2019 Hunter Ed Pheasant Hunt

This year’s 2019 Hunter Ed Pheasant Hunt was held on March 30th at the Limits Game Farm. There were 23 hunter ed students present this year. The first group, 10 students, started out at the Connell Gun Club with some clay bird shooting to warm the students up for their hunt. After clay bird shooting the first group went down to Limits Game Farm and were paired up with mentors and dog handlers and preceded to their hunting location. The second group of students, 13 students, arrived around 10 am at the Connell Gun Club and proceeded to shoot clay birds warming them up for their hunt. After the second group finished shooting clay birds, they went down to Limits Game Farm and were met by the first group of students coming back from their hunt. At that time all the students attended a “hunting clinic” put on by Aaron Garcia of WDFW. At the end of Aaron’s presentation, Sgt. Brian Fulton, WDFW game enforcement, spoke to the students about his role as a game enforcement officer. After the clinic everybody met in the main building and an awesome lunch was provided by Limits Game Farm and Pheasants Forever (PF). This year we had over 100 people eating. The chicken, Tri Tip, and all the fixings were attacked and nobody left the dining hall hungry. After lunch the second group of students were paired up with mentors and dog handlers and preceded to their hunt. Around 4:00 pm the afternoon hunters were back at Limits Game Farm with their harvest of birds. Over 300 pheasants were released for the two hunting groups. This year 100% of the students harvested a pheasant. A total of 61 pheasants were harvested. This is the first time we ever had 100% success by the students hunting. A lot of shooting was done by all the students and a lot of ammo was expended!

Special thanks goes out to several of the sponsors of this year’s hunter ed pheasant hunt:  McCary Meats for supplying Tri Tip, Ringold PF Chapter for purchasing and preparing the food, Connell Gun Club for providing the facilities and clay bird thrower, WDFW for putting on the hunting clinic and the enforcement officer for his presentation, Richland Rod and Gun Club for coordination and providing guns to those students that didn’t have one, Griggs Department Store in Pasco for the hunting ammunition and clay birds, Rick and Angie Conant for all the behind the scene help and providing the eye and ear protections, over 20 individuals who volunteered this year as either mentors or dog handlers, several PF volunteers who helped with the set up of the dining hall, did all the cooking, planted the pheasants, and showed the hunter ed students how to clean birds, and last but certainly not least Dave and Pam Piovesan of Limits Game Farm for all the help, coordination, facilities, and making sure this year’s hunter ed pheasant hunt was a success. Thanks to everybody!

Ron Ruth
Chief Hunter Ed Instructor
Richland Rod & Gun Club