How to Become a Hunting Guide

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Officer Mike Roach, and I currently work with the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, and I'd like to talk to you briefly today about becoming a hunting guide, and some of the things that as a Conservation Officer Game Warden, we like to see in our hunting guides. Hunting guides need to be fairly knowledgeable of both all the wildlife and environmental laws, within the state that they're going to work. They also need to be able to apply and get the permits necessary to work on the National Forest or within the state that they're going to be hunting. They also need to be fairly honorable people, because a lot of what they do, requires them to be out in the field. They're not going to be checked a lot of the times, but they are responsible to maintain all the laws, and they're responsible for the people that they take out into the field. In some states, they require them to have both first aid training and life saving type training, because they are responsible for those people, that they take out into the field hunting. You need to also have a good knowledge of hunting and fishing, and how to take game legally, and responsibly. They also need to be fairly physically fit. It's a fairly demanding job, and you need to be able to talk to the public that you're working with, and hopefully, let them have the experience that they're paying the money to have. There is always that client-hunter relationship, and you need to be able to take care of these people, and do it in a legal manner. Being a hunting guide is very fun and enjoyable for most of our guides, and they spend their whole lives doing this, because they really enjoy hunting and fishing, and it's something they are very good at, and most of them will do them their whole lives, and they can become fairly successful at doing it, and it's very rewarding, and if you have an interest in doing this, I recommend that you contact one of your local guides in your area, and see if they need help. That's how most of them, do kind of an apprenticeship with other guides, and that's how they get their training, and that's how they develop their skills as a guide."