Estonia

Summary

Estonia wrote the bow into its hunting act in 2013, after the previous act had listed it among the prohibited means. The rules are national and short, but the reach is narrow: the hunting bow is allowed for small game only, and small game in Estonia excludes every hoofed animal. Roe deer and wild boar are large game here, closed to the bow together with moose, red deer, bear, wolf, lynx and the grey seal. What is open is the fox, the raccoon dog, the jackal, the badger, the martens, the mink, the hares, the muskrat, the beaver and a list of birds.

The equipment rule is one paragraph: a bow of 20 to 45 kg draw force, arrows of at least 20 g with a cutting head of at least 6.4 g and 24 mm, both marked with the hunter’s certificate number. Every bowhunter passes a practical shooting test, valid two years, and the foreign visitor gets the hunting certificate itself on the home licence, without training or exam.

What the law says

• Hunting Act, § 4: game is divided into large and small. The large game list is closed and names eight species: moose, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, brown bear, wolf, lynx and grey seal. Small game is whatever the Hunting Rules put on their list.
• Hunting Act, § 24: the hunting bow is one of the eight permitted hunting means, beside firearms, traps, decoys, dogs and flags. The prohibited means include the crossbow, air weapons, laser and night sights, artificial light, and any bow that is not a hunting bow within § 27. Hunting with a prohibited means is an offence under § 57.
• Hunting Act, § 27: a hunting bow is a sporting bow within the Weapons Act with a draw force of 20 to 45 kilograms, about 196 to 441 newtons or 44 to 99 pounds, used for hunting and marked weatherproof with the number of the user’s hunting certificate. Arrows of at least 20 grams, with a cutting head of at least 6.4 grams and a cutting diameter of at least 24 millimetres, marked the same way. The hunting bow may be used for hunting small game. Nothing on bow type, fixed or mechanical heads, lighted nocks or how the draw force is measured.
• Hunting Act, § 23: being in the wild with a hunting bow and broadhead arrows counts as hunting, with all the documents that implies; a bow in its bag or case does not.
• Hunting Rules, § 6 and § 4: for birds, only flu-flu fletched arrows; for beaver hunted by stalking or from a stand, the arrow is tied to the bow by a line. The safety list forbids pointing a drawn bow at a person and shooting at sounds, moving branches or badly visible shapes.
• Hunting Act, § 42 and Hunting Rules, § 13: the bowhunting shooting test certificate is issued to a hunting certificate holder and is what entitles them to shoot small game with a bow; hunting without it is an offence under § 52. The test is shot with the hunter’s own bow, under an instructor who holds an IBEP instructor certificate, at six 3D targets: IFAA group 4 targets at 10, 12 and 14 metres, group 3 targets at 16, 18 and 20 metres. Six hits out of six in the vital zone pass, and a line touch counts. The certificate is valid two years and is renewed by shooting again.
• Weapons Act, § 18: the sporting bow, like the crossbow, is a weapon in unrestricted civil circulation. No permit, registration or licence applies to acquiring, owning or carrying it; the act binds it only to an age limit, to the sporting use, and to a duty to report to the police when a weapon has caused death, injury or damage. A person of at least 18 may use the sporting bow for hunting, under the Hunting Act. The hunting certificate itself is issued from 16, so the bowhunter’s minimum age is 18.
• Hunting Act, § 7, § 40 and the fee regulation: the right to hunt needs the documents and the annual hunting-right fee, 25 € from 2025, paid online before the first hunt. The hunting permit for small game is issued, to a named person, by the user of the hunting district; a landowner or their nominee hunting on their own land gets it free.

Foreign hunters

• Hunting Act, § 36 (6): the holder of a valid hunting certificate issued in another country is issued, on request, an Estonian hunting certificate valid up to one year, without the hunting training and the theory exam, within ten days of the application and the fee. The certificate regulation asks for a free-form application and a copy of the foreign certificate. The Environmental Board and, under an administrative contract, the Estonian Hunters’ Society issue it; the Hunters’ Society page names 40 € and up to ten working days.
• Hunting Act, § 36 (2): the general route to the certificate, the hunting training and the theory exam, carries no condition of citizenship or residence in the text, and the certificate regulation lets the theory exam be taken in a foreign language by agreement with the commission (§ 10 (6)). No text we read says that a non-resident can enrol, though; the ordinary application asks for an Estonian personal code (§ 18 (3)).
• Hunting Act, § 42 (4): a bowhunter with a foreign certificate confirming a bowhunting shooting test taken within the last two years is not required to take the Estonian one. The text does not say who may have issued that certificate, and no guidance was found. The IBEP card is not named as a substitute anywhere; in the Hunting Rules, IBEP is the qualification of the instructor who runs the test, not of the hunter. Without a foreign bow test, the Estonian test is taken, on the emitter’s date and range.
• Hunting Act, § 40 (6¹): a holder of the certificate obtained on a foreign licence is issued the small game permit for waterfowl only after a training course.
• State Fees Act, § 130: the state fee for the bow test is 10 € and the certificate 10 €; where the task is delegated by contract, the contract charge applies, capped at the state fee.
• Documents are carried while hunting and shown on request: the hunting certificate, the hunting permit and the bow test certificate (§ 35, § 56). From July 2026 they are issued electronically in the hunting information system and are proven with an identity document.

Seasons

The Hunting Rules give, for each species, the permitted methods and their dates; the bow is a means, not a method, so it is used within whatever method and dates the species has. The hunting year runs from 1 March to the last day of February. Fox, raccoon dog and mink are open to stalking and stand hunting for most or all of the year; the hares, the jackal, the muskrat and the pheasant open on 1 October; beaver runs from August to mid-April with the tethered arrow. Bird seasons are August to October or November, with extensions at sea and on the large lakes; the waterfowl permit for a visitor comes only after the training course. Spring windows exist on protected areas with the Environmental Board’s authorisation and are not listed above.

The roe deer has been discussed. Bowhunters asked for it at a round table in 2019, the bowhunting club put the request to the ministry in the proposal of 2020, and a petition against it gathered more than 8,400 signatures the same year. The paragraph that limits the bow to small game is unchanged in the text in force from 19 July 2026.

Open questions

• How the draw force of 20 to 45 kg is measured, at what draw length, and who checks it: no text read says. The marking with the certificate number is the only check the texts describe.
• Which foreign bowhunting test certificates the emitter accepts under § 42 (4), and whether an IBEP course certificate is among them.
• The charge for the bow test under the Hunters’ Society contract, and where and when a visitor can take it.
• Carrying the bow in a vehicle: the Rules speak only of the unloaded firearm; the Act says a cased bow is not hunting.

Before you go

This page describes the Estonian texts as they stood on the date below. Have your host ask the Hunters’ Society early about the one-year certificate and the bow test date, with your Romanian licence and, if you hold one, any foreign bow test certificate. If you have no home licence, ask the Society whether a non-resident without an Estonian personal code can enrol for the training and the theory exam; no text we read answers that. Confirm with the host which hunting district issues your small game permit, that the annual fee is paid before the first day, and that your bow and every arrow carry your Estonian certificate number. The final check is yours.