Long time reader, first time poster. I really appreciate all of the great pointers and stories I see here and in the magazine. I searched but couldn’t find a thread that addresses my issue so my apologies if this has been answered a bunch of times. To get to my dilema:

I have only ever hunted in Illinois and Missouri (I live in STL) and neither state requires (or offers as far as I can tell) a specific bowhunting safety course; here we only need the general safety course. I was recently invited by a friend from work to hunt with him in his home state of New York. I was looking today at getting tags and if I want to hunt with a bow in that state they require you to have taken a bow specific safety class. I looked at http://www.nbef.org/ and they offer courses online but they still require a “field day” in the state through which the course is taken. I am hoping that some of you folks that have more experience travelling to hunt could help me out with this requirement. I should stress that I am more than happy to take the course, I just don’t want to have to travel really far to do it. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

While I am posting, I will go ahead and ask another question about dealing with the cold I expect to encounter in Upstate New York. When hunting out of a tree stand I generally prefer to use my Quinn Stallion. My concern is that the metal riser will freeze my hands in super low temps. Is this a legitimate concern? Thanks again!