The history of Hungary is in many ways different from the history of the countries from which the hunting guest is planning to travel to our country. Until the Second World War, the structure of land ownership, the property relations and thus the fate of hunting, were in many ways similar to the structure of the countryside of democratic countries.
However, after the Second World War the country came under Soviet rule thus the fate of private property was sealed. Agricultural lands were nationalized and production was provided by production cooperatives established in each village. In the forests, State Forestry Companies were established, which carried out game management in the forests under their authority. From the beginning of the 1960s, until the change of regime, i.e. until 1989, the forestry companies built many high-quality hunting lodges in the Hungarian forests. The success of hunting guests departing from these hunting lodges laid the foundation for the reputation of Hungarian hunting, which still resonates well in Western European hunting circles today.
One of the golden ages of Hungarian Hunting in the recent past lasted from the 1960s until the years of 1989. There were several reasons for this; perhaps the most important being that there was no private property, thus there was no game damage in the capitalist sense. The farming organisations settled the game damages among themselves, game farmers maintained large game populations and from these large populations, according to the law of large numbers, plus variants emerged: Red deer world ranking 3rd place in Karapancsa in 1986, 271 IP, world ranking 7th place in Pusztakovácsi in 1981, 269.89 IP
Between 1970 and 1987 there was a fallow deer resettlement program, during which fallow deer were resettled in 81 places in the country.
In less forested regions hunting associations were formed where local residents could indulge their passion and as everyone was an employee in that era, there were no major differences among the members of each hunting association, they could work well together and had free time, since they worked fixed hours. Many village hunting associations built pheasant rearing facilities and released such quantities of pheasants that so-called "delivery hunts" were held, when on a given weekend they would deliver hundreds of birds shot to the State Game Purchaser (MAVAD).
Unfortunately, even during this period, the natural small game population had already declined, due to intensive agricultural cultivation and chemical use. Therefore, a pheasant breeding programme was launched, supporting hunting rights holders to establish small game breeding sites.
The political elite also hunted, protocol territories were maintained, my father, who served on such a territory, was also responsible for organizing professional large-scale pheasant hunts. In 1966 he was given the task of establishing a small game breeding farm in the Lenes Forest (its area is 600 hectares) and to organise large-scale pheasant hunts in this forest using the birds raised there. This succeeded - in January 1987, 14 hunters killed 8974 cock pheasants in a single day. This is now part of hunting history.
The change of regime came in 1989.
Fortunately for the Hungarian game population, the privatisation of the state-owned forest farms did not take place, thus to this day uniform game management is carried out in the large state forests to some extent. Obviously, with the emergence of private property, the assessment of damage caused by game fell into a completely different category. Thus began the reduction of the game population and the construction of various game protection fences.
The hunting association form was retained and the new hunting law enacted in 2017 also set the minimum size of hunting areas at 3,000 hectares. I believe this benefits the game population. Thus, the legal conditions for quality Hungarian game management have been preserved.
The change of regime resulted in a complete social re-stratification of Hungarian society, while in Western European societies the formation of landholding systems evolved over centuries to their present form; in Hungary this took place within a few years. Among those living in the countryside many were forced to move to the city or seek work abroad following the dissolution of production cooperatives and thus gave up hunting.
However, many people who acquired land ownership began to hunt, so the total number of hunters roughly remained the same.
In general, it can be said that the standard of hunting services provided by the State Forestry is good, the primary reason being that they hold the hunting rights over the largest forest areas and that due to their forestry activities they possess a high level of economic stability.
The vast majority of hunting rights holders operating in the form of hunting associations also sell hunts, thus supplementing the annual membership fees and revenue from the sale of game meat. The standard of these hunts varies greatly, in some places game only moves after sunset, but there are also private hunting associations that offer excellent hunting opportunities.
Hunting Regions of Hungary
In terms of game species that can be hunted, the territory of Hungary can broadly be divided into 3 different regions, these regions are as follows:
- Transdanubia (Dunántúl)
- Central Mountain Region (Középhegységi-régió)
- Great Plain (Alföld)
Transdanubia
Transdanubia, which is the part of the country lying west of the Danube, which is bordered by the Danube from the east and the national border to the north, west and south.
Its characteristic landform is hilly, characterised by a varied landscape, valleys, hills, streams, winding roads, lakes blocked by valley-closing dams but there are also larger flat areas such as: Mezőföld and the Small Plain (Kisalföld) but these are less typical.
The Transdanubian Mountains divide Transdanubia in two; south of which lies the Transdanubian Hills and north of which lies the region known as the Small Plain (Kisalföld).
The Mecsek Central Mountains lie north of the city of Pécs, while the Alpokalja Central Mountain region is located on the western state border. In terms of game species that can be hunted, these two regions are also considered part of Transdanubia.
In Transdanubia all four of our big game species that can be hunted can be found almost everywhere: red deer, fallow deer, wild boar and roe deer; while a larger population of mouflon occurs only in the Transdanubian Central Mountains region north of Lake Balaton.
The best red deer population is clearly found in Southern Transdanubia.
Typical forest associations are pedunculate oak, Turkey oak and sessile oak forests, in poorer sites black locust can be found, while beech grows in the Central Mountain region and in cooler, rainier growing areas.
Central Mountain Region
It extends from the western tip of Lake Balaton to the north-eastern corner of the country; west of the Danube it is called the Transdanubian Central Mountains, while east of the Danube it is called the Northern Central Mountains.
Two separate central mountain regions are the Mecsek and the Alpine foothills (Alpokalja). Characteristic forest types are sessile oak and Turkey oak forests, hornbeam woods and in higher regions beech forests.
All five Hungarian game species that can be hunted can be found in this region. Typically, the red deer have medium trophy sizes, the mouflon is found everywhere except in the Mecsek and the Alpine foothills (Alpokalja), with the best horn sizes in the region above Lake Balaton. The fallow deer occurs in isolated populations, the roe deer with medium trophy sizes.
The wild boar population has most significantly declined in this central mountainous region due to African swine fever.
Great Plain
The Great Plain is the Hungarian landscape, the Puszta, where one could see almost to infinity, this was once true. It extends east of the Danube to the ridge of the Eastern Carpathians.
After Hungary joined the European Union, many afforestation programmes were announced, thus forest strips and smaller or larger forest patches appeared one after another in the Great Plain as well. However, the dominant landscape to this day remains the large-scale agricultural areas, pastures and the wasteland.
The primary big game species of the Great Plain is the roe deer, with the largest population and the best trophy weights coming from this region.
The role of small game is also the most significant in this region, unfortunately, due to large-scale agriculture, monoculture farming and the extensive use of chemicals; the natural small game population is declining. To counter this, many hunting associations release pheasants, thereby providing small game hunting opportunities in the winter both for their hunting guests and for themselves.