Novice shooters had the opportunity to explore various shooting sports during the Provincial Hunting Day on September 27. The Alberta Hunters Education Instructors Association (AHEIA) hosted an annual event for beginners and youth at the Calgary Firearms Centre & Conservation Education Centre, located near DeWinton.

AHEIA instructors were present to guide participants with no prior experience in activities such as clay shooting, archery, fly tying, and building moose calls. AHEIA chairman Robert Gruszecki emphasized the importance of outdoor activities, stating, "Ultimately, hunting and the pursuit of any kind of bird or game animal in the outdoors gets people outside. So we want to make wildlife and wild places part of peoples’ value system."

The fourth Saturday of September was designated as Provincial Hunting Day in 2007 by then-Minister of Sustainable Resource Development Ted Morton, aiming to raise awareness about conservation and hunting education.

Heather Tomlinson attended the event, motivated by her interest in outdoor activities. "[It was] interest in hunting, fishing, outdoor stuff, and wanting to try different parts to it, like the guns, the archery — I really wanted to try that," she said. Originally from Preston, U.K., Tomlinson grew up in a family of sport shooters. She recalled her first experience with a 12-gauge shotgun as unpleasant, contrasting it with her recent training under AHEIA instructor Alison Doerkson.

"That kick surprised me and it was very unpleasant," Tomlinson said. "I didn’t know the steps to cradle the stock, and the way Alison described it just all made sense and I was able to put that into practice, so it didn’t have that same feeling at all."

Tomlinson noted that the instruction she received made a significant difference. "The difference here, especially with Alison for the trap shooting, was very helpful. It was woman-to-woman, so that makes a big difference," she said. "The way she explained it step-by-step, very simple and easy to understand, and the language she used in what we had to do with the gun took away some of the daunting aspects of it."

Tomlinson is now considering participating in other AHEIA programs, including the Outdoor Women’s Program at Alford Lake, which takes place over five days in August. This program offers instruction in fly fishing, archery, canoeing, firearms basics, and field dressing.

Doerkson, one of the instructors for the program, expressed her commitment to empowering women in outdoor activities. "To me, it’s seeing women have the self-esteem and the empowerment to come out and feel they’re equal to the men and can participate equally and have fun," she said. "I feel women do respond quite well to other women. We hold the guns differently, we have different postures, and I understand that, so I use lots of visuals to describe."

For more information on AHEIA’s educational programming, interested individuals can visit their website.