I've just come back from Germany and had an interesting conversation with a German friend there. In the UK access to the hunting community is pretty excellent, especially compared to there.
Here you can go out with someone without having passed any test. The barrier to trying the sport is very low. If you know anyone involved in shooting, stalking, etc they can take you for free. If not the fees for cull hunting are on the lower side compared to the rest of Europe. In Germany before you start you need to pass an exam which can take year of study! My Mrs was with me in Germany. She loves stalking with me in the UK and has harvested many deer with me - so much so that she passionately defends the sport and it's ethics to those at her work that don't know about it. But she probably wouldn't have ever tried it if she was German because she wouldn't have put in the effort to get the certificate of 1 day per week for a year(!) without knowing if she liked the sport... At least in the UK it is simple to dip your toe in and find out more.
On a side note, we have resolved that we should take out 2 people a year stalking who would never have done the sport otherwise, or might even be slightly anti, and cook the deer with them afterwards. Hopefully it's a small step making sure that future generations can stalk as well...
The German training system that one has to go through to prepare oneself for the hunting assessments and exams are very rigorous indeed. However, there is nothing that prevents a novice from joining a Jagdschein holder ( hunting license holder) and watching what is involved in various tasks, they just can't shoot at live quarry, which is no bad thing.
One of the main subjects of study in the Jagdschein preparation course is conservation and agricultural practices and forestry . In Germany, the killing of a Game animal, is a very tiny part of a much bigger picture and that is obviously conservation.
Other key areas of study and assessment are: safety, flora and fauna, hunting law, diseases and pests , handling of game, food hygiene, hunting tradition and history, hunting signals , tracking wounded game , gun handling and ability to shoot in 7 different disciplines, hunting formations, internal external and terminal ballistics for revolvers, semi automatic pistols, bolt action rifles, semi automatic rifles, shotguns, and combination guns such as drillings. In the preparation course the average student will shoot thousands of clay pigeons, and hundreds to thousands of centrefire cartridges at moving and static targets. It makes the DSC1 and 2 and the DMQ look like an infant school reading test.
To a German hunter, the concept of a person taking a rifle and shooting at a live creature , prior to having successfully passed the training and exams required to hold a Jagdschein ,just because someone wants to see if they enjoy killing something, is laughable.
Having completed the German Jagdschein exams and assessments, and being a Jagdschein holder myself, i can guarantee you that you can hunt far more freely and at lower cost in Germany than you can here if you don't have access to your own hunting ground. In short, this is to do with the German hunting Revier system which means that the hunting rights are not directly related to land ownership, but rather to the person or people or group that have taken on the responsibility to manage a particular revier. It is quite common for villages to have quite large hunting Reviers that are jointly funded and run by the hunters in that village or the surrounding area. So, unless someone is totally skint and can't afford a few hundred euros a year to join a syindicate, or is unable to remain friends with other hunters in their local area , they will always have lots of hunting opportunities in Germany, many of them costing nothing at all.
I doubt there will ever be a hunting revier system here in England but it is possible for people from the uk to get a temporary two week visitors hunting permit in Germany if they have a Jagdschein holder who can vouch for them and invites them on a hunting trip in Germany. For this you need to have completed at least a Dsc1 and hold a valid fac and european fap. Sadly, I think that after Brexit, this may become rather less simple for non Jagdschein holding British hunters though.
Kinest regards, Olaf
