Lithuania

Summary

Lithuania allowed the bow once. The hunting rules of 2000 listed bows and crossbows, with or without sights, among the permitted tools, next to the shotgun and the rifle, and asked for a carry permit for them as for a gun. That permission was withdrawn from 1 April 2004, and the ban has held since, through one loud exception: in May 2020 the environment minister signed an order that would have reopened the bow from 2022, days after parliament had refused to do so by law, and withdrew it four days later under pressure from the prime minister down.

Since 1 May 2024 the ban is no longer the minister’s to lift. Parliament moved the lists of prohibited and permitted hunting tools from the ministerial rules into the Hunting Law itself, and the prohibited list names crossbows, bows and other tension weapons. Fenced grounds are covered: the rules that otherwise stand aside for animals kept in enclosures keep the requirements on permitted tools in force there.

The legal mechanism

• Hunting Law, § 15¹ (8): among the tools and means prohibited in hunting, semi-automatic firearms with more than two rounds, crossbows, bows and other tension weapons. Point 14 closes the list from the other side: any tool not named as permitted is prohibited. § 15² is that permitted list: long rifles and shotguns, short firearms and the hunting dagger for dispatching wounded game, live traps and selective killing traps, decoys, knives, flags, dogs, birds of prey and horses, optics, vehicles, and night optics on the listed species. No bow. Both articles were added by the amendment of 2024, in force since 1 May 2024, so that the list is fixed by parliament and no longer by ministerial order.
• Hunting Rules, point 10: hunting may use the tools and means named in § 15² of the Hunting Law; the rules themselves no longer carry a tool list and do not mention the bow anywhere. Point 52: the rules do not apply to the use of game kept in enclosures and aviaries, except the requirements on the use of permitted hunting tools and the safety requirements. The ban therefore reaches inside a fence.
• Sanction: the Code of Administrative Offences, art. 290 (5), fines hunting with prohibited tools, means or methods at 600 to 1,700 euros, 1,400 to 3,000 when repeated, with confiscation of the tools; the Hunting Law, § 16, allows the right to hunt to be withdrawn.
• Foreign hunters, § 14 (7) and (8): a hunter with a foreign document equivalent to the Lithuanian hunter’s ticket, recognised under the Government’s procedure, has the same rights and duties as a Lithuanian hunter, the duty to use only permitted tools included.
• History: the rules of 2000 permitted bows and crossbows with or without optical sights and required a permit to keep and carry them; the exam order of 2002 already listed them “until 1 April 2004”. On 8 May 2020 the minister signed the order of May 2020 allowing the bow from April 2022 after a review of foreign practice, the day after parliament had rejected the same in the Hunting Law; the prime minister called it unacceptable, and the withdrawal of May 2020 followed on 12 May, effective the next day. Under the wording of 2024 a reopening now needs a law.

Before you go

This page describes the Lithuanian texts as they stood on the date below. Bowhunting courses are held in Lithuania, but the certificate they give has no Lithuanian hunt to be used on; the country’s own bowhunters travel. If you hear that the bow has been allowed, ask for the amending law published in the Teisės aktų registras and check that point 8 of § 15¹ no longer names it. The final check is yours.