Federal seasons that each Land may restrict
The federal ministry sets hunting seasons by regulation; the Länder may shorten or abolish them.
German hunting seasons are not in the Act itself: § 22 of the Federal Hunting Act entrusts the competent federal ministry with determining by regulation the periods during which game may be hunted, and reserves to the Länder the power to shorten or abolish them. The applicable regulation is the Ordinance on Hunting Seasons of 2 April 1977, last amended on 7 March 2018. Its § 1 sets the federal window species by species: red deer from 1 August to 31 January, roebucks from 1 May to 15 October, does from 1 September to 31 January, brown hare from 1 October to 15 January. § 1(2) opens year-round hunting on wild boar, European rabbit and fox, subject to § 22(4) BJagdG. The dates that actually apply in the field remain those of the Land.