Ferriday — A handful of young bowhunters participated in the International Bowhunter Education Program at Hewitt’s Archery in Ferriday Saturday.

When the archers left Saturday evening, they left with their International Bowhunter Certification Card and knowledge on the ethics, safety precautions and equipment required to be a good bowhunter, instructor Homer Hewitt said.

Hewitt said his main goal was to emphasize the safety aspects of handling the equipment, tree stand safety and the ethical and humane way to harvest deer.

The daylong class had four students attend. The oldest was 22-year-old Brett Rivers from Baton Rouge.

“I’m just getting into bowhunting, and I just started shooting two weeks ago,” Rivers said.

Rivers said he has family in Natchez, and they told him about the class. He said he has been hunting for a while, but just now started getting into bowhunting. He wanted to take the class to learn the characteristics of a good bowhunter, he said.

“They have gone over safety, the history of bowhunting and the importance of ethics and making a good, clean shot,” Rivers said. “(I want my certification) just in case I do go somewhere where it’s needed. I’m doing it more for listening to people that have been doing it for a lot longer than me.”

Rivers said the lesson that stood out to him was you have to do the same thing every time on every shot.

“There are a thousand ways to shoot a bow, and you have to pick one,” he said

Rivers, who is a student at LSU and works for the U.S. Geological Survey, said he is already becoming a good archer on the range.

One of the younger students at the program was 10-year-old Hunter Anderson. Anderson’s grandfather Kary Lambert took the course in the late 90s and brought his grandson to learn about safety.

Anderson said he started shooting a bow a year ago.

Hunter Young from St. Joseph, La., and Jacob Pahnka from Natchez also attended the program.

Hewitt said it was nice to see young hunters attend the program.

“I think everyone I’ve got in there today is new,” Hewitt said. “I did a survey and there was no one that had ever harvested a deer with a bow. They are first-time hunters, and they are asking questions, that’s what we like.”

Hewitt emphasized shot ethics for bowhunters. To teach this, he had the students do an exercise in which they placed an arrow through a deer target. When the target was turned around, it was cut in half and it displayed all the vital organs of the deer inside. By doing this, the students could see if they would have had a clean shot and learn where an arrow needs to be placed to kill a deer humanely.

Hewitt said tree stand safety is a topic that is important to him, partly because he nearly took a fall himself.

“I fell out of a tree stand 10 to 12 years ago, and it actually hung me upside down by just my heal,” Hewitt said. “I was hanging 25 feet from the ground, and I was able to swing in, grab the tree, and to make a long story short, I didn’t get hurt.”

Hewitt gets help instructing the program from his brother-in-law Mel Riggs.

Riggs and Hewitt will host the educational program every two weeks during the summer. The next class is July 9. Classes are free.