CHANNING — The Sagola Township Sportsmen’s Club hosted a hunter education class on April 26, one of two the club conducts each year.

Thirty-three students left the training with their hunter safety certificate. The training was co-sponsored by Wildlife Unlimited of Dickinson County and many of the volunteer instructors are also members of that group.

Upon arrival, each student was checked in and assigned to one of three groups. Beginning at 8 a.m., each group was sent to a different location to train on a different platform.

Group A went to trap shotgun, Group B went to the rifle range, and Group C went to the indoor archery range. Each group spent 50 minutes at each station before transferring to the next.

Big Shooters youth shooting club members were assigned to manage members of the three groups. Alexander Erickson, Bo Glasheen and youth club President Kyra Clement each took their groups through the three stations for the day.

On the rifle range. shooters were instructed by Craig Nowak, Jon Hudson-Spencer and Brian Matthie. Shooters were given the opportunity to learn on various platforms. Some of the many choices were: scoped, open sight, lever action, bolt action, hinge action, pump action, and even suppressed rifles. Each participant started out engaging targets as close as 10 yards and would be challenged to finally engaging 9-inch targets at 100 yards.

The trap shotgun range had instructors Jason Glasheen and Thomas Taff teaching the safe use of 20 gauge shotguns. Some participants, because of size and age, declined to participate or shot a bare minimum of rounds. The majority that did participate enjoyed the thrill of busting clay targets.

Once the group was finished with trap shooting, instructor Tom Caylor presented his muzzleloader demonstration. Caylor taught the finer points of loading, transporting, and firing a muzzleloader safely.

The indoor archery range had veteran instructors Kala MacDonald and Sara Eloranta teaching both recurve and compound bow. New instructor Michael Fedrizzi worked with the archery students also. Shooters were challenged to shoot from ranges from 5 to 10 yards.

Many archery participants chose to shoot at the balloons that were set up on the various targets. The youth club’s top archery shooter, Jonas Eloranta, was used for demonstration throughout the day for an example of proper form and execution of perfect safety habits.

Once the range time was completed the Michigan Department of Natural Resources conducted the legal update briefing and also answered any questions the class had. Officers Jared Ferguson and Alex VanWagner presented on the law changes specific to this year and answered all questions.

After a short break, the class reviewed and then finished the 50-question written exam. Once every test was scored, hunter education certificates were handed out. The class concluded at 1 p.m.

A program like this would not be possible without the sponsors. Sagola Township Sportsmen’s Club and Wildlife Unlimited of Dickinson County have been longtime sponsors of the bi-annual hunter safety field day class.

Anyone interested in becoming certified as a Michigan Hunter Education instructor should contact coordinator Anthony Erickson at 906-396-1119.

The next hunter education field day will be on Aug. 9. Registration for that event will open on the Michigan DNR website on July 2.

To register for the upcoming field day, a student must first take, and pass, an approved Michigan DNR online class. For more, go to https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/education/hunter-rec-edu-safety.