I too don't understand that bowhunting is illegal. Bowhunting is sort of more human than shooting with a shotgun or rifle. Done correct the animal won't feel that it has been shot. And shortly after, it will fall to the ground.
I believe that in Denmark we have the best bowhunting rules, that also USA bowhunters should have - what some serious USA bowhunters do agree with.
In Denmark, bowhunting is basically illegal too. But you can get a permission to go bowhunting anyway. It requires quite a few things though:
- First you need to have the normal hunting license, that you get via a course, where you learn everything about hunting, animals, safety etc. The normal hunting license is given if you pass a theoretical and a practical exam. You can't go to the practical exam if you don't pass the theoretical part.
- If you have got the normal hunting license and if you have paid for it you can get permission to hunt with bow. To get this permission you have to:
- Go through a bowhunting course.
- Pass a theoretical exam, with 20 questions. Max. 2 mistakes allowed.
- If you pass the theoretical exam, you can go to the practical exam.
- In the practical exam you have 6 shots at unknown distances up to 25 m and 5 of the 6 must hit in the vitals of a animal target face. Also safety in handling the bow is looked at.
The license is valid for 5 years and then you have to pass a new practical exam to keep it. If you wish to change type of bow (for example from compoundbow to
recurve) within the 5 years, you have to go to a new practical exam with that bow.
Furthermore there are rules to the bowhunting equipment:
- The arrow must weight min. 25 gram.
- The bow must be powerful enough (shoot the arrow fast enough) to deliver a kinetic energy of min. 40 joule.
- and perhaps a few other rules that I don't remember at the moment.
For some reason, crossbow is forbidden in Denmark (you need weapons license to own one) and is totally forbidden for hunting. This is difficult to understand since the energy a crossbow delivers is typically from 100 to a little over 200 joule. So it is very effective and accurate, shot like a rifle. If I should suggest something, it should be possible to get permission to hunt with crossbow as well, under these regulations: You need first a bowhunting license and then you need to pass a special crossbowhunting course and exam, with the same or stricter demands for passing, as the bowhunting exam.