Outdoor Wednesday … Outdoor Education.

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday Y’all … Susan at A Southern Daydreamer is our lovely hostess for the fun weekly blog party.. Make sure you drop by and show her and all those participating a lil bloggy love.

This week I’m going to share with y’all an Outdoor Adventure Show & Tell.. I have mentioned several times here about my husband Jeff and his passionate love of all things relating to Nature and the Wild Outdoors. Jeff is a certified Hunters Education Instructor, and He teaches Hunters Education here in Georgia. Earlier this month he was teaching at the Georgia FFA Wildlife Camp. He was only there a week.. He had to get back to his money making job here at home..  but Ashley went for 2 weeks. 

  

The above college shows a few of the different groups attending.. There were 6 groups in all the first week that he was there. That’s Jeff there in the center.

• Orange O’possums
• Silver Snakes
• Pink Panthers *the only girl group*
• Green Geckos
• Blue Bears
• Yellow Yaks

This next photo is the one and only non outdoor photo.. but I wanted to share this guy. This is Jeff’s buddy, Steve Struggs sitting there beside him. If that name doesn’t sound familiar.. maybe you’ve heard him called by his other name.. “The Snake Master”.  If you have school age children chances are they know him and have seen one of his shows at their school. Steve has traveled throughout Georgia and the Southeast teaching kids for the last 12 years.

   

First up: An Outdoor Class Room.. The Rifle Range.

 

Inside that class room:

• Before any child touches a rifle or shotgun they are first taught the safety and operation of each of the firearms.
• Wilderness Survival is taught.
• Primitive fire starting.
• Building and making a shelter.
• Water purification.

The instructor takes the class on a blood trail field trip.. On this trail they are shown and taught first hand the safe way to cross a fence with a firearm… as you’ll see in the next 2 photos.

 

The red spot you see below is an mock of a blood trail that they are following. At each spotting of blood they are to put an orange flag to make the spots easily spotted if needed to trackback.

Each kid is shown and gets a turn at practicing the proper and safe way to cross a fallen tree with a firearm.

 

They are taught the safe way to approach an animal.. in case they haven’t fully expired. This protects them from being injured by the kicking or charging animal.

 

Here an Instructor is shooting an assault rifle.. a Remington R25… as part of a safety demonstration.

He fired from 150 yards away to show them the distance a bullet can and will travel.

He was shooting at the larger wall and another target you see in the background.

This is one of those targets he was shooting at.. it’s a half inch thick solid steel plate. Lesson taught here was that even fired from 150 yards away a bullet will penetrate steel and cause damage.

This is a mock wall demonstration…which he also fired upon from 150 yards away.  It shows the students what can happen if a careless shot enters a house wall.

This mock wall is actual width of a standard home wall.

The photo below is the backside of that wall showing where the bullet penetrated.

 

Each of the Students are sized to the shotguns. Meaning that they check and measure each of their arms for length.. can’t be shooting a bigger gun than you can handle.

 

Here’s Ashley being instructed just before stepping up to shoot.

 

She is being taught the proper hold and stance when preparing to fire.

Time to shoot some clay pigeons..

Ashley’s a lefty, so she shoots left handed… Here she is shooting at a clay target.. it’s that lil tiny orange dot located just under the words clay target on the photo. She’s definitely her Daddy’s girl! 

She’s a natural..

The Archery Range:

• Each child is taught safety and basics of Archery.

Ashley is a natural at this also and has completed both basic an advance classes in Archery.. in fact she is working with an Olympic Coach each Saturday on toning her skills… She loves it! 

 

It wasn’t all classes all the time.. at night the kids got to experience all types of fun activities. Ashley had the time of her life those 2 weeks.. and she’ll be back next year for a whole month as a Junior Counselor. As for Jeff.. he’ll miss the outdoor classes.. because it’s back to teaching inside for the month of August.

   

For information about the FFA Wildlife Camp for the Summer of 2010 you can contact the Wildlife Camp’s website by clicking here.

 

If you have a child or know of any that need to take the Hunters Education Safety Class in Georgia.. You can visit the Georgia Department of Natural Resources website to learn where and when classes are being offered by clicking here. 

 

Thank You for joining me today for my lil show & tell Outdoor Wednesday.. Please check out Susan and all the others participating today by clicking the button below.

Happy Wednesday Y’all… Hugs, Debbie