Hunting rules

Here you learn to use the hunting season table: a list showing which species may be hunted right now on your ground, which are allowed soon and which are closed.

Can't see Hunting rules in your app?

The Hunting rules tile arrived in version 1.12. If it is missing from your home screen, update the app.

What is the season table?

Hunting seasons in Sweden are set by law and differ between counties. The table in the app collects the dates for your county in one place, species by species. No more searching the web in the middle of a hunt.

Everyone in the team can see the table, including guest hunters. It is available both in the app and on the web at jaktli.se. In the app the Hunting rules tile is on the home screen, on the web you find Hunting rules in the menu on the left.

Remember that the table is guidance, not the law itself. At the bottom of the page you see which hunting year the table covers, with links to the hunting act, the hunting ordinance, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the County Administrative Board. When in doubt, always check the source.

How to read the table

The start page shows one card per group. Tap a card to see the species in that group:

• Huntable now: the species may be hunted today.
• Allowed soon: the season starts within a month. The app shows how many days are left.
• Not allowed now: the season has not started or has ended.
• Protective hunting only: the species has no ordinary season, but may be hunted to prevent damage. Read more below.
• Licence hunting only: the species is hunted only through separate decisions from the County Administrative Board, for example bear. Read more below.
• Not huntable: the species has no season at all this year. This is verified information, not a gap in the app.

On the web, the browser back button takes you back to the cards.

Each species is shown with one or more boxes. Every box is a separate kind of rule, and the heading at the top of the box says which one:

• General season: the season set out in the law.
• Protective hunting: hunting allowed to prevent damage, on the stated conditions.
• County Administrative Board decisions: decisions for your county, for example licence hunting for bear with a quota.
• Team rule: what you have decided yourselves on your ground. The box has a green background so it stands out.

Each season is shown briefly: the species or type of animal, then the dates. Tap the line itself to open the conditions and the link to the law text. The arrow in front of a line shows that there is more to read.

If your ground lies in more than one county and the dates differ between them, the line says which county it covers.

Some species have several rows, for example moose where adult and calf can have different dates. Dates are shown as "8 Oct to 31 Jan". "All year" means the species may be hunted every day.

If the app has no data for a species, it is shown in the "No data" group at the bottom. Missing data does not mean hunting is forbidden or allowed, only that the app cannot answer. The app therefore separates knowing that a species may not be hunted from not knowing anything at all.

Licence hunting

Bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine have no ordinary season. They are hunted through licence hunting instead: the County Administrative Board decides each year whether hunting may take place in the county, how many animals may be taken and during which period. The bear hunt normally starts on 21 August. Grey seal and harbour seal are also hunted through licence hunting, with decisions from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

If a decision exists for your county, it is shown in the table under the heading County Administrative Board decisions: the period, how many animals may be taken and a link to the decision.

Remember that licence hunting can be called off early, as soon as the quota is filled. The app does not see how many animals have already been taken. Always check the current status with the County Administrative Board before you hunt, for example via the link next to the decision.

Protective hunting

Some species may be hunted to prevent damage, in addition to the ordinary season. This is called protective hunting (skyddsjakt) and is set out in the hunting ordinance. The table shows these dates under their own heading, Protective hunting, together with the conditions that apply.

Read the conditions carefully. Protective hunting is only allowed in the situations the law describes, for example animals causing damage at the farm, in commercial cultivation or at fields with unharvested crops.

A few species, for example mouflon, mink and raccoon dog, have no ordinary season at all. They may instead be hunted all year to prevent damage, because they count as non-native species. They are shown in the Protective hunting only group.

The right county

The app works out which county your hunting ground is in, using the ground boundary on the map. The county is shown at the top of the page.

Is it wrong, or has the team not drawn a boundary? Then an administrator can pick the county manually in Team settings. This works both in the app and on the web.

In Värmland, Dalarna and Gävleborg the northern part of the county has different moose dates. If your ground is in one of these counties the app asks you to pick which part you hunt in. Pick the right part, otherwise the moose dates may show wrong.

Looking at another county

Hunting somewhere else? At the top of the Hunting rules page there is a box showing which county is displayed. Tap it and pick another county, and that county's dates are shown instead. Everyone in the team can do this, and it changes nothing for the team.

While you are viewing another county this is stated clearly at the top, together with a Back to your county button. Remember two things:

• Your team's own rules are not applied. They cover your own ground, not the ground you are travelling to.
• The choice is not saved. The next time you open Hunting rules your own county is shown again, so you never read the wrong county's dates by mistake during a hunt.

Your team's own rules

Many teams have rules stricter than the law. Maybe you never shoot fox, or only hunt roebuck in September. An administrator can enter this per species. In the app the Team rules button is at the top of the table, on the web the same button is at the top of the Hunting rules page:

• Narrow the season: the team hunts the species only during part of the legal season.
• Not hunted here: the species is protected on your ground. It is shown struck through in the table.
• Note: a free text visible to everyone, for example "One buck per hunter".

Team rules can never extend the legal season, only narrow it.

Requires administrator role

Only secretaries and hunt leaders can change the team's own rules and pick the county.

Calendar markers

When a season opens or closes, a small marker is shown in the team calendar, for example "Moose opens". Tap the marker to open the table. The markers are shown both in the app and on the web. On the web there is also a box under the calendar, Season changes this month, listing every change in the month.