Hunter Education

Shooting Range Certification Course 

Des Moines County Conservation's Big Hollow Recreation Area is home to a 25, 50, 100, and 300 meter outdoor shooting range. To use the shooting range, you must attend our Shooting Range Certification Course. There is no cost for the course, however, a yearly membership fee of $25 per individual or $30 per family is required to use the range. Classes are offered every few months at Starr's Cave Nature Center. For more info on available classes or if you have shooting range questions, contact the main office at (319) 753-8260.

Hunter Safety

DMCC offers a Hunter Safety Course in the fall and spring. As required by Iowa law, anyone born after January 1, 1967 is unable to obtain a hunting license unless they have satisfactorily completed a hunter safety education course approved by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. A person who is eleven years of age or older may enroll in an approved hunter safety education course. A person who is eleven years of age and who has successfully completed the course shall be issued a certificate of completion, which becomes valid on the person's 12th birthday. A certificate of completion from an approved hunter safety education course issued in this state since 1960, by another state, or by a foreign nation, is valid for the requirements of obtaining a hunting license.

A certificate of completion shall be issued to anyone satisfactorily completing a minimum of ten hours in an approved hunter safety and ethics education course. Youngsters must have a certificate showing they have completed a hunter education course to purchase an Iowa hunting license.

Included in the training will be gun safety, information about firearms and ammunition, the role of the hunter and hunting, wildlife management and conservation, responsibilities of the outdoorsman, outdoor ethics, hunter preparedness, wildlife identification, and field training.

Those successfully completing the course will receive a Hunter Education Certification Card from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Such certification is mandatory before a hunter can hunt in most of the United States and in Canadian provinces.

Registration is required for this course and there is a limit of 50 people. After DMCC announces it is holding a Hunter Safety Course, registering early is recommended as the courses fill quickly. There is a $5.00 fee to cover the materials used in the course. Registration will be done online at www.iowadnr.gov/training; once there, enter "Burlington" as the class search criteria. For questions, contact Chris Lee of Des Moines County Conservation at (319) 572-1564.