The 1955 South Dakota legislature, acting in response to a rash of hunting accidents involving young hunters, enacted legislation requiring first-time hunters under the age of sixteen to complete a course in the "safe handling of firearms." The Department of Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) was authorized to set up and implement the course. Not surprisingly, the four-hour course was named the Firearms Safety Course and was almost exclusively about handling firearms safely. Many of the volunteer instructors recruited to teach the course were certified through the National Rifle Association (NRA) and NRA manuals and materials were purchased for use in the courses.

In the early 1970s, the program was expanded to six hours of instruction. Information about conservation, wildlife management, wildlife identification and an introduction to bowhunting was added to the curriculum. The name was changed to Hunter Safety Course.

The course was changed to a 10-hour minimum format in 1985. Topics added to the course at this time included the study of hunter ethics, responsibility plus personal health and safety. These changes were necessary to meet the requirements for GFP to receiving federal aid funding for hunter education.

South Dakota’s basic hunter education course, renamed the HuntSAFE course in 1999, continues to adjust and renew, meeting the challenges of our changing times. All HuntSAFE instructors volunteer their time and energy to help share South Dakota’s hunting heritage with a new generation of young hunters.

The safe handling of firearms and other hunting implements is as important as ever. However, the future of hunting itself may depend on how well all hunters understand our hunting tradition, the hunter’s role and relationship with wildlife and that hunter behavior is a factor in whether hunting as we know it will continue.

• Enacted by SD Legislature in 1955; first courses taught in 1956.
• Minimum of 10 hours of instruction is required, covering topics such as hunter ethics, hunter responsibility, wildlife identification, conservation, safe handling of firearms and personal safety.
• All program funding comes from license fees paid by sportsmen and women or through provisions of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Preservation Act of 1937. No state general fund tax money is used to fund HuntSAFE courses.
• Volunteer instructors schedule and teach local courses in conjunction with the local Wildlife Conservation Officer.
• Course curriculum and learning standards have been approved/adopted from the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA).
• Total number of students who have successfully completed a Firearms/Hunter Safety course since program inception is 227,281. (12/31/2006)