Trying to get bowhunting legal in Norway!

buejeger · February 23, 2011, 09:26:00 AM

The Norwegian Bowhunters association has applied to get bowhunting legalised here in Norway! and this time we have the weight of landowners and gunhunters behind us.. lets hope for a positive outcome! The application is for a trial or evaluation period similar to that in Denmark when they legalised it.... Here in Norway however the application is for ALL huntable species... not topping out at Roedeer like in Denmark..
One thing is certain, if it goes through, in addition to the normal hunter education and test, there will be an obligatory shooter test, most likely based on the Danish model.. considered to be one of the hardest out there....
For those of you that can read Norwegian here is a link to a national newspapers coverage of the application....
web page

Kip · February 23, 2011, 09:38:00 AM

Good news hope it works out for all the bowhunter there.Kip

Night Wing · February 23, 2011, 09:49:00 AM

We have a lot of freedoms in the US that we take for granted. They become self evident when going to or being in another country other than the US. I hope bowhunting becomes legal in Norway.

snag · February 23, 2011, 10:14:00 AM

Good for you Buejeger. Here's to your efforts being rewarded. You could be on the forefront of bringing back a tradition to your country.

twitchstick · February 23, 2011, 10:21:00 AM

I hope the best for all the bowhunters in Norway.

Rick Butler · February 23, 2011, 10:24:00 AM

Best wishes for a positive outcome.

GRINCH · February 23, 2011, 10:27:00 AM

Good LUCK

Lovec · February 23, 2011, 10:32:00 AM

I hope it happens.

Mike Most · February 23, 2011, 10:43:00 AM

You have my vote,,,

Canadabowyer · February 23, 2011, 10:43:00 AM

Good luck. If I couldn't bow hunt a part of me would perish. Bob

USN_Sam1385 · February 23, 2011, 10:55:00 AM

I really like the idea of a shooting proficiency test. Here in Missouri, when the MDC sets up managed bow hunts; all the archers selected must shoot a proficiency test and get 90% of their arrows in the big center.

Bjorn · February 23, 2011, 11:06:00 AM

We all wish you the very best with getting bowhunting going in Norway and hope you pass the test too!

Mudd · February 23, 2011, 12:16:00 PM

ChuckC · February 23, 2011, 01:03:00 PM

Good luck in Norway. It's a beautiful country. I can easily imagine the joy of wandering around, longbow in hand.

Sam. . I am NOT a fan of the shooting proficiency testing. This has been discussed in our past (Tradgang). Although it sounds like a great idea, who gets to choose the course and the shots ?

Since compounders are by far the majority currently, are the shots gonna be 40 - 50 yards ?

Even if they are at 25 yards, who is to say that I am not good enough to hunt, but only at 15 yards ? or 10 ?

Even if I smoke the targets at whatever range they choose, who is to say that I won't take shots at twice that range, or at moving animals etc etc

It opens up a LOT of unfairness when everybody is held to a certain standard.
ChuckC

tecum-tha · February 23, 2011, 03:33:00 PM

I hope it works out for you guys in norway.
I have read the danish regulations, and you definitely don't want to have the same ones as theirs. They require 70 Joules minimum kinetic energy for the arrow. If you shoot a 650grain arrow with 170 fps, you get 56 Joules. How the heck you want to get 70 Joules with a traditional bow?
You need a 650 grain arrow with 190 fps to get 70.8 Joules. All this for roedeer which are fawn size of a whitetail. This is a classic exclusion for traditional bows, especially for shorter draws. The common 50# bow with 9gn/lb arrow delivers probably 175 fps, giving you a kinetic energy of 41.3 Joule. I read the info on the european bowhunter federation website, so I am not 100% sure about the 70 Joules.
See comment under table 3 on this link:
http://www.europeanbowhunting.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=35

Under another table in this summary they talk about 40 Joule.
Make sure that the norwegian authorities take the right values into their laws and don't just copy it without thinking!! I worked in european administrations and this happened a lot!! Once in a law it is very difficult to remove or alter!!

The shooting proficiency tests are as stupid as they can be, catering to compound bows pinpoint accuracy. All of ChuckC arguments apply.
How you want to include the next generation of hunters setting such high standards?

SveinD · February 23, 2011, 05:59:00 PM

For those of you interested, here is a translated version of the webpage Buejeger posted!

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2F2011%2F02%2F21%2Fnyheter%2Fjakt%2Flandbruk%2Fpolitik k%2F15513112%2F&act=url

Tecum-tha : To be honest I hope they apply strict regulations at first, then give leeway when they learn more about the subject. We don't want a lot of wounded animals running around because uneducated people take to the woods

Though as I see it, the trad community is as, if not more careful than compound bows, but the Norwegian scene is still small and needs to grow in a healthy and respectful manner instead of growing fast and carelessly.
If this means I will have to wait a few years to be able to bowhunt with my trad equipment, it's worth the sacrifice imo.

-SveinD-

buejeger · February 23, 2011, 06:29:00 PM

Ok, just to be clear, this is not me personally but the Norwegian bowhunters association of which I am a member who are applying for a change in hunting regulations to allow hunting with archery equipment.

Also to clear up an important point, the minimum energy requirements in Denmark are 40 joules. The 70 joules figure is for those choosing to use mechanical heads....
40 joules is easy to obtain with trad equipment.

We hope though that we will be able to hunt all legal species and that there wont be (in my opinion) silly restriction on type of game that can be hunted. If it can be hunted legaly in Norway with a rfle or shotgun, we want to hunt it with a bow!

tecum-tha · February 23, 2011, 07:06:00 PM

Nathan, in the source I had in my edited post, this was not clear! Sorry! It is a pretty misleading summary. See link in my edited post.
40 Joules is fine.

@SveinD: Believe me, when laws and regulations are altered, they will always be made stricter, never vice versa. To overturn very restricting regulations takes a lot of time. What you want is a clear requirement for bowhunting education, this prevents the taking of lousy shots. Lousy shots are usually made by "gunhunters" trying out "bowhunting" without the proper knowledge about the limitations of the chosen hunting equipment.
I am a hunters safety instructor and this is the only problem I see in our hunter safety courses. We try to teach all weapons, but it is mainly gun hunting related. But the passing allows you to take any weapon of your choice. I would like to see the NBEF requirements added for people who want to bowhunt, but never with a shooting test.

buejeger · February 23, 2011, 07:18:00 PM

No problem

I agree, its very hard to get laws changed! That is why it has taken this long to get to where we are now, and even then there is a way to go!
I first took the ipep course and shooting test some twenty something years ago.. I have updated it since... Shooting tests are a good idea for exactly the reaons you state!
Whether it be the ibep test, or that based on the Danish model, if you want to hunt with a bow you are going to have to put the time in... Last thing we need with a newly legal form of huntingvis lots of bad statistics that get the law changed back again...

Nathan.

tecum-tha · February 24, 2011, 03:07:00 PM

Nathan,
No, a shooting test will not prevent lousy shots.
It prevents people who like to get real close to their prey from bowhunting, because they can not shoot accurately at the required distances.
What if you want to limit your shots to 15 yards,because you're a killer at that distance, but they require you to shoot accurately at for example 30 yards? This is much harder to do with traditional equipment, than with sights and gizmos from the compound crowd.
Will it enhance bowhunting? Probably not.
Personally, at a roe deer, I would not shoot beyond 15 yards, because the kill area is small.
The key is education, but education has nothing to do with being proficient with a weapon at certain distances.
Example: Your son is real good to shoot a roe deer size kill at 13 yards. You plan to set him up where he has a shot around 10 yards. But he can't pass the shooting proficieny test at 25 yards you have to tell him: no bowhunting for you! Why would you exclude him from bowhunting at his effective range by law?