt under the direct supervision of a mentor.”
While many of the mentors will be family members, anyone who is at least 21 years old and holds a valid hunting license can take a novice hunting.
“My father died when I was young, but I had a friend who was an attorney (Judge Edwin Holladay) that would take me squirrel hunting and dove hunting,” Lawley said. “That was back when you bought your shells by the shell. You saved your allowance and grass-cutting money and bought shells one at a time.
“I went on my first dove hunt with seven shells. After I missed a couple, I found a tree the doves liked, and I got five doves out of seven shells. That really got me interested in hunting. I’ll always remember it.”
Lawley said that every hunter is encouraged to take a kid or any newcomer hunting and give them an opportunity to get out and see what the outdoors is all about. Often, positive experiences in the field can last a lifetime, Lawley said.
“You develop your character based on those things,” he said. “Who we are today is what mentors taught us when we were young. Those are the years when you formulate your values, not only to enjoy the sport but appreciate what it’s about – learn about the natural resources and God’s creations on this earth.”
 Corky Pugh, Director of ADCNR’s Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, said the distractions of modern living makes it crucial to provide every opportunity for newcomers, which may include teen-agers or adults who have not been introduced to hunting, to experience the outdoors.
“Almost all of us who hunt had somebody who took the time when we were younger to teach us,” Pugh said. “Very few of us, when we think back to our first hunting experiences, don’t remember a specific person or persons who had a hand in introducing us to the outdoors.
“In today’s faster-paced world with so many competing activities, it’s more critical than ever for all of us to take the time to introduce young people to hunting. This mentor license is aimed at that very thing. Unlike when we were kids coming along, there are now a lot of people who get to the age of 16 who may or may not have hunted a lot or may not have gotten their hunter education certification. Even though we have made hunter ed as accessible as we can through the CD-ROM approach and Internet, there are still some people who hit the age of 16, want to go hunting but may not have completed a hunter ed course.”
Pugh said the mentor license only affirms the way young hunters were schooled in the past.
“If you think about how many of us learned how to hunt, that’s how it occurred anyway – sitting next to a grandfather, father or uncle who made us sit close to them so they could keep up with what we were doing, so they could communicate with us and help us be safe and successful,” he said.
Pugh said his grandfather was his main mentor during his formative years.
“Most of us who hunt remember the first experiences we had pretty vividly,” he said. “I know I do. I remember going squirrel hunting with my grandfather on numerous occasions before he would even allow me to carry a gun. He taught me to dress squirrels long before he let me shoot one. He had me cleaning his old shotgun after every hunting trip before he ever let me shoot a gun. He was teaching me gun safety on every trip into the woods. Of course, as a child, I didn’t realize he was doing that.
“I remember the first squirrel I shot as if it were yesterday. I know the exact spot we were sitting. I could probably go back and find it. I shot that squirrel with a 20-gauge single-shot that my grandfather gave me when I was 9 years old. I’ve still got that shotgun. In fact, the way I open every hunting season is to go squirrel hunting with that shotgun. Each time, it’s as if my grandfather is sitting beside me.”
Likewise, I’ll never forget those squirrel hunts on my grandmother’s small farm during Thanksgiving when most of the family headed for the woods. I had to work my way up to shooting status after starting as the “vine shaker.”
And I’ll never forget my grandmother’s admonition to never shoot a squirrel in the head with the .22 because it fouled up parts she considered delicacies. Of course, she managed to rear five kids during the Depression so nothing went to waste.
Gary Moody, Chief of the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries’ Wildlife Section, points out that the mentor license was designed for all ages, not just the younger crowd.
“You may have someone who is older who gets invited on a dove hunt,” Moody said. “But they hadn’t taken a hunter ed course and weren’t planning to. The mentor license allows them to try hunting under the supervision of someone they know. If it is an activity they enjoy, then they can decide whether to pursue hunting and take the hunter ed course.”
Pugh said that even though the pursuit of small game like squirrels and doves is a great way to introduce people to hunting, that’s not to say you can’t introduce newcomers to deer hunting or even turkey hunting.
“There’s a gentleman over in Opelika by the name of George Mann who has introduced well over 200 people to hunting by personally helping them take their first deer,” Pugh said. “I’ve never met anyone more unselfish in that regard than George. He allows me to bring a first-time deer hunter to hunt with him every year.”
Pugh said a hunt particularly poignant in the mentor license discussion occurred on Thanksgiving weekend last year. Although Pugh had introduced Eddie Hackett to turkey hunting the previous season, Hackett had never hunted deer.
“This particular young man’s dad (Ed) is a Marine colonel at the Pentagon,” Pugh said. “Like so many kids today, Eddie has grown up in a suburban environment. Even though his father is a Marine and shot on the Marine Corps rifle team, Eddie had never really had the opportunity to hunt.
“I had started taking Eddie turkey hunting with me the year before when he was on spring break. He showed a great amount of patience and self-restraint and came very close to killing a turkey, but we just couldn’t make it happen. Eddie’s grandfather, Fincher Allen (Mobile native who settled in Birmingham), was still living at the time and got to see Eddie at least start hunting.”
“Finch,” as Eddie’s grandfather was known, passed away before the deer hunt at Opelika, which started inauspiciously with a switching wind that severely limited deer movement.
“The next morning, George took Eddie with him, hunting on the edge of one of the thick, thick sanctuaries that George maintains on his property,” Pugh recalled. “They were sitting on the ground, against a tree. Eddie killed a beautiful eight-point. They were so close to the deer, I remember Eddie saying, ‘Mr. Pugh, I looked through my scope and all I could see was brown hair.’ But he executed a perfect shoulder shot on the deer.”
Pugh’s reward came in the form of thank you notes he received in December from Eddie and Ed.
Pugh said, “One of the things that Col. Ed Hackett wrote in the note was this:
‘I can’t even explain how much I watched Eddie grow over that two-day hunt at the Manns. I know that Finch was watching and smiling over the whole trip. He would be so proud of Eddie.’”
Lawley said that hunt is a perfect example of what the mentor license was designed to promote.
“That’s what (ADCNR) is all about – having those experiences with friends or family or mentors,” Lawley said. “You create memories. That’s a different way of saying it, but that’s really what we’re here for – creating opportunities to make memories.
“For that and many other reasons, we encourage Alabama’s hunters to take a youngster hunting.”
PHOTO: Eddie Hackett shows off the eight-point whitetail he bagged near Opelika with the help of George Mann, left, and Corky Pugh.
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