The Apprentice Hunter Validation Program serves as a short-term, one-time-only, exclusion to the regulations related to the hunter education firearms safety training requirements. As such it gives a person that qulaifies an opportunity to sample hunting for one season before they are required to complete a hunter education firearms safety training course.

The Texas Hunter Education Deferral Program is a hunter apprentice program that, when combined with other hunter education and youth hunting programs, is similar to the "Families Afield" programs of other states.

A deferral is a 'license' that can be purchased by a hunter 17 years of age or older to: 1) extend the time it takes him or her to find and successfully complete hunter education, or 2) to "give hunting a try" prior to choosing it as a way of life.

Hunter education is...