Active coverage

Austria

Regulations are sorted by topic; every block links back to its official source and verification date.

Researched

Regulations by topic

Permits

The Jagdkarte, issued by the Land

Each Land issues its own hunting card; in Lower Austria the examination must be no more than twenty years old.

The Austrian hunting card, the Jagdkarte, is issued by the Land and not by the federation; its conditions therefore vary from one Land to another. Lower Austria offers a documented example: § 58 of the NÖ Hunting Act 1974 makes issue conditional on payment of the hunting card fee including the association contribution, on the applicant's hunting aptitude, and on the absence of a ground for refusal under § 61. For a first issue, that aptitude is established by passing an examination, and the text specifies that it must not date back more than twenty years. The other Länder follow comparable logic — hunting examination, membership of the Land association, reliability check — but with their own thresholds and procedures. The Land's own act, available on RIS, must therefore be consulted before any application.

Seasons

Seasons set Land by Land

There is no national calendar: each Land sets its own open and closed seasons by ordinance.

There is no Austria-wide hunting calendar. Open and closed seasons — Schusszeiten and Schonzeiten — are set by each Land, generally through an ordinance separate from the hunting act: in Lower Austria the NÖ Hunting Ordinance complements the NÖ Hunting Act 1974. Dates differ from one Land to another for the same species, according to local conditions and population status. A hunter arriving from abroad therefore cannot reason at national scale: they must identify the Land, then the ordinance in force for the current season, both published in the Federal Legal Information System. The same species may thus be open to hunting on one side of a Land border and protected on the other.

Species

No national list of huntable species

Each Land sets its own list; a species may be huntable in one Land and protected in the next.

The list of huntable species is set by each Land, in its hunting act and its ordinances. There is no Austrian equivalent of § 2 of the German Federal Hunting Act or Art. 5 of the Swiss Act: a species may be huntable in one Land and protected in the neighbouring one, depending on local population status and the regional legislature's choices. European Union law nonetheless frames the whole, in particular the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive, which the Länder transpose into their texts. In practice this means opening the hunting act of the Land concerned on the Federal Legal Information System, then its implementing ordinance, to check both the status of the species and the period during which it may be taken.

Weapons and ammunition

Federal firearms law, calibres set by the Land

The Weapons Act 1996 applies nationwide; which weapons are allowed for hunting is Land law.

Firearms law, by contrast, is federal: the Weapons Act 1996 applies throughout Austria and governs the acquisition, possession and carrying of firearms, irrespective of hunting use. Which weapons and ammunition are actually permitted for hunting — minimum calibres by species, magazine capacity, permitted or prohibited devices — depends instead on the hunting act and ordinance of the Land. The two levels stack: lawfully possessing a weapon under the Weapons Act is not enough if the calibre is not permitted for the species in the Land where one hunts. A hunter arriving from abroad must also check the conditions for temporarily bringing the weapon into Austria, which likewise fall under federal firearms law.

Safety

Safety rules specific to each Land

With no federal competence, distances, drives and signalling are set by Land law.

Like seasons and species, hunting safety rules are set by each Land in its hunting act and ordinances: distances to observe, organisation of drives, signalling, conditions for taking a shot. There is no Austrian federal baseline here, the federation having no competence over hunting. Training in these rules comes through the Land's hunting examination, a condition for the first issue of the Jagdkarte. A hunter moving from one Land to another therefore cannot carry over habits acquired elsewhere: they must re-read the rules applicable in the Land concerned, published in the Federal Legal Information System, along with the instructions of whoever is leading the hunt.

Regulations

No federal hunting act: nine Land regimes

The residual clause of Art. 15 B-VG leaves hunting to the nine Länder, each with its own act and ordinances.

Austria has no federal hunting act. The Federal Constitutional Act (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz, B-VG) lays down a residual competence clause in Art. 15(1): «Soweit eine Angelegenheit nicht ausdrücklich durch die Bundesverfassung der Gesetzgebung oder auch der Vollziehung des Bundes übertragen ist, verbleibt sie im selbständigen Wirkungsbereich der Länder» — whatever the Constitution does not expressly assign to the federation remains within the Länder's own sphere. As hunting is not among the federal competences, it falls entirely to the nine Länder, each with its own hunting act (Landesjagdgesetz) and implementing ordinances. There is therefore no single Austrian licence, no national calendar and no national list of huntable species: what applies is the law of the Land where one hunts, published in the Federal Legal Information System (RIS).