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..
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. =)
