Slovakia

Summary

Slovakia allows the bow in one place only: inside a zvernica, a fenced hunting ground or a fenced part of one. There the bow needs 220 N of draw weight and nothing else is regulated. Outside a preserve, shooting game with a bow is a prohibited method of hunting, and the crossbow is prohibited everywhere. The rule has been the same since the 2009 act.

For a visiting hunter the preserve route is simple on paper: a Slovak hunting licence for foreigners, issued without any exam on a document issued abroad that entitles the holder to hunt, insurance, and the preserve’s hunting permit. A new hunting act that would open the bow to all grounds has been drafted, but it had not reached parliament on the date below.

What the law says

• Hunting Act, § 65 (2) g): a prohibited method of hunting is shooting game with a bow or crossbow, except hunting with a bow in zvernice with a minimum draw weight of 220 N. The exception covers the bow only; the crossbow stays banned.
• § 6: a zvernica is either a stand-alone fenced ground for the intensive rearing of hoofed game, recognised by the district office when it has at least 50 ha, of which 20 ha forest, and a game-proof fence; or a fenced part of a hunting ground set up by its user, among other purposes for hunting.
• Equipment: 220 N, about 49.5 lb, is the only figure. Neither the act nor the implementing regulation says how it is measured or anything about broadheads, arrow weight, mechanical heads or lighted nocks.
• § 65 (3) d): no hunting from two hours after sunset to two hours before sunrise, with listed exceptions for wild boar and predators; this binds bowhunters too.
• Firearms Act, § 7 (1) e): a bow with a draw force over 150 N is a category D weapon, owned from 18 without a licence, carried with an identity document and not visibly in public places. The export and import document of § 40 does not cover this category.
• Sanction: hunting by a prohibited method is poaching under § 310 of the Criminal Code, with up to two years. Carrying a bow in a hunting ground is not itself an offence, but the hunting guard may demand the licence and permit from anyone carrying bows and crossbows (§ 29).

Foreign hunters

• § 51 (5): the regional chamber issues the licence for foreigners, for at most the length of the permitted stay, to a person over 18 who presents a document entitling them to hunt issued abroad or a certified copy, and who is insured and pays the fee. Without that document the chamber refuses the licence (§ 51 (7) a)). The act says “issued abroad”, not “in the country of residence”; the chamber’s frequently asked questions speak of the country the hunter comes from, as a rule the licence or permit. The exam is a condition only of the citizen’s licence (§ 51 (4) c)); a foreigner does not need it, though the chamber’s exam instructions let citizens of other EU states and other foreigners sit it, in Slovak or through a certified interpreter paid by the candidate. No text we read says that the Slovak exam can stand in for the document issued abroad. Licences run for a week, a month, one, five or ten years (§ 51 (3)); the application goes to the chamber where the hunt starts (regulation, § 70 (2)).
• § 52: insurance is compulsory, foreigners included, with at least 150,000 € for injury or death and 3,000 € for property damage per event.
• § 53: whoever is in a hunting ground with a weapon for hunting carries the licence and the hunting permit issued by the preserve’s operator, nominal and listing species, sex, age class, number and period. Individual hunting is done alone or with a hunting guide (§ 55 (3)); no text makes the guide mandatory.
• No document specific to the bow exists in the current law.

Seasons

The implementing regulation sets national seasons for the hoofed species held in preserves; in a zvernica the species it is built for may also be hunted through January, and the mouflon ram all year. Piglets, yearlings, sika and white-tailed deer have no closed season.

Before you go

This page describes the Slovak texts as they stood on the date below. A new hunting act with a chapter on bowhunting was drafted in 2025 and may reach parliament; if it passes, the preserve limit, the exam and the documents for foreigners would change, so ask for the number of the act in force. Ask the preserve for its recognition decision and its internal rules, and the regional chamber what it accepts as your home document. The final check is yours.