Hunters GuideNew Brunswick · NBHE
New Brunswick Hunter Education Practice Exam
New Brunswick's online hunter education final is a 50-question multiple choice and true or false test, and the province publishes no pass mark. 60 practice questions, 6 topics, every answer explained.
New Brunswick Hunter Education Practice Exam: all 60 questions
1. You have just passed the exam, and a neighbour with forty seasons behind him offers to take you out for deer this fall. How does the manual expect you to see that offer?
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As the next stage of your education, since the course lays the foundation and time with a mentor builds judgement on top of it
Say yes. The course can show you what a wounded animal's blood looks like. What it can't give you is the patience to wait forty minutes before following it, and that's what a mentor passes on. Hunter education starts in a classroom and runs as long as you hunt: through people like your neighbour, through your own mistakes, through reading and practice between seasons. A certificate says you know the basics. It doesn't say you're finished.
2. The student manual you'll study for the New Brunswick course wasn't produced by New Brunswick alone. Which governments developed it together?
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New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador
Four Atlantic provinces put this manual together, and it was published in New Brunswick. Why should you care? Some of the species and situations in the book belong to Newfoundland and Labrador, woodland caribou and ptarmigan for instance, so don't assume every animal you read about lives in New Brunswick woods. The lessons on ecology, ethics, navigation and survival hold everywhere in the region.
3. Which subject does the Hunter Education (Part B) manual NOT teach as a lesson of its own?
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Loading, unloading and safe handling of firearms
Firearm handling belongs to Part A, the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, and the Hunter Education manual doesn't repeat it. Its firearms content is narrow. Choosing a suitable firearm and cartridge, sighting in, shooting technique, where to place the shot. If you're hunting for a chapter on actions and loading here, you've picked up the wrong book.
4. The course aims to produce hunters who are safe, responsible and knowledgeable. Which of these scenes shows the knowledgeable part in action?
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A hunter lets a flock pass because he can't tell the hen from the drake in poor light
Only one of the four depends on knowing something about wildlife, though all of them are good habits. Telling a hen from a drake, a spruce grouse from a ruffed grouse, or a doe from a button buck is the knowledge side of the course. It's why the manual carries such a long identification section. The fence crossing is safety. The thank-you is responsibility, and the socks are survival planning.
5. A classmate complains that the course spends more pages on ecology, ethics and survival than on shooting. What's the reasoning behind that balance?
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The future of hunting depends on healthy wildlife populations and public acceptance, not only on avoiding accidents
Accidents started the course, but they aren't the only thing that can end hunting. Wildlife nobody manages disappears. Hunters the public sees as careless or cruel lose their access and their support. So the pages go where the long-term threats are. You'll learn to shoot well elsewhere; here you learn why there's still something to hunt, and why people let you do it.
6. An abandoned New Brunswick hayfield grows up through raspberry and alder, then young poplar, and finally a closed stand of spruce and fir. Woodcock and grouse were thick in the early years but thin out as the trees close in. Which ecological idea explains the whole sequence?
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Succession
Succession, the orderly march from bare ground to mature forest. Every stage suits a different crowd. Woodcock and grouse want the brushy early years, snowshoe hare loves thick young softwood, and marten or spruce grouse do better once the stand matures. Nothing went wrong when the birds thinned out; the habitat just moved on without them. That's why managers sometimes cut or burn to set the clock back.
7. White-tailed deer in New Brunswick sit near the northern edge of their range. A biologist says the herd is limited far more by winter than by summer. What does she mean?
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Deep snow and cold cut off food and movement, so the mature softwood shelter available in winter sets the number that survive to spring
She means winter is the bottleneck. A population is held down by whatever is scarcest at the toughest time of year. Deer here bunch up in mature softwood, where the canopy catches snow and blocks wind, and if those wintering areas are scarce or get cut, the herd shrinks no matter how lush the summer was. Think of a chain that's only as strong as its weakest link. Winter is the link.
8. After a successful moose hunt, a biologist asks you for one of the animal's front teeth. What does that tooth tell the department?
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The animal's age, which builds up a picture of the population's age structure
Its age. Slice a moose incisor thin enough and you can count growth rings in the root, one per year, a lot like a tree. Do that for hundreds of animals and you learn whether the herd is mostly young, mostly old or nicely spread out, which says plenty about how it's doing. It's monitoring, one of the quieter tools of wildlife management. And it only works when hunters take part.
9. A duck hunter and a wildlife photographer both spend October mornings on the same New Brunswick marsh. What term describes the photographer's use of the wildlife there?
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Non-consumptive use
Non-consumptive, because the photographer takes nothing away. The hunter removes a bird, so that's consumptive use. Both are legitimate wildlife values, and both lean on the same healthy marsh. Remember that shared interest. The photographer is often the person deciding whether hunting seems reasonable, and hunters have long put their own money into the wetlands the photographer enjoys.
10. Your grandfather says there were hardly any deer or wild turkeys left in eastern North America a century ago. What does the manual call the practice most responsible for that collapse?
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Market hunting
Killing wildlife in bulk to sell the meat, hides and feathers had a name: market hunting. Through the 1800s it emptied woods and marshes, and it pushed the passenger pigeon over the edge for good. Modern wildlife management grew out of that disaster. The system you're joining rests on one idea, that wildlife is held in trust for everyone rather than sold by whoever gets there first.
11. A hunter who used to count the day by how many birds she brought home now cares far more about working her setter through good cover and taking only a clean flush over a point. Which behaviour stage has she reached?
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Technique stage
The technique stage. The course lays out five: shooter, limiting-out, trophy, technique, and finally mellowing-out, where the whole experience counts for more than the outcome. Not everyone passes through every one. Knowing they exist, though, helps you read your own motives on a slow day.
12. How does a hunter's personal code of ethics differ from the written rules of hunting?
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Ethics govern the choices the rules leave up to you, and they hold even when nobody is watching
Rules set the floor. Ethics cover everything above it, all the moments no rulebook reaches: the long shot you could take, the wounded animal you could quit looking for, the gate you could leave open since nobody would know. A personal code is the standard you keep when the only witness is you, which is also why the manual asks you to write your own.
13. A landowner in Carleton County let you hunt his woodlot this fall. Which habit is most likely to earn you a welcome back next year?
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Stop by after the hunt, tell him what you saw, and mention the fence you found down
Go see him. Face to face beats a note every time. Tell him what you saw, mention the fence that's down, ask where he'd rather you didn't drive, and offer him a share of the meat. Small things, but they're what a landowner remembers when the next stranger asks. Bringing extra friends without asking does the opposite, and parking in the lane just blocks his morning.
14. A friend posts a photo online of his deer with its tongue hanging out and blood pooled across the tailgate. Why does the manual treat this as a hunting problem and not just a matter of taste?
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The image of hunters shapes whether the public keeps tolerating hunting at all
Most people never hunt, so what they know about it comes from what they see. A gory tailgate shot lands on the phone of someone who never asked for it. Multiply that by a few thousand and you've got the public mood that decides whether hunting stays acceptable. Wipe off the blood, tuck in the tongue, and let the photo show a hunter who respects what he took. Same deer. Very different message.
15. Your rifle is sighted in at 100 metres and that's the farthest you've practised. A buck feeds across a cut at what you guess is 350 metres. What's the ethical call?
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Pass on the shot, because a quick clean kill is unlikely at a distance you haven't proven
Let it feed. You owe that buck a fast, clean death, and at three and a half times the farthest you've ever shot, you can't promise one. You'd be guessing the range, the drop and the wind, and if any one guess is off you've got a wounded deer. Close the distance if the wind and ground allow. If they don't, there's another day. Respect for wildlife shows most clearly in the shots you don't take.
16. You leave a note on the kitchen table that reads: gone hunting, back Sunday night. What's missing that a search party would need?
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Where you'll be, how you'll get there, what you're driving, and when to call for help if you're not back
Back Sunday night gives nobody a place to start looking. A real hunting plan names the area and your route in, describes the vehicle and where it'll be parked, lists who's with you, and sets a firm time after which the person holding the plan calls for help. Write it down. Leave it with someone who'll actually act on it, because searchers with a plan in hand find people in hours, and without one they may not find them at all.
17. It's mid-afternoon in November and you admit to yourself that you're lost. Put these actions in the order the manual would have you take them: (1) signal for help, (2) stop and stay calm, (3) build a shelter, (4) take stock of what you're carrying.
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2, 4, 3, 1
Stop first. Sit down, breathe and let the panic pass, since the people who get hurt are the ones who keep crashing through the woods after dark. Next, empty your pockets and pack to see what you've really got. With November daylight fading, shelter and a fire come before anything else. Signals go up once you're warm and dry. Mental self-control is the first survival skill, and everything else follows from it.
18. Before stepping off a woods road into thick spruce, a partner points out that the road runs roughly east to west behind you and you'll be hunting north of it. What navigation technique is he setting up?
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Using the road as a baseline, so a compass bearing back to the south will always return you to it
He's making the road a baseline. Any long feature works: a road, a river, a power line. As long as you know you're north of it, walking south on the compass has to bring you back to the road somewhere, and then it's only a matter of turning the right way for the truck. Simple insurance against getting lost, and it still works with dead GPS batteries. Note the baseline before you leave it, not after.
19. After a long, windy sit on a January stand, your partner's cheek shows a waxy white patch and he says it has gone numb. What is the right field treatment?
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Warm it gently with a bare hand or other skin contact, then keep it from freezing again
Early frostbite, and it wants gentle warmth from skin rather than friction or a fire. Rubbing, especially with snow, grinds ice crystals through the tissue and does more harm than the cold did, while a fire can burn skin that can't feel it. Cup a warm hand over his cheek until colour comes back, then cover it and get him out of the wind. One more thing: if the spot can't be kept warm afterward, don't thaw it, because a refreeze is far worse than staying frozen until you reach shelter.
20. Your canoe swamps on a cold October lake. You're wearing a flotation device, the shore is too far to swim, and your partner has gone for help. What should you do with your body while you wait?
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Draw your knees up, hold your arms tight across your chest, and keep your head out of the water
Get into the HELP position (heat escape lessening posture). Cold water pulls heat fastest from the groin, armpits, sides of the chest and head, so tuck those in and stay as still as you can. Treading water feels useful. It isn't. It pumps warm blood out to your limbs and shortens your survival time. When several people are in the water together, they huddle chest to chest instead, for the same reason.
21. In New Brunswick, magnetic north sits roughly 17 degrees west of true north. Your map shows the camp lying due east, a true bearing of 90 degrees. What bearing do you set on the compass to walk there?
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107 degrees
Add the declination. Your compass needle points to magnetic north, which is swung 17 degrees west of where the map's grid says north is, so every bearing taken off the map reads 17 degrees higher on the needle. Ninety plus seventeen is 107. Get it backwards and two kilometres later you're roughly 600 metres from camp, in spruce, at dusk. Declination also drifts a little each year, so check the current figure instead of trusting an old map's margin.
22. You've turned the bezel of your baseplate compass to 107 degrees. What do you do next to actually walk that bearing?
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Turn your body until the red end of the needle sits inside the orienting arrow, then follow the direction-of-travel arrow
Turn yourself, not the bezel. Hold the compass flat at waist height, away from your rifle barrel and anything else made of steel, and rotate until the red end of the needle sits boxed inside the orienting arrow in the housing. Now the direction-of-travel arrow on the baseplate points where you're going. Pick a tree or rock on that line, walk to it, repeat. The needle tells you where north is; the baseplate arrow tells you where to walk. People mix those two up and head the wrong way all the time.
23. On a shallow Grand Lake cove you watch a group of ducks tip tail-up to feed on the bottom, and when startled they spring straight off the water into flight. Which group are they?
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Dabblers
Dabblers. Tipping up to feed and leaping straight into the air are their signatures. Mallards, black ducks, teal and wood ducks all work the shallows that way, and because their legs sit near the middle of the body they can push off from a standstill. A diver's legs are set far back for swimming underwater. That's why divers run along the surface to get airborne, and why they go right under to feed instead of tipping. Watch the take-off and the feeding style and you'll sort the two groups from a long way off.
24. In a wet black spruce stand a grouse lets you walk within a few metres without flushing. It has a bright red comb over each eye and a black throat and breast edged in white. Which bird is it?
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Spruce grouse
A male spruce grouse. The red eye comb, the black bib trimmed in white and, above all, the tameness give it away: ruffed grouse explode out of cover, spruce grouse mostly sit and stare. A ruffed grouse is mottled brown or grey, with a crest, black ruffs on the neck, and a fan tail with a dark band near the tip. The two birds live in different cover. And a hunter who can't name the bird in front of him has no business shooting it, so identify first, then decide.
25. A bull moose walks out of the alders and stops 80 metres away, facing you squarely head-on. Experienced hunters usually wait rather than shoot at this angle. Why?
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The frontal presentation offers a narrow vital area shielded by heavy bone and brisket, so a broadside or quartering-away angle is far more reliable
Head-on, you're looking at a small target tucked behind the brisket, the shoulder joints and a lot of heavy bone. Miss by a few centimetres in any direction and you've wounded an animal that can travel a long way. So give him a moment. A moose that's just stepped out will usually turn, and broadside or quartering away opens up the whole heart and lung area behind the shoulder. Patience right then is what separates a short recovery from a long, ugly tracking job.
26. A New Brunswick deer hunter buys a camouflage orange jacket and a matching camouflage orange hat for the fall season. Which of the two items fails the province's hunter orange clothing rule?
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The hat, because the hat must be solid fluorescent hunter orange even though the jacket or vest may be camouflage orange
The hat. New Brunswick's summary allows solid or camouflage fluorescent hunter orange for the jacket or vest, but the hat has to be solid fluorescent hunter orange. It's the part of a hunter most likely to show over brush, a rock or the edge of a blind, and the province wants that one item unmistakable. Jacket and hat both need to be visible from all directions. Logos, decals and a non-orange peak don't spoil an otherwise solid orange hat, so a plain orange one with a brand patch on the front is fine. The camo hat? Back in the closet until small game season.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, General Regulations, Hunter Orange Clothing:
must wear a solid or camouflage fluorescent hunter orange jacket or vest and a hat of solid fluorescent hunter orange
Checked 2026-09-21.27. A New Brunswick hunter shuts off his ATV on a woods road, stays seated on it, and leaves his loaded shotgun across the rack while he glasses a cutover. He figures the loaded firearm rule only applies to a vehicle that is moving. Is he right?
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No, a loaded firearm may not be carried in or on any vehicle, including an ATV, even when it is stationary or parked, and that includes a rack attached to it
No. New Brunswick's summary closes every loophole he's counting on. Carrying a loaded firearm in or upon any vehicle is unlawful, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles included, even when the vehicle is stationary or parked, and that extends to any structure attached to it, such as a trailer, rack or platform. Engine off changes nothing. Neither does staying seated. A shotgun on the rack is on the vehicle. The reasoning is simple: a vehicle is a shooting platform that can move, and firing from or near one is both dangerous and the classic signature of road hunting. Step off, then load.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, General Regulations, Firearms:
It is unlawful to carry a loaded firearm in or upon any vehicle, including all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles, even when the vehicle is stationary or parked.
Checked 2026-09-21.28. A New Brunswick hunter checks the sunrise time for his location and wants to know how early he can legally start hunting, and what he must do with his rifle before that. What does the Hunt and Trap summary say?
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Hunting is permitted from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset, and firearms must be cased at all other times
Legal hunting time in New Brunswick runs from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. There's one exception, night raccoon hunting under a special permit. Outside that window the summary requires firearms to be cased, and the province counts bows and crossbows as firearms for this. The homework falls on the hunter as well. Finding the actual sunrise and sunset times for the date and place you're hunting is your responsibility, and the summary points to the National Research Council's sunrise calculator as one way to do it. Picture a rifle cased in the truck until the legal minute arrives; that's what the rule has in mind.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, General Regulations, Hunting Times:
Hunting is permitted only during the period from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset (exception: night raccoon hunting under special permit). Firearms (guns, bows, crossbows) must be cased at all other times.
Checked 2026-09-21.29. Walking a woodlot boundary in New Brunswick, a hunter notices yellow painted bands around trees at regular intervals. What is the landowner telling him?
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Hunting, shooting, trapping and snaring are allowed here by permission only
Yellow means ask. New Brunswick landowners can post land with printed word signs, coloured disks or painted bands, and the colour carries the message. Yellow disks or yellow painted bands: hunting, shooting, trapping or snaring by permission only. Red: those activities are prohibited to any person, the landowner included. So yellow isn't a stop sign. It's an invitation to go find the owner and ask. The summary also reminds hunters that unposted private land deserves the courtesy of a request too, and that tearing down, defacing or covering up any posted sign, disk or band is illegal.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, General Regulations, Posting of Land:
Yellow disks or yellow painted bands indicate that hunting, shooting, trapping or snaring is allowed by permission only.
Checked 2026-09-21.30. Your sister was born in 1996 and has never hunted. She wants to hunt deer with a rifle in New Brunswick this fall. What training does the province require of her first?
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The Canadian Firearms Safety Course and the Hunter Education Course
Both courses: the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and Hunter Education. New Brunswick draws the line at January 1, 1981, requiring both of every gun hunter born on or after it, and of every first-time gun hunter. The firearms course covers safe handling; Hunter Education covers the rest.
Source: Government of New Brunswick, Hunter Education Requirements:
In New Brunswick all gun hunters born on, or after, Jan. 1, 1981, and all first-time gun hunters must complete the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and the Hunter Education Course.
Checked 2026-09-30.31. A neighbour born in 1972 has held New Brunswick gun licences for years but never took a hunter education course. What can he use to show he qualifies to keep hunting?
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A previous hunting licence, as proof of hunting experience
His old licence. The province accepts a previous hunting licence as proof of experience from gun hunters born before January 1, 1981 who aren't first-time hunters. It's a rule about experience, so it only works because he's hunted before. A federal firearms licence is a separate document and doesn't stand in for hunter education.
Source: Government of New Brunswick, Hunter Education Requirements:
Gun hunters who were born before Jan. 1, 1981, who are not a first-time hunter, may show a previous hunting licence as proof of hunting experience.
Checked 2026-09-30.32. You passed hunter education in Ontario and have just moved to Moncton. Does New Brunswick make you take its own course before you can hunt with a gun here?
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No, firearms safety and hunter education certificates from other provinces are valid in New Brunswick
No. New Brunswick recognizes firearms safety and hunter education certificates from other provinces, the territories and the US, so your Ontario card does the same job in Moncton. Bow hunting is different. It needs its own bow course.
Source: Government of New Brunswick, Hunter Education Requirements:
Firearms Safety/Hunter Education certificates from other provinces, territories and the United States are valid in New Brunswick.
Checked 2026-09-30.33. The Part B manual opens by noting that more than 35 million students have finished hunter education in Canada and the US since 1949. What does it say those courses have done?
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Helped cut hunting incidents and deepened hunters' sense of their responsibilities
It cut hunting incidents sharply, says the manual, and left graduates with a better grasp of the duties they take on when they buy a licence. That second part is why the course doesn't stop at safety. It spends time on ethics and law too.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 1, Introduction to hunter education:
These courses have contributed to a significant decrease in hunting incidents and an increased understanding of the responsibilities each hunter accepts when purchasing a hunting licence.
Checked 2026-09-30.34. The Part B course ends with a classroom exam. According to the manual's introduction, where does the real test of what you learned take place?
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In how you behave when you are out hunting
Out there, in how you behave. The classroom exam checks your knowledge and skill, and the manual hopes you'll leave with a code of conduct you carry into the woods. Your behaviour afield is what it calls the ultimate test. Nobody is grading you there.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 1, Introduction to hunter education:
The ultimate test for this is how you behave when afield.
Checked 2026-09-30.35. On Grand Manan, archery hunters may take an antlerless deer that does not count against their deer limit on the mainland. What is this special hunt meant to do?
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Keep the island's deer herd from growing past what its habitat can support
Grand Manan is the manual's example of hunting used as a management tool. Deer on the island can build up past what the land can feed. An extra archery harvest of antlerless deer keeps the herd in balance, and the habitat gets protected along with it.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 2, Hunting and conservation:
This additional opportunity to hunt deer on Grand Manan serves to regulate the deer population there, thus preventing over population.
Checked 2026-09-30.36. A New Brunswick trapper notices that lynx numbers crash a year or two after the snowshoe hare population crashes, and the whole pattern repeats about once a decade. What does the manual call this?
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A cyclic population
A cyclic population. Lynx eat almost nothing but snowshoe hare, so their numbers track the hare's, booming and busting on a cycle of about 10 years with the lynx one or two years behind. Why the lag? When hares get scarce, fewer young lynx survive and females breed less.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 2, Carrying capacity:
Both populations follow a 10-year cycle of boom and bust.
Checked 2026-09-30.37. Beavers plug a culvert under a woods road and the backed-up water washes the road out. Which category of wildlife does the manual place these beavers in?
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Nuisance wildlife
Nuisance wildlife: animals that do damage, or are about to, to crops, livestock or property. The manual uses this very case, a beaver plugging a culvert and harming a road. Put the same kind of animal on a trapline, though, and it falls in another group, as a furbearer.
38. Wildlife agencies often let any licensed hunter take a buck but limit how many permits they issue for does. Which management idea does limiting the doe harvest support?
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Selective harvest, which protects the adult breeding females in the herd
Selective harvest. Licences tied to the sex of the animal let managers put the emphasis on protecting the adult, breeding females. Spare those and the herd stays healthy, and hunters still get the largest total harvest it can give.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 2, Compliance (Laws):
The emphasis is on protecting the adult, breeding, female segment of the herd.
Checked 2026-09-30.39. Grouse numbers in a cover drop sharply, and by late October most hunters have quit it for other spots. Which principle does the manual say, along with the regulations, keeps a thinned-out population from being overharvested?
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The law of diminishing returns
As a population drops, the birds left get warier, more spread out and harder to find. Finding game takes more and more effort, so most hunters lose interest and move on. That's the law of diminishing returns. Along with the regulations, it keeps hunters from wiping out a thin population.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 2, Hunting and trapping:
The “Law of Diminishing Returns”, coupled with wildlife regulations, prevents the over-harvesting of game animals.
Checked 2026-09-30.40. In early September, before any deer season opens, you find a doe with a badly broken leg near a woods road. Your first thought is to end her suffering. What does the manual suggest as an ethical course of action?
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Tell the nearest Natural Resources office right away and describe exactly where she is
Even for a kind reason, killing a doe outside an open season without a valid permit is against the law. The manual picks this case to show how your own ethics and the law can pull in different directions. So call Natural Resources and tell them exactly where she is. Wildlife officers can get there fast and deal with her.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 3, Introduction:
One ethical course of action is to advise the nearest Natural Resources office as quickly as possible that there is an injured animal and describe its exact location.
Checked 2026-09-30.41. Caught in a November storm, you shelter overnight in an unlocked back-country cabin and burn some of the owner's firewood. What does the ethics lesson expect of you?
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Replace what you used as soon as you can and let the owner know
Replace what you used as soon as you can, and tell the owner what you did. Plenty of owners leave back-country cabins unlocked so a person in trouble can get out of the weather. That courtesy only lasts if people respect it.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 3, Regard for other people:
However, those doing so are expected to replace anything they use as soon as possible and advise the owner of their actions.
Checked 2026-09-30.42. You and a partner both fire at a flushing grouse and it drops. Neither of you can say for sure whose shot hit it. What does the manual's section on relationships with other hunters suggest?
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Let your partner have the bird, since courteous hunters never claim game when there is doubt
Give your partner the bird. Courteous hunters, the manual says, give companions the breaks and never claim game when it's unclear who made the shot. Small habits like that keep a partnership friendly and safe.
43. A hunter judges every outing by whether he filled the legal bag, and he always wants one more bird than anyone else in his party. Which of the manual's five hunter behaviour stages is he in?
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The limiting-out stage
Limiting-out. At this stage success means how close the bag comes to the legal limit, and some hunters, the manual says, never outgrow it. Most do, moving on through the trophy, technique and mellowing-out stages as their values change.
44. A hunter who owns a scoped rifle chooses to still-hunt deer on foot with a muzzleloader, giving the animal a real chance to get away. Which principle is he putting into practice?
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Fair chase
Fair chase: balancing your skills and equipment against the animal's ability to escape. Expert hunters often pick a less effective method on purpose, the manual notes. Leaving the scope at home shows respect for wildlife. It also builds real hunting skill.
45. Lost hunters often keep walking in hope of finding a road. The manual compares a search circle with a 1.5 km radius to one with a 3 km radius. What happens to the area searchers must cover?
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It grows from about 7 to about 28 square kilometres, four times as large
From about 7 square kilometres to about 28. Area outruns distance: double how far you might be from your last known spot and the search gets four times bigger. So the manual tells lost hunters to stay put, where searchers will most likely find them.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 5, The lost individual:
A circle with a 1.5 km radius has an area of about 7.1 km2.
Checked 2026-09-30.46. You open your hunting camp in October and find mouse droppings all over the counter. How does the manual say to clean them up to lower the risk of hantavirus?
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Air the camp out first, then wet the droppings with bleach and wipe them up wearing rubber gloves
Hantavirus spreads when people breathe in dust from infected mouse urine and droppings, and a broom or a vacuum throws exactly that dust into the air. So don't sweep. The manual's method is to air the camp out for an hour or two, soak the mess with disinfectant, then wipe it up with a wet cloth.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 5, Diseases:
When cleaning up mouse droppings, air out your camp for an hour or two before beginning.
Checked 2026-09-30.47. Your duck boat swamps in cold water and you are hanging onto the hull in a heavy wool coat. Your partner shouts at you to shed it so you can swim. What does the manual advise?
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Keep your clothes on, because air trapped in them helps you float and slows heat loss
Keep the coat on. Clothing traps air, and that air helps you float and holds in heat, so everything stays on, cap included. The manual also says to stay with the boat unless it's in danger and to move as little as you can. Hip or chest waders? Never in a boat.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 5, Boating safety:
Air trapped in clothing will help you float and it will help reduce heat loss.
Checked 2026-09-30.48. The thermometer reads 4°C on a sunny November afternoon, but a 32 km/h wind is blowing across your stand. Using the manual's wind chill example, what does that wind make it feel like?
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About -8°C
About -8°C. Wind strips heat from your body far faster than still air, enough to turn a mild, sunny 4°C into real cold. The manual adds a warning worth keeping. Most hypothermia cases happen between -1°C and 10°C, in weather plenty of people think is safe.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 5, Hypothermia defenses:
It may be 4° C outside with the sun shining but a 32 km/hr wind lowers the temperature to -8° C.
Checked 2026-09-30.49. You ring your survival fire with round stones pulled from a wet brook bed. Why does the manual warn against doing this?
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Wet, porous rocks can explode when they heat up
They can explode. Water trapped inside porous rock turns to steam as the fire heats it, and the rock bursts. The manual says to avoid wet, porous rocks, and on snow to build a platform of logs or stones instead. Don't build the fire under a tree, either.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 5, Fire:
Avoid wet porous rocks since they can explode when heated.
Checked 2026-09-30.50. You leave a woods road on a compass bearing of 70 degrees and walk into the timber. What bearing will lead you back toward the road?
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250 degrees
250 degrees. A reverse bearing points the opposite way to the one you walked, and when that bearing is less than 180 degrees, you add 180. Seventy plus 180.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 6, Using a compass:
If you were travelling on a bearing of less than 180°, add 180° to your current bearing.
Checked 2026-09-30.51. A hunter hanging a stand wraps a lineman's belt around the tree and plans to sit there all morning with only that belt holding him. What is wrong with his plan?
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A lineman's belt frees your hands during setup, but it is not built to stop a fall
A lineman's belt circles the trunk at about waist height so both hands are free while you install steps and the stand. That's its job. It isn't designed to catch you in a fall. Once you're sitting and hunting, the manual calls for a full body harness attached to the tree with a short tether.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 6, Fall Arrest Systems:
Its purpose is to free up your hands so that climbing aids and your tree stand can be installed easily and safely.
Checked 2026-09-30.52. New Brunswick is the only Atlantic province with a wild turkey season. When you hunt a gobbler with a shotgun, where does the manual say to aim?
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At the head and neck, at the base of the neck once the head is stretched out
Head and neck, at the base of the neck once he stretches it out. Thick body and wing feathers shield a turkey's body, so pellets aimed at the chest often fail. Head and neck is more reliable and spares the meat. The manual wants at least 5 to 7 pellets there for an effective pattern.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 6, Vital target area – Wild turkeys:
If you are hunting with a shotgun your most effective shot is to the turkey’s head and neck.
Checked 2026-09-30.53. Where your deer stood when you fired, you find thin blood mixed with bits of chewed green plant matter. How long does the manual suggest waiting before you start trailing?
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About two hours, since it points to a gut shot
Bits of undigested food in the blood mean a paunch hit. Leave a gut-shot animal alone and it will often lie down. That's why the manual suggests about two hours, time for it to bed and weaken. The exception is heavy rain or snow about to wash out the trail.
Source: Atlantic Canada Hunter Education (Part B) Student Manual, 2023 Edition (Province of New Brunswick), Lesson 6, Tracking a wounded animal:
However, if you suspect a poorly hit or gut-shot animal the recommended wait time is 2 hours.
Checked 2026-09-30.54. In October you spot a cow moose with a smaller moose. When you move, the small one hurries to her, touches noses and then follows close behind as she walks off. What does that behaviour suggest?
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The small moose is probably this year's calf rather than a yearling
Probably a calf. The manual describes calves moving toward the cow when disturbed, often touching noses, then following right behind her. Yearlings are much less dependent and less likely to stick close. To tell calves from older moose, put behaviour together with head shape and body shape.
55. It is the first Sunday in October and a friend wants to go grouse hunting in New Brunswick. What does the Hunt and Trap summary say about hunting on Sundays?
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Sunday hunting is prohibited, except on Sundays from October 14 to December 31
Not in early October. New Brunswick keeps most Sundays closed to hunting, and the exception runs only from October 14 to December 31, inclusive, each year. The first Sunday of the month falls outside it. The grouse hunt waits.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Hunting, Hunting on Sunday:
Hunting is prohibited on all Sundays except those that fall between Oct.14 and Dec. 31, inclusive, in any year.
Checked 2026-09-30.56. You are hunting grouse with a shotgun loaded with birdshot near an occupied farmhouse in New Brunswick. How far from the house must you be before you may fire?
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At least 200 metres
200 metres, for birdshot. The province sets distances by weapon. No shotgun or muzzleloader may be fired within 200 metres of a dwelling, school, playground, athletic field, solid waste site or business. Rifles, and shotguns loaded with ball or slug, need 400 metres; bows and crossbows, 100.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Hunting, Legal Distance:
It is illegal to discharge any shotgun or muzzle-loading firearm within 200 metres of a dwelling, school, playground, athletic field, solid waste disposal site or place of business.
Checked 2026-09-30.57. A New Brunswick hunter spots a grouse in the ditch beside a paved, numbered highway. What does the summary say about firing from or near the pavement?
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No firearm may be fired from or across the paved portion, or within 10 metres of it
Designated roads take in almost every named or numbered public road in the province. The summary bars firing from or across the pavement, or within 10 metres of it. Drivers and people walking the road stay out of the line of fire that way.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Hunting, Discharge of Firearms from Paved Roads:
It is illegal to discharge any firearm from or across the paved portion of a designated road, or within 10 metres of the paved portion of a designated road.
Checked 2026-09-30.58. You drew a New Brunswick moose licence and want to bring your deer rifle plus a .22 for grouse on the same trip. What does the summary say?
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A moose licence holder may have only one firearm, and rimfire firearms are banned while hunting moose
Leave the .22 at home. During moose season, the summary limits a Moose Licence holder or designated hunter to one firearm in their possession. Carrying or using a rimfire while hunting moose is illegal too. Grouse can wait for another trip.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Big Game, Moose:
A Moose Licence holder or Designated Moose Licence holder shall not have more than one firearm in their possession during the moose hunting season.
Checked 2026-09-30.59. A 14-year-old New Brunswick hunter and her father split up on opposite sides of a cutover and keep in touch by two-way radio. Does that meet the province's definition of being accompanied?
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No, accompanied means within sight or hearing of each other without artificial devices
No. Hunters aged 12 to 15 have to be accompanied by an adult at all times while hunting, and New Brunswick defines accompanied as within sight or hearing of each other without artificial aids. Prescribed glasses and hearing aids are the only devices that count. Radios aren't on the list.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Big Game, Young Hunters:
Accompanied is defined as “within visual contact and/or auditory contact of each other without the aid of artificial devices except medically prescribed eyeglasses or hearing aids.”
Checked 2026-09-30.60. You plan to hunt woodcock in New Brunswick during the September part of the season. What does the summary say must go with you?
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A dog that is trained to hunt woodcock
A dog trained to hunt woodcock. New Brunswick requires one with anyone hunting woodcock in September, and a good dog finds far more birds and recovers the ones you drop. The provincial licence and the federal Migratory Game Bird Hunting Permit are part of the picture as well.
Source: New Brunswick Hunt and Trap Regulations Summary 2026-2027, Hunting, Migratory Game Bird Hunting:
Persons hunting woodcock during the month of September must be accompanied by a dog that is trained to hunt woodcock.
Checked 2026-09-30.
These are practice questions, not the official exam. We wrote them from the published course topics. We did not copy them from the New Brunswick Hunter Education Course question bank. So a good score here means you are ready to book the real thing. It does not mean you are certified.
Ready for the paperwork? Our guide to getting a hunting licence in New Brunswick covers the steps after the course.
What the New Brunswick Hunter Education exam covers
The New Brunswick Hunter Education Course is organised into 6 chapters. This practice set follows the same outline, so you can drill any of them with the topic buttons above the questions.
- Introduction to Hunter Education
- Ecology and Wildlife Management
- Ethics and Responsibilities
- Hunting Laws and Regulations
- Hunter Survival Skills
- Field Techniques
Questions about the New Brunswick Hunter Education exam
Is this the real New Brunswick Hunter Education Course exam?
No. These are original practice questions written from published curriculum topics. They are not reproduced from the official question bank, and passing them does not certify you to hunt in New Brunswick.
What does the New Brunswick Hunter Education exam cover?
There are 6 topics here: introduction, wildlife management, ethics, survival, field techniques, regulations. The official course covers the same ground in more depth.
Does a New Brunswick hunting licence work in other provinces?
No. Hunting licences are issued province by province, so a New Brunswick licence only covers New Brunswick. The hunter education credential is a separate question, and each province decides for itself which outside credentials it accepts. We set out what each one publishes in our guide to whether hunter education transfers between provinces.