WAUNAKEE, Wis. — Saturday marked one week until opening day of gun deer season.
Hunters of all ages and skill levels made their way to the Law Enforcement Training Center in Waunakee Saturday for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office’s Hunter Sight-In.
For hunter Trent Triggs, the sight-in is essential before heading out on opening weekend.
“For me, it’s important to be ethical,” Triggs said. “You know, I don’t want to go out there wounding animals. It makes more work for us and more suffering for them.”
Triggs has been hunting since he was 12 and said he is passionate about the sport. Hunters with less experience also took advantage of the service too.
BJ Byers has been hunting for about 10 years and said he’s hooked. He said he went to get his gun sighted-in to improve his chances on opening weekend.
“If I missed a deer, I want it to be my fault,” Byers said. “Not because I messed around with my gun and didn’t have it properly sighted-in.”
During the sight-in, hunters could meet with experts who watched them fire a few rounds and adjusted their sights as needed.
“They’ll just walk you through the process of what target to use, how many rounds to take, and they’ll make small adjustments as needed from there,” said Heidi Studnicka, a training deputy sheriff with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.
Studnicka said sighting-in your firearm before the season is essential, especially when it comes to keeping yourself and other hunters safe.
“When you’re out there in the woods, maybe you don’t know, maybe you’re on public land and you don’t know who is positioned where,” she said. “You want to know that when you take that shot at that deer that you are going to hit your target.”
Other things hunters need to stay safe include plenty of blaze orange or pink clothing, as well as taking a hunter safety course required by the state.
“Also that you know the terrain that you’re going to be hunting in,” Studnicka said. “You have a general layout of the land and you’re just cognizant of where you are shooting, what you are shooting at, and again, making sure that you know that deer is your target.”
Now that his gear is ready to go, Triggs said he’s looking forward to spending opening weekend with family.
“It’s peaceful out there,” he said. “It’s nice to wake up with the sunrise, with the birds chirping. It’s good to see animals moving. Just a passion I’ve had since I was young.”
Dane County’s Hunter Sight-In event will be held every day until Nov. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.