Hungary

Summary

Hungary treats the bow as a regular hunting weapon. The hunting act of 1996, in force since 1 March 1997, lists it next to the rifle, sets a minimum draw weight for big game, and requires a dedicated bowhunting exam on top of the standard hunting qualification. It is the closest fully legal destination for hunters from Romania.

The bow is older in Hungarian law than the act. A decree of 1990 allowed bowhunting with a permit from the county authority, and a decree of 1993 dropped the permit, set a minimum draw weight for big game and added a bow exam to the state hunting exam.

There is one catch, and it matters for foreigners: the bowhunting exam is, by regulation, open only to people who live in Hungary or hold Hungarian citizenship. See below, and read the note at the end of this page.

Who can bowhunt

• The bowhunting exam is required of everyone who hunts with a bow, whether they hold a Hungarian hunting licence or the hunting permit issued to foreign guests (act, § 59). It is a separate, supplementary exam with a written, an oral and a practical part.
• Who may sit the exam. The exam regulation admits a person who has a Hungarian address or Hungarian citizenship, is at least 16 (the chamber’s information note of 2022 says 17), and already holds the Hungarian hunting exam certificate, the pass of its theory part, or a valid Hungarian hunting licence (19/2022 AM, § 1). The exam is held in Hungarian only (same regulation, § 13 (3)). We found no provision that recognizes a foreign bowhunting certificate.
• What the texts add up to. A hunter with Hungarian citizenship, including citizens living in Transylvania, can take the route: Hungarian hunting exam (theory at least), then the bow exam, both in Hungarian, at the Budapest and Pest county chamber. For a hunter without Hungarian citizenship or residence the texts give no route to the exam. How the chamber applies this to foreign guests is a question for the chamber and the estate, not for this page.
• Foreign guests otherwise hunt on a hunting permit (vadászati engedély): minimum age 18, a hunting contract or invitation from an estate, hunting liability insurance from an insurer based in the European Economic Area (certified translation if the policy is foreign), and the chamber’s fee. The permit is issued electronically since 24 October 2023 and is valid on every hunting ground in the country for up to a year.
• What “home licence” means here. The act does not ask for a hunting licence from your country. Among the conditions for the foreign guest permit it lists an import permit or a holding permit for a hunting firearm or a raptor (§ 62 (1) b) and c)), but the chamber issues the permit on two proofs attached to the application: the hunting contract or invitation, and the insurance (§ 62 (2)). At the hunt, the firearm permit is required only of someone hunting with a firearm (§ 64 (1)). For the bow the act asks for no document.
• Open question. § 62 (1) keeps the firearm import or holding permit among the conditions, and § 62 (2) does not ask for proof of it. No text we read says how this applies to a foreign guest who hunts only with a bow and owns no firearm. Ask the chamber or your host.
• Minimum age is 18 for the foreign permit. Residents and citizens can hold a hunting licence from 16; a 16-to-18-year-old may bowhunt only individually, next to an adult who has held a licence for five years and holds the bow exam.
• A guide: under the implementing regulation, § 67 (2), the holder of the hunting right must provide a direct escort to anyone hunting individually who cannot have the local knowledge needed for safe and proper hunting, or who asks for one. A hunter on a paid hunting contract for a set species and number of animals must be given a direct escort unless agreed otherwise.

Equipment rules

• Big game (red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, mouflon, wild boar) may be taken only with a bow whose draw weight exceeds 222.7 N, about 50 lb, and with suitable hunting arrows. No minimum applies to small game.
• Broadheads for big game must have a cutting width of at least 20 mm. The law does not distinguish fixed from mechanical heads.
• Crossbows are a prohibited hunting tool, as are poisoned or explosive arrowheads.
• Electronic image-intensifying or image-converting sights are prohibited at night. Nothing in the texts mentions lighted nocks.
• With a bow, hare may be shot when not running and birds when not in flight, a rule written for the bow specifically.
• The hunting act no longer mentions an import or holding permit for bows; the 1996 wording was removed in 2004. We have not read the weapons act.

The exam in numbers

• Registration with the national chamber; fee 12,500 HUF, half the hunting exam fee. Held at least once a year by a territorial organization the national chamber designates (19/2022 AM, § 10). The chamber’s list of exam dates gives one bow session for 2026: 5 October in Gödöllő, announced by the Budapest and Pest county organization, with a three-day course before it, which the bowhunting association dates 2–4 October.
• Written: 50 questions in 50 minutes, 40 correct to pass. Oral: one of 45 topics, 15 minutes to prepare, every question must be answered correctly.
• Practical: eight stations at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 m, three arrows each, on a circle of 7.5 to 30 cm depending on distance. 10 points per hit, 160 of 240 to pass. Bow of at least 222.7 N, field points, any non-electronic sight. Traditional bows without sights skip the 30 m and 40 m stations and shoot 25 m and 35 m twice.
• Recommended textbook: Ambrózy Árpád and Glück Balázs, A vadászíjász vizsga. Hungarian only.

Practical notes for hunters from Romania

• Most estates with bowhunting experience are in Transdanubia and the Great Plain (Somogy, Tolna, Bács-Kiskun, Zala). In 2026 parts of Baranya and Somogy are African swine fever zones where wild boar hunting is suspended; the other species are not affected the same way. Check the Nébih map before you travel.
• Hungarian-speaking hunters from Transylvania with Hungarian citizenship are the people the exam system is written for.

Before you go

This page describes the Hungarian legal texts as they stood on the date below. It does not describe how the chamber or individual estates apply them to foreign guests, and it does not cover customs rules for bringing a bow across the border. Confirm the current position with the Hungarian Hunting Chamber (OMVK) and with the estate that hosts you before you travel. The final check is yours.