AUBURN - In 1949, New York State led the charge in hunter safety, installing hunter safety courses, which have since become mandatory for hunters looking to procure their license.

This is something that the Falcon Sportsmen's Club has been an active supporter for many years, hosting numerous classes on hunting safety every year.

“The classes are done by instructors,” Mike Indelicato, secretary of the club, said. “They keep all the records and everything. We provide the place to have these classes. We've been hosting these for as long as I can remember.”

Indelicato said that two local instructors often lead the majority of safety classes, Tim Noga and Gary Snyder.

On Sept. 4, Noga will host an 11-hour session covering all the major bases of gun and hunting safety.

“The classes are already full,” Indelicato said. “In New York you have to have a safety certificate before you can get your license, so these classes fill up pretty fast.”

These classes draw a wide range of hunters, from experienced veterans to beginning teenagers.

“I get everybody,” Noga said. “There are people from 12- to 70-years-old. Safety is always important at all ages. You get guys who are looking to reevaluate their skills and learn more and you get the younger kids who are just getting started and need this to get their license to go out and hunt.”

Noga first began instructing a safety course 40 years ago.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” Noga said. “I wanted to give something back to the sport and for me this seemed like the right way to do. There is always something new to learn. When I started the class was two to four hours and then by the mid 80s it got to be about 10 hours and now it is generally 11 to 12 hours. There is always more and more you can learn about hunting safely and I think it has proven to be beneficial.”

Noga said that in hunting there is a very distinct difference between an accident and an incident.

The main distinction Noga said is that an incident is something that could be prevented with the right knowledge before going out into the field.

“The number of hunters we have has stayed stable since the 60s,” Noga said. “But we have one fifth the number of hunting incidents we had back then. I think that shows how much these kinds of classes have helped. Hunting is a very safe sport, you have to have the right knowledge before you go out into the field, but it is incredibly safe.”

Noga uses a variety of tools to teach students the fundamentals of gun safety.

Each class participant gets a safety and hunting rules and regulation guide along with a power point presentation and guest speakers like conservation officers.

These rules are increasingly important piece of information to pass along.

“There are limits for different animals,” Indelicato said. “And there are different times you can hunt different animals. And we want people to be able to kill an animal humanely and not leave it suffering. So it is important people have this information.”

But Noga said he does try to make it the kind of information people can readily absorb as well.

“We try to make it fun,” Noga said. “We try to make it interactive and interesting for everyone.”

But perhaps most importantly is the hands-on aspect of the course where students are asked to show their proficiency to handle a firearm safely.

Students are asked to work with a gun with a dummy round to show that they can handle the firearm, load and unload the weapon as well as aim it properly.

They are asked to work with other hunters handing the firearm off in a safe manner and conveying important information like how to activate the safety mechanism.

“We have three rules,” Noga said. “Always handle the gun like it is loaded, be sure of your target and beyond and always point the muzzle in a safe direction. These are probably the three most important rules and if you can't handle these you probably shouldn't be out in the woods.”

Anyone who can't show this proficiency is not issued a safety certificate and isn't allowed to get their license until they pass the course.

While these classes are mandatory they are often too few and far between with the number of instructors being very limited.

“We are always looking for new instructors,” Noga said. “There is a really high demand for these classes. Anyone can go on the DEC website and look at the information on what it takes to become and instructor. I think it is really a great way to give back to the sport a little bit.”

No classes have been schedule for certain beyond Sept. 4 but information can be found at www.dec.state.ny.us