Croatia

Summary

Croatia is sometimes named as a country that opened hunting to the bow with its 2018 act. The act did the opposite. It lists hunting with bow and arrow, among the prohibited ways of hunting, next to the crossbow, air guns and cold weapons, and it defines hunting weapons as firearms only. A bow is not a lawful hunting means anywhere in the country, fenced grounds included, and the ban cannot be lifted by the ministry’s derogation power.

The bow itself is legal to own and shoot: the weapons act treats bows up to 450 N as free weapons, and allows target shooting outside ranges where nobody is endangered. Only hunting with it is banned.

The legal mechanism

• Hunting Act, art. 66 (1): Hunting with the crossbow, and with bow and arrow, is prohibited by name. Point 22 adds hunting with a weapon that is not a hunting weapon.
• Art. 68 (2): Hunting weapons are hunting rifles and shotguns, pistols and revolvers; the definition is closed, so even without point 21 the bow would fall under point 22.
• Art. 66 (3) and (4): the ministry may allow exceptions to points 1 to 18 for species protection, damage prevention, public safety and research. Point 21 is outside that range; no derogation is possible for the bow. The crossbow, point 12, is inside it, but only for those purposes, not for sport hunting, and merely carrying one inside a hunting ground counts as hunting (art. 66 (2)).
• Scope: the act covers every hunting ground, private, state and fenced (art. 12 (1)); we found no clause exempting enclosures.
• Sanction: the act’s own list of misdemeanours does not cite point 21. The Criminal Code, art. 204 (2), punishes hunting with unlawful means, with up to three years and confiscation; whether a bow falls under it is our reading, with no case law found.
• History: a 2015 draft would have allowed the bow for big game; the 2017 draft banned it, and the ban was enacted as NN 99/2018. The implementing regulation on hunting weapons of 2019, amended in 2025, does not mention the bow at all. A 2026 amendment bill was sent to parliament in June 2026; the published summaries touch magazine capacity, not the bow, and the text was not available to us.

Before you go

This page describes the Croatian texts as they stood on the date below. An amendment to the hunting act is before parliament in 2026; if you hear that the bow has been added, ask for the article of the published text in the Narodne novine and check that art. 66 (1) point 21 has been struck. Until then, offers of bowhunting in Croatia have no legal basis we could find. The final check is yours.