NEW RUSSIA — It was a deal I couldn't resist.
Having stepped gingerly over the threshold of 65, been pushed into Medicare, realizing the Press-Republican won't pay all my bills and thus accepting Social Security, I decided to take advantage of obtaining a New York state lifetime hunting and fishing license for the bargain price of $50.
Had I waited just a more few days, when the cost was due to rise, I would have paid almost that much for just one year.
Figuring I should have at least another 25 years of health and reasonable sanity, that calculates to one Thomas Jefferson per year.
So I headed down to the Elizabethtown clerk's office, ready to hand over a check for a tag giving me the eternal privilege to walk through the woods in search of an eight-point buck or head down to my local fishing hole and toss in a line.
Not so fast, they told me.
I needed to provide a previous hunting license or certification showing I passed a hunter's safety course.
"PRICE IS RIGHT"
Flash back 40-plus years to my return from Vietnam, when I decided I had seen enough of weapons for a while, sold my rifles and, of course, did not renew my hunting license. I had no verification that I'd ever been allowed to terminate a marauding bruin or obtain my Thanksgiving dinner in the wild.
So I headed over the mountain to Moriah to spend three evenings at a certified hunter safety course. I envisioned myself a grandfatherly figure among a host of teen boys who had yet to apply shaving cream to their peach fuzz. However, I was mistaken in my preconception. Not only were there several others in my age bracket, but a goodly percentage of the students were of the feminine variety.
Erik Tellefsen of Port Henry eclipsed me by a few years, birthday-wise.
"We're all 14 inside," he commented.
How true.
"I'm not really a hunter anymore," he continued. "I'm mainly doing it for the sake of being with friends, and the price is right."
Like me, he hadn't hunted since the 1960s and lacked authentication.
Westport's Heide King had an ulterior motive for her certification.
"We have had a bear on our property and I have horses. The two cannot get along. I've never killed anything before. It's hard to overcome this. (But) we have a number of guns, and I want to know how to handle them. I was raised in Germany where they don't have the right to hunt. If you have that privilege and rights, you might as well use them."
Her husband, George, also took the course as a refresher.
SAFETY ADMONITIONS
"I've always liked to hunt," said 60-year-old Steve Noyes of Crown Point. "My wife was against it when we married 32 years ago. Now she's changed her mind. I originally had a license but let it expire and have lost it." Anyhow, he added, "I think that hunters should be required to take a refresher course."
Sure, the course clarified the difference between horns and antlers, and that Pyrodex as well as black powder can be utilized in muzzle loaders.
Mainly, though, the instructors stressed "safety, safety, safety."
And they showed us gory videos that depicted actual incidences of hunter mishaps. But as hunting-season news reports attest, not everyone heeds those admonitions.
Lack of common sense still surfaces from time to time, as witnessed by an ad on pages 18 and 19 of the 2009-2020 NYS DEC's hunting and trapping guide that depicts a deer hunter camouflaged in olive drab and carrying part of the deer carcass with antlers sticking out of his backpack.
It screams, "Shoot me!"
Due primarily to the insistence to detail by the instructors, the 50-question test was a breeze, and I aced it, as did several classmates. Now I am in possession of my New York State Lifetime Sportsman Hunting and Fishing License. Most likely I will fish. Whether or not I will hunt remains to be seen.
But who could pass up such a great deal?
E-mail Alvin Reiner at: rondackrambler@yahoo.com
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