An accident couldn't stop him from hunting. Now he's Pa.'s top hunter-trapper educator
The new Pennsylvania hunter-trapper educator of the year proves that desire and effort pay off for those who want to enjoy the outdoors.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission this month recognized Scott Dibble of Susquehanna, near the Pennsylvania state line and about 26 miles from Binghamton, New York. Educators volunteer their time to provide the required training people need to buy hunting and trapping licenses.
Dibble, 43, has enjoyed hunting since he was a child. He learned from his father, Raymond Scott Dibble, about giving back and educating future hunters.
It makes sense that those lessons would stick; his father was a hunter-trapper education instructor for about 35 years until he died in 2020.
It also makes sense that Dibble would take up teaching hunter-trapper skills like his dad. “Seeing how much he really looked forward to the classes and seeing the people in the community come up, people who have taken the course years prior, thanking him for the things he taught them and sharing different stories about their hunting adventures," Dibble said.
Dibble started teaching about 20 years ago and is now recognized as the top instructor in the Northeast region and the state.
“It’s a huge honor. I personally really wish my father was with me to see that. He got it before for the region, but never at the state level,” Dibble said. “But I’m sure he’s very happy and impressed with me for doing it. Being able to achieve this honor wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t how good the students have been in courses over the years, great manners, very well behaved.”
Dibble said he's grateful for the support of the Canawacta Rod & Gun Club, in Susquehanna, which has provided snacks, lunches and club memberships for junior hunters over the years.
'It's a family passion'
State Game Warden Ben Rebuck nominated Dibble for the awards. “Hunter education instructors are responsible for teaching hunters, both new hunters and people who are going through later in life, the ethics and a little bit of the morals, but also mostly to ways they can hunt safely, so it’s a big burden,” Rebuck said in a telephone interview.
“One of the things that struck me first is that it’s a family passion,” he said about the Dibbles' instruction prowess. "Scott taught with his father for 17 of those 35 years. There’s a lot of pride in the family teaching hunter education, which made a big impression.”
Rebuck noted Dibble also got his nephew into teaching. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with three generations of Dibbles in teaching hunter education. So it’s something, really; it’s interesting, pretty neat.”
'I never looked back'
When Dibble was a teenager, in 1996, he was involved in a vehicular accident that changed his life. He uses a wheelchair and has found ways to get where he wants to be in the woods, and in life.
He drives a side-by-side UTV on a friend’s farm, a mobile hunting blind that he'll set up near a brush pile or tree line. He has camouflaged curtains that help conceal the unit, but he puts a blaze orange cone on top while hunting for visibility.
After the shot, he tries to recover the deer on his own when he can.
“Sometimes the deer end up passing away in areas where I can’t get to them, but for the most part I still try to take care of everything on my own" including field dressing. "I have no problem getting out of my side-by-side and sitting on the ground."
He and his mother, Dawn Dibble, butcher their own deer. “My mom has been great at coming out with and helping to track the deer and dragging them back out. The two of us work on every bit of it, we don’t use a deer processor. We take care of it all here.”
The first year after his accident, Dibble's doctor didn’t want him to use a high-powered rifle because of the potential effect on his back injuries. His father helped him learn to use a crossbow. “I never looked back. The two of us would go out and get set up in our stands. We did quite well with a crossbow. I filled my tags almost every year.”
As he healed he was able to start using a rifle again. “But I enjoy archery hunting, especially that time of year, so I still kept up with archery as well as hunting with a high-powered rifle.”
He’s always looked for workarounds to obstacles and had an interest in carpentry. Now he works in architectural drafting. “It’s been a great career for me,” he said about his work on frame designs for large mall entrances, skylights and windows.
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Teaching future hunters
Rebuck said he admires the dedication of volunteer instructors. In addition to getting the word out about the programs, they oversee classes that can be 6 to 8 hours plus set-up and tear-down time. “Some of my instructors drive an hour each way,” Rebuck said about the classes being held in the rural part of the state.
And so Dibble had to stand out among a group of standouts to win his honors.
“What stood out was how autonomous and driven he is," Rebuck said. "I’ve never had a hunter-education instructor who would take the time to make flyers and hang them up locally, not just stock ones and write numbers on them, but he would make flyers with pull tabs and using the ingenuity to develop QR codes that weren’t general, that just took you to the Game Commission’s website, but actually making QR codes directly to where you need to register for that very specific class.”
Classes have been as small as 10 and up to 35 students, but the numbers add up over the years. “It’s got to be a few hundred,” Dibble said about the graduates he’s had.
He likes when he’s in a store and a hunter who took his class comes up and tells him a story about their hunting season. “It’s great seeing these guys so happy and out there using what they were taught.”
With there being many designs for guns from bolt action, pump or semi-automatic, Dibble reminds the students to not be afraid to ask questions. “If somebody hands you a firearm you’re not familiar with, hand it back to them and ask them to explain it to you,” he said.
“Overconfidence is one of the biggest causes for accidents to happen. Looking at shooting-related incidents, most of the offenders are middle-aged to older men. We get relaxed and complacent with the handling of our firearms, and that’s when the accidents happen. You got to stick with your basic rules. Don’t forget them: Always check your action to make sure it’s open, always pay attention to which way the muzzle is pointed and one of the big things is knowing what’s beyond your target,” Dibble said.
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'There are workarounds. I'm proof of that'
He encourages others to get out and enjoy the wilderness.
“If you have physical limitations, there are workarounds. I’m proof of that. I’ve enjoyed hunting game through my entire life. Being in a wheelchair has not slowed me down one bit,” Dibble said.
Rebuck said Dibble inspires other people who have disabilities or physical challenges. “People who thought they would never hunt again see Scott, who is a successful hunter and regularly harvests deer, big game and small game, and seeing what Scott does in class, knowing what Scott can do in the field, inspires a lot of people.”
Regional honorees
The Pennsylvania Game Commission recognized the top hunter-trapper dducators of the year for each district.
The other honorees:
James Kirkpatrick, of Parker, representing the Northwest region. He is the HTE coordinator for Clarion County.
Mike Griffin, Mifflinburg, Northcentral. He has been an HTE instructor since 2014.
Erin Cunningham, Colver, Southwest. Has been an instructor since 2016.
Ben Halsted, Delta, Southcentral. Has been an instructor for 20 years.
Thomas Markward, Coatesville, Southeast. He has volunteered as an instructor for more than 35 years.
Register for a course
To register for a hunter-trapper education class, visit the Game Commission’s website, pgc.pa.gov, and look under the education tab. Click where you are asked if you are looking for hunter-trapper education course to be taken to a calendar where you can find a free in-person class near your home. There’s an online option, too. The online program costs $34.95.
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Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: PA Game Commission awards hunter-trapper educator of year honors
