Game Management Authority: Victorian hunters face mandatory shooting tests

Testing of Victorian hunters’ shooting proficiency is set become mandatory as part of a major rewrite of state regulations.

Testing is likely to be based on a mixture of online and practical shooting to ensure duck hunters choose the right ammunition and chokes for their guns, plus took ethical shots of birds no more than 30m away.

Testing of Victorian hunters’ shooting proficiency is set become mandatory as part of a major rewrite of the state’s Wildlife (Game) Regulations, due early in the New Year.

The Game Management Authority and Field and Game Australia have already backed the move to adopt proficiency testing as part of the Government’s wounding reduction action plan.

FGA chief executive Dean O’Hara said the moveGame Management Authoritybut “was the right thing to do”, to ensure the future of duck hunting in Victoria.

The GMA has already adopted the recommendations of a 2017 independent review that calls for hunters to undertake mandatory shooter proficiency training and has called on the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions to consider incorporating mandatory proficiency testing in the remaking of the regulations.

The independent review by the Pegasus consultancy recommended “prospective duck hunters demonstrate their attendance at a Shotgunning Education Program prior to the issue of a duck hunting licence and that similar courses be developed for the holders of other categories of hunting licences”, such as deer and quail.

FGA has told The Weekly Times it expects testing will be based on a mixture of online and practical shooting to ensure duck hunters chose the right ammunition and chokes for their guns, plus took ethical shots of birds no more than 30m away.

Australian Deer Hunting Association executive officer Barry Howlett said that while the group was supportive of proficiency testing, access to ranges to both practice and undertake tests was limited.

Mr Howlett said there were only three rifle ranges – Wodonga, Buchan and Little River – that met the criteria, which was not enough given the distances many hunters would have to travel.

The GMA has already investigated Denmark’s proficiency training program, which, like other Scandinavian countries, requires hunters to pass both written and practical tests.

Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas has also previously stated she would “consider mandatory shooter proficiency testing as part of the review and remaking of the regulations”.

In the meantime the Government today announced $5.3 million to renew Victoria’s four-year Sustainable Hunting Action Plan, which includes new grants for community initiatives will be available under the strategy to fund a range of activities such as regional game food events, habitat restoration and conservation projects, hunter education and research.

The strategy also outlines the need for better access to information about hunting locations by enhancing the “More to Explore App”, as well as new education programs through online learning modules and improving animal welfare through wounding reduction action plans.