With the hot midsummer months already here, and for those with a young hunter coming of age or considering an out-of-state hunt, this is the time to be thinking about taking a course.

The Hunters Education course is offered several ways. One is in a classroom over a twoday period or it can be taken online followed by a one-day field course.

Days gone by, youth had to be at least 12 to take the course but recently Texas Parks

and Wildlife Department has dropped that to nine, something that isn't popular with

some instructors who believe it is too young.A

hunter education course called 'Safety First' helps young hunters learn there is more

to hunting than just shooting, making it safer for them and others in the field.

When it comes down to the proper age for a hunter go his first is more a factor of physical size and maturity. Every youth hunter and their parents should go through the course, he wants them to bring something from it.

When taking the course it seems there are things covered that don't pertain to the average Texan who deer hunts on a 1,500-acre Hill Country lease or dove hunts in a hundred-acre sunflower field. But the course isn't just for hunting instate. The Texas course is accepted in every other state and Canada that requires a hunter education certificate.

There is the stuff important no matter where you hunt, things such as knowing how much you can swing a shotgun, how to properly climb into a deer stand with a rifle or the safest way to get across a fence with a gun.

Hunter education has been in place in Texas since 1988. The proof that it is effective is in the numbers. In 1987 there were 81 hunting accidents in Texas, including 12 fatalities. In 2008 there were 26 accidents and six fatalities.

Those were up from four each of the previous two years.

Besides just youth and their hunting parent taking the course, it might not be a bad idea for non-hunting parents to take the course as well. This way they would have a better understanding of what hunting is and the importance hunters place on safety.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department maintains a list of hunter education courses. The list can be found at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/learning/hunter _education/city.phtml.