Hunting with bows

[jenstar]

According to Ray Mears, hunting animals with bows is now illegal in the UK. When was it made illegal?

[New Forester]

I saw that programme too -- he's very good, isn't he? Made me come over all hunter-gatherery. I'm not sure he's completely right though -- perhaps a telly simplification? It is certainly illegal to hunt birds with a bow (Section 5 of Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and perhaps earlier Acts). Also deer -- these (even muntjacs!) must be killed with a rifle above a minimum power, which rules out bows as well as smaller rifles, shotguns, catapults etc (don't know which legislation, but there are various Deer Acts). I'm not sure about other animals such as rabbits though. About 25 years ago I had a friend who was a competition-standard archer, and he regularly shot bunnies with rubber-tipped arrows (target ones apparently go through without killing them quickly enough, but the solid rubber hits them so hard they die instantly). Don't know if it was legal. I've also seen people with similar rubber-tipped quarrels for a crossbow. Of course if you did it round here you'd have your fingers cut off and be put in the stocks for a week...

[Drewhound]

Me too, but can I take him with me? I'm to old to go without food if I'm not successful lol According to this site it is illegal under the 1981 act, scroll down to section 11 http://www.naturenet.net/law/wcagen.html It also seems to suggest Larsen traps are illegal, I didn't know that either so maybe I'll do some more research on this

[RogerK]

Larsen traps are legal as long as you check them every 24hrs and provide food and bedding etc for the bait bird.

[Drewhound]

That's what I thought RogerK, perhaps I read it wrongly, the link certainly seems to know its business

[New Forester]

Drewhound - Yes, that's right. It's S 11 (1) (b), and it bans bow-hunting for all wild animals -- I'd got it muddled with S 2, which refers only to certain animals. The law on Larsen traps is under review at the moment -- it's somewhere on DEFRA's page: www.defra.gov.uk. They are talking about signs on the cage, and more regular checking. You also have to be careful with target species.

[New Forester]

As you'll have spotted immediately, of course I did not mean Section 2, but Section 11, subsection 2...