Danish hunting exam 2026how to pass and get your hunting licence

What is the Danish hunting exam?

The hunting exam (jagtprøven) is the exam you must pass to be entered in the Hunting Licence Register (Jagttegnsregistret) and to be able to obtain a hunting licence (jagttegn) in Denmark. It has two parts: a written (theory) test and a practical test. You must pass the written part before you can go on to the practical one.

• Written test: 40 questions, answered by ticking boxes, in no more than 30 minutes. You need at least 36 correct answers, i.e. no more than 4 mistakes. Questions you skip count as mistakes.
• Practical test: safe handling of a shotgun while moving through terrain, judging the shooting distance to 6 game figures (at least 5 correct, answer within 5 seconds) and shooting at 4 clay targets.

You may not bring a mobile phone or any other aids. The rules are set out in the Hunting Licence Order (jagttegnsbekendtgørelsen, BEK nr. 238 af 27. februar 2025) and in the Instructions for the hunting exam 2026 (Instruks for jagtprøven 2026).

Requirements and registration

To register for the hunting exam you must:

• have completed the compulsory hunting licence course (jagttegnskursus), and your course instructor must have reported this,
• have a permanent residence (folkeregisteradresse – registered address in the Civil Registration System) in Denmark,
• be 16 or turn 16 in the calendar year in which you take the exam.

If you are under 18 on the day of the exam, you must bring a physical consent form (samtykkeerklæring) signed by the person(s) with parental responsibility.

You pay and register with MitID on Mit jagttegn. You must register no later than 12 noon, 3 days before the exam. If you cannot attend, you must cancel at least 4 days before – otherwise you have used one attempt and must pay the fee again. On the day of the exam you must show photo ID with your personal identification number (personnummer).

Hunting exams are generally held in April–June and September–October, but this may vary locally. See the hunting exam page of the Danish Agency for Green Transition and Aquatic Environment (Styrelsen for Grøn Arealomlægning og Vandmiljø, SGAV).

How much does the hunting exam cost?

• Hunting exam: 456 kr. exam fee (last adjusted 1 January 2026).
• Hunting licence: 680 kr. for the hunting year 2026/2027, including the compulsory hunting insurance.
• Shotgun test (haglskydeprøve): 272 kr. · Rifle test (riffelprøve): 268 kr. (both last adjusted 1 January 2026).

The exam fees are adjusted every year on 1 January. If you do not turn up or cancel too late, you must pay a new fee. The prices come from SGAV and borger.dk.

Topics in the written test

According to SGAV's guidelines for the written hunting exam, the questions come from 8 topics:

1. Species identification (knowledge of game) and wildlife biology
2. Wildlife management
3. Hunting weapons and ammunition
4. Other hunting legislation – e.g. hunting seasons, damage caused by game, hunting methods, species protection and the hunting licence
5. Handling of killed game
6. Hunting ethics and etiquette
7. Hunting technique and leading a hunt
8. Shooting with rifle and shotgun

You will meet yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions, pictures of hunting situations in which you must judge safety, pictures for species identification and common hunting terms.

On Prøveklar the 294 practice questions are divided into 11 categories: hunting seasons · hunting rights and hunting practice · hunting methods and equipment · hunting weapons and ammunition · safety and weapon handling · hunting licence and tests · wildlife damage and culling · wildlife management, protection and release · wildlife biology · handling game after the kill · tracking wounded game, hunting ethics and hunting terms.

Common mistakes – and how to avoid them

• Learning the hunting seasons all at once. You need to know the general hunting seasons month by month. Learn them in groups (deer, ducks, geese, gamebirds, etc.) and note where sex makes a difference – e.g. roe buck and roe doe, or common eider, where only the male has an open season. See also our overview of hunting seasons 2026/27.
• Exceptions that change the answer. Many questions turn on a single detail: the fishery territory (fiskeriterritoriet), arable land in crop rotation (omdriftsarealer) or local hunting seasons. Read the whole question before you choose.
• Safety pictures. Judge only what can actually be seen in the picture. According to the guidelines, a broken/open gun counts as unloaded.
• Blank answer. An unanswered question counts as a mistake – it is better to tick something than nothing.
• Time. 30 minutes for 40 questions gives you 45 seconds per question. Practise under the same time pressure so that it does not catch you off guard.

After the hunting exam: hunting licence and shooting tests

Once you have passed, you are entered in the Hunting Licence Register and can obtain a hunting licence. A hunting licence is valid for one hunting year (jagtår), from 1 April to 31 March, and must be renewed every year. Before you can renew it, you must report your game bag (vildtudbytte) – even if you have not shot anything.

• Shotgun hunting: requires a passed shotgun test.
• Rifle hunting: requires a compulsory rifle shooting course (riffelskydeforløb) and a passed rifle test.
• Bow hunting: requires a bow hunting course (buejagtkursus) and a passed bow hunting test (buejagtprøve).

You must obtain a hunting licence at least once within 10 years to stay in the register. Otherwise you will be removed and must take the course and the hunting exam again.

Did you fail? After the course you have up to 3 attempts (no more than 3 written and 3 practical tests) within 18 months. After failing the written test, you can retake it 14 days later at the earliest. Each new attempt requires a new fee.

How to practise for the hunting exam with Prøveklar

• Free test: 10 hunting exam questions, so you can see where you stand.
• Full training: 294 questions with an explanation and a reference to the rule the answer is based on.
• Exam simulation: 40 questions, 30 minutes and the pass mark of 36 correct – the same conditions as the real written test.
• Every question and answer also in English – hover over it, or tap “EN” on your phone – plus an explanation in English, if Danish is not your first language.

The questions are written by Prøveklar based on the current rules. They are not the official exam questions, and no practice test can guarantee that you pass. Use them alongside your hunting licence course.