Washington State Master Hunter Program

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In a report I did last Wednesday about the feds and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife issuing a limited number of elk permits for the Mount St. Helens area, I mentioned that one of the requirements to be eligible to receive a permit to hunt those elk was to be a Master Hunter. I said I wasn’t familiar with that program and reader Matt sent a link to the WDFW website that gives the information about becoming a Master Hunter.

Washington offers a variety of Advanced Hunter Education courses that include Sharpshooter, Conservationist and Master Hunter. Learn more about that here.

While reading over and researching the information on the website, it certainly looks like a great program. It’s a volunteer one and not necessary for anyone wishing to get a hunting license in that state. A regular hunter safety course is required for anyone wishing to obtain a hunting license.

The mission statement for the Master Hunter program is stated at the top of the page.

Advanced Hunter Education Mission Statement
The mission of the Master Hunter Program is to promote wildlife conservation and the hunting tradition through example, education and mentorship, with focus on high ethical standards and landowner relations.

There are three parts to the program that must be successfully completed before anyone will be issued Master Hunter status. A passing grade of 80% must be achieved on a written test, meet Sharpshooter requirements and complete the Conservationist part of the exam.

The Sharpshooter requirements are as follows:

Master Hunters must shoot a rifle, handgun, shotgun, muzzleloader or archery tackle and obtain a qualifying score. You need only qualify with one discipline. Qualifying scores for each discipline are different. All targets will be shot at a B-3 target (which is provided) with the exception of shotgun which must be shot at an established trap or skeet range. If additional B-3 targets are needed, you may copy the one provided or purchase additional targets at your local sporting goods retailer.

Shooting must be done with a legal big game hunting caliber or gauge firearm. Rifle shooters must shoot a .24 caliber rifle or larger. Shooters must fire ten rounds at each distance prescribed. Scoring the target is by adding up the points in each scoring ring that is hit, which will be your percentage score. Minimum score is six and maximum is ten points. Any shots outside of the six ring would be zero points. Example: if you hit the six ring ten times your score would be 60% and if you hit the ten or X ring eight times and the seven ring two times, your score would be 94%.

And the Conservationist:

The Conservationist section is designed for individuals to participate in a conservation project that is wildlife habitat or wildlife related. This is not a Community Service project! Listed are some examples of the type of projects that would qualify for the Conservationist section:

* Stream Restoration
* Fish Hatchery work
* Working with conservation groups such as; Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Ducks Unlimited. Friends of NRA, Safari Club International, either on their fund raising banquets or on ground projects.
* Planting habitat for a targeted species, either on public or private land.
* Building guzzlers
* Building wood duck nesting boxes.
* Planting shrubs or food plots.
* Working with government agencies such as Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Land Management etc.

Examples of non-approved work include:

* Cleaning barns
* Repairing vehicles
* Assisting in planting cash crops for harvest
* Working for a fee

The Advanced Hunter Education Program Manager must approve all projects done with a private landowner or on your own land, in advance. Written project plans and photos may be required to accompany the Proof of Service form.

All work must be performed on a voluntary basis.

For initial certification, applicants must spend a minimum of 12 hours performing work on a habitat or wildlife related project.

For re-certification, Master Hunters must perform 30 hours of work on a habitat or wildlife project. Work may be done any time during the five-year certification period. Work may be done all in one year or spread out over the five-year period. Master Hunters must keep track of their hours on an AHE Proof of Service form. Forms/hours must not be sent into the Olympia office any sooner than six months prior to the Master Hunters expiration date.

Sounds like a great program and the website reports that to date that there are over 9,000 participants. I know I will come across to some as sour grapes but I do take issue with one aspect of this program. Here’s the deal.

To become a Master Hunter, not only are you required to complete the three parts listed above but there is a $20 fee – one time. That in itself is not a huge deal but it can be a road block to some. This is a volunteer program and one that can do a lot of good. Here’s the part I have a bit of problem with.

Individuals who successfully complete any of the three levels receive a patch and certificate as recognition of their accomplishments. In addition, there are special hunting opportunities available to limited numbers of hunters who successfully complete the Master Hunter qualification. Special hunting opportunities vary from year to year and may include elk, deer and/or turkey hunting in designated units throughout the state.

When you put a $20 price tag on receiving a state-sponsored hunting program special status that will allow you additional hunting opportunities not available to the rest of the licensed hunters in Washington, it is wrong. I’m all for increased hunting opportunities but for everyone. I do fully understand certain circumstances where hunters should be able to achieve a “sharpshooter” status in order to be allowed to hunt special locations where public safety is involved. The costs for obtaining a hunting license continues to rise and when one more fee is added to achieve a special status that will qualify a hunter for additional opportunities above and beyond regular hunters, is climbing a slippery slope.

The Master Hunter program is good. It will draw those hunters interested in improving their skills as a hunter, increase their knowledge and do some great conservation work in the field as well. This program and the efforts involved should boost landowner/hunter relations and improve the hunting image, both good things for hunting.

While I wouldn’t consider ending the program in any way, I do think the WDFW should reconsider the special hunting opportunities. Not everyone has the money, the time, the desire or the expertise to become a Master Hunter. Increased hunting opportunities should be made available to all hunters not just select, elite groups.

Tom Remington

http://moosedroppings.net moose

If programs like this are going to exist the funding has to come from somewhere. I have no issue with the $20 fee provided it funds this program. Many states have hunting opportunities that cost above and beyond the typical cost. Here in NC Wildlife puts out a Special Opportunity Hunt Book that is full of limited draw hunts on public hunting ground. Public Ground that is not open to everyone but just on a limited draw and fee to better control the resource. I have no issue with states doing that. The issue of suburbia taking over a lot of habitat and the impact of an urbanized critters is becoming a big problem be it geese or deer. Some areas have resorted to hiring sharpshooters to come in and thin the heard at an extreme cost to the taxpayers. Others are looking towards allowing limited hunting and to put the general public at ease programs such as this maybe the answer. I donâ€™t see how $20 can be a barrier to anyone who really wants to do this program if so please contact me and Iâ€™ll gladly sponsor him or her. If you donâ€™t have $20 for the program can ya really afford the gas money to even get to many of these places to hunt?
Tom Remington

I think your attitude exemplifies much of the attitude across America when it comes to hunting opportunities. It’s always, if you can’t afford the twenty dollars, you can’t afford to hunt. This is why we are seeing an ever increasing cost to hunt and nothing to show for it. The truth is $20 is a deterrent to hunting and one reason why hunting license sales is on the decline.

I also think you missed my point a bit. Having limited draw hunts is supposedly done, as you say, to protect the resource. I don’t have a problem with that. I do have a problem with states using draws, such as the Maine moose lottery, as a money making proposition, once again with very little to show for the money they raise.

I think that states that do limited draws should be doing them for free. This allows everyone an equal chance to apply. This issue I have is not just the $20 fee. It’s that because of the $20 fee and the requirements of the Master Hunter program, which puts you into an elite group, gives you an opportunity to hunt elk where other don’t.

If you think this is creating equal opportunities for all hunters, you and I will just have to agree to disagree. (Insert smiley face here)
http://moosedroppings.net moose

I guess my question to you is how do you fund a program like this if not with fees for those who choose to participate? If you take it out of the Game Departmentâ€™s general operating budget that has to be made up somewhere and I suspect it will mean an increase for everyoneâ€™s hunting licenses and how fair is that if youâ€™re a person that could care less about a program like this? I would agree that money grabs like the Maine Moose lottery and the like are wrong and do limit hunting opportunities for the average Joe. But I also see that there are hunting opportunities that are still affordable by a draw for the average Joe that if left to the market wouldnâ€™t be there. Take Florida for example and the Osceola Turkey if Florida Wildlife didnâ€™t have land leases with private landowners and then pass the cost back to the hunters in fees and limited draws then those opportunities would be lost. I think the rising cost in hunting license does contribute some to the decrease in hunters but a bigger factor in my book is the lack of places to hunt. Iâ€™m in a state where hunting leases is the norm and the cost of them is rising a huge rate and that puts more guys out of hunting. Iâ€™ve yet to meet anyone that has given up hunting because of the cost of a license but I have met some that the loss of land has. I guess weâ€™ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
Tom Remington

I have no issue with those wishing to become a Master Hunter if they had to pay $2,000 dollars to do it. That’s not my point. My point is the state sponsors a program, which is a good one, but as a benefit they toss in some increased hunting opportunities that are now no longer available to the average Joe. It becomes an elitist group.

If anyone in Washington wants to take the course, that’s great. They can do their thing and pay whatever they want to pay to get a patch and plant crops for wildlife, just don’t bribe them into the membership by offering them something that all hunters can’t participate in.

Who pays to manage the elk in Mount St. Helens, the members of the Master Hunter program or all those who paid a fee to get a license?
bob winestein

As a master hunter here in washington I don’t think you have done your home work. you need to go to wdfw web site and look at it again.
The over all program is changing all the time and with the new year 2010 starting soon in january the fee is going up to 50$ for master hunter app’s and license fees as well.
It’s no longer called the (advanced hunter program) just MASTER HUNTER PROGAM.
I feel the program addresses alot of the problems faceing hunters today.
such as access, landowners, and hunter retention and the overall hunting heritage.
The resons I got into the program is as a hunter and sportsman I wanted to do more to promote my sport.
I also was just tired of hunting with slobs hunters in the general seasons.
I hope you understand what I mean by that!
bob winestein

One more thing the master hunters are an elitist group set up for training to live by example. so that the general hunting public can aspire to raise the bar so to speak.
The fee increase does not seem to be the right thig to do in this economy but it is the norm it seems.
It’s a pay to play world now and if that’s part of raising the bar on how hunter’s behave then I am all for it.
ar

Bob,

“I hope you understand what I mean by that.”

No, I don’t understand what you mean by that. Nor do I understand what raising the bar is on hunter’s behavior.

Your statements seem condescending, at the least. Taking offense is not my motive. Plainly put, I don’t understand what you are talking about. I get the impression you are surrounded, or have been in the past, by hunters that you don’t want to associate with but would like to have your own place and time to hunt. Is that a fair statement?

If you hunt in places I can’t, does that promote your (the)sport?
bob winestein

I am sure it comes across that I am on the defense and that is true in your observation. But with that said I feel that in my experience hunting here in washington what I have witness is an attitude of most hunters and fisherman is that when they buy that licence they will fill that tag or punch card any way they can even if it’s unlawful to do so.
I have witness drinking and drugs,shooting from a road to party hunting just to make sure that every tag is filled.
Mabey you don’t have to hunt with these people but I sometimes do because of tag that I draw from year to year.
The master hunter program has alowed me to hunt with like minded people with conservation great ethics and overall good sportsmen.
The people of this group are more willing to go the extra mile to promote good hunting practices hunter landowner relations and most important to be very conscious of how the public and the nonhunting public perceives hunters and the role we play in wildlife management.
I don’t want to sound like I am on my soap box telling everyone how to act but I see the trend of less hunters in the feild. hunting is not as important as it was when I was a kid. All hunters must see that we are the minority in this thing.
We have to be very aware of how people see us.
Do I think it should be a level playing feild when comes to (Master Hunters) and the general hunting public. No of course not they have not had the traning or earned there way to hunt in these special hunt and mabey I am giving master hunters more credit than they deserve there are flaws in the program and some nitwits do get threw the screen,but for the most part they are a good group.
ar

I feel bad for you but in all fairness, it’s just too damn bad you are surrounded by people you don’t want to be around. If I could have my cake and eat it, too, I would.

You are probably a little older than the individuals you mention above. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant but what about a responsability to educate those you would like to get away from instead of abandoning them? How can the sport be promoted and made “better” with actions like that? It creates an “us and them” situation – and that inevitably leads to no good.

In the region you draw your tags from, your major interests would lie in fixing the situation at hand rather than doing nothing about it or, in this case, become a master hunter – I can’t get my thots around a master hunter. The stuff you refer to as a master hunter is common place hunting in my neck of the woods. Why isn’t it the same for you? And why not fix the problem? Eventually the younger croud, if that is the case, will eventually get older, we hope, and smarten up.

Maybe it’s a matter of just finding some good ole boys and going to “camp” with them – if they invite you.

I certainly think hunting is more important now than at any point in the past and it is a shame to think we are a “minority in this thing.”

As far as the playing field being leveled is concerned, all people have the same rights. Again, go back to the situation at hand and fix it rather than abandon it.

You are creating division – those nit wits you refer to is me. I think I have shoes older than you – maybe not.

At any rate, like the author says, it is creating an elitist group (and division).
bob winestein

I must say your right when you talk about division of hunters and I don’t want that at all but the slob hunters need to wake up.
I am a little older than most of the people that I hunt with but I am also a hunter education instructor so it;s not that I don’t try to do my part.
Any young or old potential hunter that I comes to my class walks away with a handfull knowledge that they will carry with them for many years to come I hope.
I open every class with the statement: This is an adult activity and expect adult behavior and anything you learn here I hope you pass on to who ever you hunt with and do not stand for unsafe or poor behavior you have to look out for your own safety too.
I wish that I had the time to tell you the questions that I get from the parents that come to class with there kids, you would think they have never hunted or held a firearm in there life,but I am sure glad they asked just the same.
Thats what I am there for.
I do try to pass on many of the things that I have learned through the years and
would be proud to hunt with any of my students.
I guess when you get to my age it’s more important to mentor new hunters than hunt myself but I do still like to hunt just not as enthusiastic about swimming threw brush and hiking mountians. That’s why I hunt on horse back from time to time.
I must say that I don’t have a clue on how to tackle the problem of slob hunters is it Education,Heavy fines,Take away hunting privilege for life, Make poaching a felony.I just don’t know.
I sometimes watch the hunting shows on tv and often shock what I see and hear but it must be me in my thinking.
Thats the problem with ethics is whats ethical to you may not be ethical to me.
It comes down to were and how you were taught.
Hunters have alot of things aginst them with wolves,nonhunters,poor management,and hunters themself.
THANKS!
ar

Set the example, is all you need do. The old addage of “given enough rope”
usually holds fast and true.

Whether it be poachers or slobs – they get found out.

thank you, bob
bob winestein

I think the master hunter program was started to help improve the image of hunters. Give them some training on conservation game management and just how the department does there job with the help of hunters.
The other thing I got out of the program is a good feeling from helping landowners with there elk problems it’s NOT about killing elk. Hearding and hasing them out of farmers fields and crops in the off seasons.
Fixing elk damaged fence and buliding fence to keep elk and other wildlife where they need to be and keep them out of harms way .
John W.

I’m a Master Hunter for the State of Washington. The program is an all volunteer program that’s funded by the participants for a $50 application fee. Materials are then provided in both paper and digital format. Emphasis is given to hunter safety, ethics, landowner-hunter relations, shooting skills, volunteering, conservation, violations reporting, and mentoring. You must complete a 100 question comprehensive test after reading several books and the Master Hunter guide, and reviewing the hunter safety course . You must shoot a minimum score for the weapon you choose, or multiple weapons can be qualified. You must pass a criminal background check. During the application period, you must also perform 20 hours of conservation volunteer work. Taking a class (C.O.R.T.) for observing and reporting game violations and other crimes is required. Before you’re given your certification, you must also sign an ethics pledge. Once you receive the certification, which is good for 5 years, you must continue to volunteer at least 8 hours a year, or 40 total hours toward renewal, re-take the shooting test, re-sign the ethics pledge, and have the criminal background check re-done.

Receiving the certification allows you to participate in special Master Hunter only hunts, damage control hunts, and Department of F&W projects. But the real benefit of the course is to awaken a keen sense of doing what’s right in the woods, becoming much more educated as to the history and conservational benefits of hunting, and to be able to represent hunting to the community at large in a positive light. Emphasis on respect for your game, private landowners, other hunters, yourself, and the community as a whole is key.

I’m very proud to wear the patch and to have completed the program. Even though I have always thought of myself as an ethical, law-abiding hunter, it has educated me and shown me a side of hunting that was previously more of a concept than a reality, and through education, has given me information and tools necessary to speak with hunters an non-hunters alike, in a non-confrontational and informed way. I believe this program is an outstanding way to support and strengthen the hunting tradition and I’m honored to be a part of it.

Washington State Master Hunter Program

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