Dear Pedro, I am extremely grateful for the Rifle Shooting and Fishing merit badges offered by the Boys Scouts. I work at a gun club and am on my school’s rifle team. The Shooting merit badge taught me safety rules so that I can keep myself and others safe when shooting, and it taught me basic rifle operations so that I can help a shooter with a problem. Before I earned the Fishing merit badge, I always had to get my dad to get my rod ready and to tie the knots. Now I can get my rod ready and can tie my own knots. I even taught my dad a few things. Now I’m looking forward to earning the Shotgun Shooting merit badge.
– Kyle S., Elizabethtown, Pa.
Those skills will last a lifetime, Kyle. We appreciate your story.
Pedro celebrates the 100th birthday of Boys’ Life magazine with this exclusive look behind the scenes of how the Boy Scouts’ monthly magazine is published. And don’t miss the last scene for a special bonus!
When I earned my shotgun merit badge, my troop had a merit badge counselor who connected part of the merit badge instruction along with the local state’s hunter safety program with which boys could register in the program. Upon completion of the Hunter Safety program, troop members could earn their Hunter Safety cards which will permit them to purchase their annual resident and non-resident Hunting permits in the states in which the boys would like to hunt upland game and large game wildlife.