Who needs hunter education
To be eligible for a Manitoba hunting licence, you must be 12 or older and hold a valid Manitoba Hunter Education Certificate or an equivalent from another province or state. All first-time licence buyers must be hunter education graduates.
Hunter education and a hunting licence are separate requirements: passing the course does not give you a licence. The Canadian Firearms Safety Course (for a PAL) is also separate, and it does not meet the hunter education requirement.
Course options
| Option | Details |
|---|---|
| Online | Self-paced course and exam for students 12 and older. You print your permanent card when you finish. |
| In-class | An eight-hour course with a certified instructor. Children under 12 must take this option. |
The course was built to standards set by IHEA-Canada and IHEA-USA, the hunter education associations. Students under 12 who pass the in-class course can receive an Apprentice Hunter Education Certificate (AHEC).
Youth hunting
| Age | What Manitoba allows |
|---|---|
| Under 10 | No hunting of game birds; no big game |
| 10 and 11 | Upland game birds, wild turkey and migratory game birds without a licence, with an AHEC and direct supervision by a licensed adult |
| 12 to 17 | Big game and other species without a licence under direct supervision of a licensed adult (no more than two youth per adult), or with their own licence |
| 12 and older | Can take the online course and buy a hunting licence |
Hunting within arm's reach of an adult with a firearms licence needs no extra course or federal firearms licence for the youth. Hunting without that supervision needs a Possession and Acquisition Licence or a minor's licence.
Hunter orange
Anyone hunting, dressing or retrieving big game or coyote, and anyone accompanying or helping them, must wear hunter orange.
- Outer garment: at least 2,580 square cm (400 square inches) of orange above the waist, visible from all sides. Orange camouflage is fine if the orange part meets this size.
- Hat: solid orange. A crest or logo up to 78 square cm is allowed if it does not cover the orange on that side. The brim does not need to be orange.
The hunter in orange is easy to see; the hunter in camouflage is not.
- Blaze-orange hat.
- Blaze-orange vest.
- A hunter in camouflage only, who blends into the trees.
Exemptions include bowhunters during archery seasons, black bear hunters in the spring season, and wolf and coyote hunters in areas where no other big game season is open. Bowhunters are encouraged to wear orange if a general season is open at the same time.
Hours, vehicles and roads
- Hours: firearms may be discharged from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. Manitoba uses permanent daylight saving time, so check that the sunrise and sunset times you use are correct.
- Vehicles: no loaded firearm in or on any vehicle, and no shooting from a vehicle. A rifle or shotgun with a live shell in the chamber, magazine or loading mechanism is loaded.
- Provincial roads and highways: no firearm or bow may be discharged from, across or along them, including the ditch.
- Municipal roads: centrefire rifles, muzzleloaders and shotguns with slugs may not be fired from, across or along public roads.
- Provincial parks: no hunting, loaded firearm or discharge within 300 metres of recreation areas, cottages, roads and certain trails.
When hunting in a group, each person shoots only into their own zone.
- Hunter 1 shoots only into the zone ahead and to the left.
- Hunter 2 shoots only into the zone straight ahead.
- Hunter 3 shoots only into the zone ahead and to the right.
Safety habits for the exam
Like every hunter education course in Canada, Manitoba's course stresses the basic firearm safety rules: assume every firearm is loaded, control the muzzle direction at all times, keep your trigger finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard, and see for yourself that a firearm is unloaded. Unload before crossing a fence or getting into a vehicle, and never shoot at sound, movement or colour.
Fall and winter hunts can turn cold quickly. Dress in layers of wool or synthetic fabric, carry a fire starter, whistle and emergency blanket, and leave a trip plan with someone who will call for help if you are late.
Meat, retrieval and reporting
You must make every reasonable effort to retrieve any animal you kill or injure. It is illegal to abandon or let spoil the edible meat of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose or caribou. The edible portions are the four quarters, back straps, loins, ribs and neck meat. Black bear and gray wolf are exempt, but hunters are encouraged to use the meat and fur.
Report poaching to Turn in Poachers at 1-800-782-0076. The province also asks hunters to stop hunting from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Remembrance Day, November 11.