Author Topic: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland  (Read 28883 times)

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Offline Strelets

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #30 on: February 02, 2018, 04:08:48 am »
Congratulations Rautasarvi,

Would a visitor from Britain be able to get a licence to hunt with a bow in Finland?

I was thinking about a trip to Finland for the fishing, but you have set me thinking that it might be possible to bowhunt there as well.  Here in Britain the only animals and birds that we can legally shoot with an arrow are the foam 3D versions.

Offline rautasarvi

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #31 on: February 06, 2018, 03:17:02 am »
First deer season for bow is now over in Finland. All went very nicely and there has been absolutely nothing to blame with bow hunting. All looks good for the future!
No accidents, no law breaking nor anything else.
This season was the first bow season for all mammals(except large predators) smaller than moose.
Legal game mammals for bow are:
european rabbit(this is not original Finnish mammal, but it has quite a large population in some cities. Originall pets, which has get loose. No european rabbits in real nature in Finland, they live only in cities.),
mountain hare,
european hare(not original, but quite old and lives almost all over Finland, itīs habitat is different from our original mountain hare. Mountain hares lives in large woods and european hares usually stays in fields and tiny forests nearby urban areas),
red squirrel,
eurasian beaver(this original mammal needs a lisencefor hunting),
american beaver(Not original in Finland but population is quite large and itīs free to hunt. It has brought here because of itīs fur in 1930 and itīs causing problems in many places),
muskrat,
nutria(there are no nutrias in Finnish nature, they canīt live there. This animal is in game animal list, because still in 1990 there were some places which keep nutrias and sometimes they get on the loose),
ranch arctic fox( wild arctic fox is totally protected animal in Finland, but ranch arctic foxes, which now and then runs from the ranches are legal to shoot. Usually those ranch animals does not survive in nature for long time),
red fox,
raccoon dog (originally comes from east asia and has brought to russia and from there it has come to finland. One of the most harmful animal for original birds like capercaillie, hazel grouse, black grouse etc. Actually there are a lot of competitions and other thing for hunting raccoon dogs so the population will not grow so fast)
raccoon (we donīt have any raccoons in nature. Raccoon is in our game animal list just in case if it some day will appear. Notice that raccoon(Procyon lotor) and raccoon dog(Nyctereutes procyonoides) are different species.
badger,
stoat,
polecat (quite rare nowdays)
pine marten,
american mink (not original, but very common everywhere in Finland nowdays. Brought here as a fur animal and because on american mink, our original european mink has gone totally. American mink is one of the most harmful little predator for water birds)
Next animals needs a bow shooting test and some of them needs also a lisence;
roedeer,
fallow deer(not original and population is very small in nature. Just in few little places in Finland)
red deer (has brought in Finland many times, but never it has been able to survive in Finnish nature. So there are no red deers in Finnish nature)
sika deer (some sika deers has been brought to Finland but they does not survive here)
whitetail deer (Needs a license. Not original here. Brought in 1930 from Virginia and it has been a great success. With moose, whitetaildeer has become the most important game animal in Finland)
finnish forest reindeer (Needs a license. A true Finnish animal, which lives only in Finland and a little part of northwest-russia)
mouflon (Not original animal. Brought to some islands in 1940 and they has survived very well. Strong population and mouflons are popular game with bow hunters)
wild boar (not a sigle wild boar has shot yet with bow! Finnish wild boars are large and very strong. Wild boar is free to hunt whole year)


Strelets; "Would a visitor from Britain be able to get a licence to hunt with a bow in Finland?"

Yes, thatś possible. Visitor needs to have a hunting lisence in his own home land. And also a bow shooting test needs to be completed. Shooting test can be made here in Finland and it needs to be completed before you can hunt whitetail deers.
In Finland we donīt have this tag-system as in USA. In our country visitors needs to ask visitor license from hunting clubs. Almost every village has their own club and they handle all the hunting.
In places where whitetail deer population are large, itś possible to get a visitor licenses.
Usually the costs are something like this; hunting day(no matter if you get something or not) is about 20-100 euros. If you got the deer, you have to buy it about 5€/kg. Usually corpse of adult doe is about 40-60kg, buck 50-90kg and fawns 20-30kg. Inserts, fur and head belongs always to the hunter. Many places have also antler-tax. Which is usually something like 8+ points 100€ and gold medal antlers 250 or more euros.
If You are interested I can give You info about my hunting club practice. Im secretary in our hunting club and a member of club government. Also I can info you about bow shooting exam as a legalized shooting exam supervisor(both rifle and bow).
 

Offline Strelets

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #32 on: February 06, 2018, 11:00:47 am »
Rautasarvi, thank you for your reply. Since 1982 it is illegal in Britain to shoot any animal or bird with an arrow, so bow-hunting licences do not exist in Britain.  We cannot legally shoot even rabbits, which are very plentiful and a great pest. Shooting deer with an arrow was made illegal in about 1965, when laws were made which stated the they could be taken only with a rifle.

It is good to see that Finland is being sensible about hunting with the bow.


Offline sleek

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #33 on: February 06, 2018, 08:06:53 pm »
The added expenses to a harvest sound at best, unreasonable and expensive!
Tread softly and carry a bent stick.

Dont seek your happiness through the approval of others

Offline GlisGlis

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #34 on: February 07, 2018, 05:21:17 am »
Quote
The added expenses to a harvest sound at best, unreasonable and expensive!

+1
Costs per meat kg and for horns are for visitors only or are they for residents too?
Looks like they introduced bowhunting as a money mill more than for sensibility to the sport

Offline rautasarvi

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #35 on: February 08, 2018, 02:21:51 am »
Strelets, hunting licence/card or hoe do you ever call it, is needed, not specific bow hunting license. =)
In our club this goes like this ( I placed You as a visitor in this example):

Strelets gives me for example e-mail and ask for possibility to come hunt whitetaildeer with bow.
First we accept/or not the request with hunting chiefs and club government. (Usually we accept, if there still is licenses to use and the person is trustworthy)
In this example we made adecision to accept Strelets request. Now I ask documents about Streletsīs hunting card. Strelets sends me a picture of the hunting card.
Strelets and me made a deal for the day he comes here to hunt. Itīs possible to come earlier to check the places and find a good place to hunt. So Strelets decides to come 15.11.2018 and be here to 18.11.2018. I reserve 2 licenses for him. (One license means one adult deer(no matter if itīs buck or doe) or two fawns. So with two licenses Strelets can shoot for example buck/doe and two fawns or four fawns or two bucks or two does. We have always very straight rules for club members what to shoot, but for visitors we always keep changes very free.
Strelets have no bow shooting exam done and in Finland itīs needed. So I have organized a shooting exam chance in the first day he come.
And of course he manages this exam greatly!
Our club have a great place for visitors to stay overnight and I drive Strelets to there. Next day Strelets can freely walk in the woods and find a good hunting places. And of course club members helps him and tells where are the best places.
FInally I took Strelets to the nice place, where have been a lot of deer-activity. Strelets stays there and I go away. Strelets have contact-person(thatīs me) and after he has shot a deer, he calls me and we get the deer and took it to game-handling building and skin it. Strelets continues hunting as he wish and after a couple of days he has got one buck and one fawn.
Costs for this hunting are: 3hunting days, 20€/each = 60€
Buck weight(skinned and butchered): 65kg x 5€ = 325€
Fawns weight: 23kg x 5€ = 115€
Overnights in hunting clubs cabin = 30€
All together = 470€
Furs, intestines, heads and antlers belong to hunter automaticly.

Also if needed, cutting the meet can be done by himself for free or by me, with little fee(I cut over 100 deers every year).
If the deer needs to track with a dog, club members have dogs and will helps with this.


Visitors can also hunt in nation lands. For these lands the licenses can be bought from Administration of Forests. Thatīs quite similar as the tag-system.

Very often foreign people does quite understand the way how we handle hunting organisation in Finland.
We have hunting clubs all over the country. The word "club" might sound a bit sophisticated, but actually hunting clubs are organizations handling certain areas where usually all the lands are rent from private people.
In Finland, right to hunt belongs to land owner. Land owner can give or rent this permission to second person/organization and mostly all the lands have been rent to local hunting club. Hunters in these clubs usually are all from this same area and they handle all the hunting in these areas. They harvest populations and keep the enviroment favourable for animals. Hunting clubs collects also information about animals and nature and gives these infos to scientific organizations etc.
So clubs works through the year, everyday. Clubs belongs to wider areas "game-care-organizations", which are a part of The Finnish Wildlife Agency and this main organization works under Finnish ministry of agriculture and forestry.
So hunting clubs really are not some funny clubs which are just hanging there and shooting some animals every now and then, even thatīs what Iīve hear sometimes, when people without any knowledge about this system talks..  :D

To hunt deers,(and all the other animals which needs specific hunting license) hunting clubs needs to make specific deer countings and game-care organizations collects these countings. The Finnish Wildlife Agency accepts the licenses for the "game-care-centrums" which shares the licenses to clubs, based on deer population in each clubs area.
Clubs buys these licenses and are also obliged to keep the population in a level which is lasting and healthy and keep a balance in nature. Members of the clubs usually buys licenses from the club and hunts deers as they hunt any game animals. Club members can use the whole area freely. Anyone can ask a membership for the clubs. Very often there needs to be some kind of connection to the area before itīs possible to join the club. That is simpy because membership obligates hunter to join all the work for game animals and enviroment. To join the club it cost usually something from 100€ to up 2000€, depending the size of the area etc. Yearly cost are mostly between 20€ and 200€. Members makes gamekeeping work and pays all the pays from their own pocket.
Clubs takes often visitors to hunt. Usually for example raccoon dog, fox, badger and mink are free to hunt for everyone. Thatīs because these animals makes a lot of harm and these animals are also overpopulated in many areas.
Rabbits, birds etc are usually very cheap to hunt for visitors. In our club for example itīs 5€/day.
Larger animals like lynx, moose, deers etc. are more specific and clubs needs to monitor the number of visitors much more careful. Of course there are a huge number of people who wants to come and shoot deers, but itīs impossible to let all these people to hunt.
Itīs almost a rule that the if there is hunting club in the area you live, you can join to this club. Many hunters chooses theit place to live because of hunting possibilities. So thats kind of a life time choose and makes sure that people in hunting clubs, really makes work for nature and hunting.
So, why visitors needs to pay "so much"? Hunting clubs very often have create a lot if infrastructure. Cottages, buildings for handling deers and moos, fields for game mammals etc. Also guiding visitors in hunting and handling game and guns. Organizing the hunting and taking care for the safety are also in response of clubs.
Population of all game are based on the work hunting club members are doing every day through the year. Visitor-costs are one way to collect funds for this work.

I hope this helped a bit to understand our system. I will happily explain more if needed. =)

Offline Strelets

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Re: First ever whitetail deer with primitive bow in Finland
« Reply #36 on: February 08, 2018, 10:09:12 am »
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation Rautasarvi.