Each year, approximately 600,000 people graduate from hunter education programs

Though only 5 never intended to hunt, nearly 40 percent will never purchase a license (SAF ihea 2021). This supports statements that the oram model decision to continue stage is a critical point. This project will build on recent SAF ihea hunter education research and WMI mentoring research to scientifically identify how states and ngos mentoring programs can convert a higher percentage of graduates into confident, independent hunters and consistent license buyers. Targeted insights include identifying the factors and barriers causing new hunters to hesitate and what they need to overcome these barriers.up to four states in each afwa region will be recruited to identify new hunters who: 1) enrolled in mentoring programs, 2) continued with or without additional mentoring support, and 3) had benefited from multiple types of mentoring opportunities before gaining confidence to continue independently. These states will be engaged to help identify topics and points to explore. To maximize state s use, results will be presented in a succinct, visual format and shared directly with each state, via ihea and R3 community websites and webinars, and at regional and national R3 meetings. The final deliverable will help states convert thousands of mentoring and hunter education graduates into independent hunters and consistent license buyers.