2026 Hunter Ed Pheasant Hunt

This year’s 2026 Hunter Ed Pheasant Hunt was held on February 21st at the Limits Game Farm. There were 28 hunter ed students in attendance this year. This is the same number of students as last year! The first group, started out at the Connell Gun Club with some clay bird shooting to warm the students up for their hunt. I sure hope this warmed them up, it was 26°. After clay bird shooting the first group went down to Limits Game Farm and was given a safety briefing for the upcoming hunt then paired up with mentors and dog handlers and proceeded to their hunting location. The weather cooperated for us, sunny and cool.  The second group of 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 the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). At the end of Aaron’s presentation, the WDFW game enforcement officer Andrew Tusing spoke to the students about his role as a game enforcement officer and answered questions. After the clinic everybody met in the main building where an awesome lunch was provided by Limits Game Farm and Pheasants Forever (PF). This year we fed approximately 117 people. The chicken, Tri Tip, and all the fixings were attacked, and nobody left the dining hall hungry. After lunch the second group of students was given a safety briefing for their upcoming hunt and paired up with mentors and dog handlers and proceeded to their hunt. Around 4:00 pm the afternoon hunters were back at Limits Game Farm with their harvest of birds. WDFW provided funds for us to purchase 100 pheasants that were released for the two hunting groups. Almost all the student hunters got a bird, and all of them got to shoot at a bird. The record this year of most birds shot by a student was 5, and that was by two students! A lot of shooting was done by all the students, and a lot of ammo was expended! By my Kentucky windage I’d guess approximately 55-75% of the students harvested a bird!

Special thanks goes out to several of the sponsors of this year’s hunter ed pheasant hunt:  Ringold PF Chapter for purchasing and preparing the food, Connell Gun Club for providing the facilities and clay bird thrower, WDFW for  providing the funds to purchase the birds and guns for those that didn’t have one to hunt with, and to Andrew Tusing, enforcement officer, for his presentation,  Richland Rod and Gun Club for providing guns to those students that didn’t have one, and a very nice monitory donation, Griggs Department Store in Pasco for the hunting ammunition, and 1st Hunt Foundation for their liability coverage. Special thanks to Ashley Reser for helping with the check-in process, and Lilly Reser for handling all the shotgun check-out/check-in process. Over 25 individuals volunteered this year as either mentors or dog handlers, several PF volunteers who helped with the setting 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, a very special thanks to 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. Special thanks to y’all, because without everybody helping this event could not be put on and successful. Again, a special thanks goes out to all the volunteers, because without them we could not have a successful pheasant hunt. Thanks to everybody!

Ron Ruth
Chief Hunter Ed Instructor