A long, long time ago, I had to complete a two-year course !!!!!
Two years.
1,5 year course and half a year repetition of the whole.
It was not without exaggeration called the "green baccalaureate" (dont know an other word for our Abitur)
30-40% of the participants disappeared after six weeks at the latest, when they realized how much material had to be learned (botany, hunting law, forest law, gun law, dog handling, game diseases, agriculture and biotope improvements and and and).
These people wanted to get their guns legally( Pimps and colleagues)
And a third failed in the end.
Today it has become much, much easier.But ultimately not better.
There have never been so many poorly trained hunters in Germany as there are at present.
Sic transit.........
So many similarities, in Croatia.
Croatian hunting culture came from K und K empire, with mostly Austrian influence, which has (I believe) absolute similarities with German hunting culture and tradition.
This came from period, of last years of 19th the century, and beginning of 20th century when oldest hunting clubs are formed under full Austrian influence, and contemporary etiquette was then formed, and then passed on from generation to generation of Croatian hunters.
This hunting culture included the way how hunter should dress (dress code), fire arm culture (popular kiplaufs, drillings, bavarian stocks etc), respect for game after the hunt, hunters horn, etc etc...
And so it was till not so many years ago:
A hunter should be apprentice in club for 2 years before taking exam. (without gun permit)
He would have mentor in his hunting club. Then would make 2 months course - gun laws, biology, ecology, ballistic, basic veterinary medicine, animals deceases, dog handling, breeding, training and dog certifications, etc, and only then if passing exam would make hunting certificate (if he makes exam at all, there was percentage of failures on exam).
those were the old days.
Then they reduced apprenticeship to 1 year + 2 months course
Then they revoked apprenticeship fully, and implemented course per subject per required lesson hours.
So now, course can be speeded up to two weeks, or sometimes stretched to 2 months, few hours per day.
Next phase: Then they certified private schools to make hunting courses, which do not want anybody failing exam, because they will loose the clients.
And so it became: "shall issue" system. Nobody fails exam today.
As a result, now we have, what you have described:
There have never been so many poorly trained hunters in Germany (Croatia)as there are at present.
But I will disagree at one point:
I have met several (average?) German hunters in group hunts, here and there, and my impression is that German training and certification system still has upper quality compared to ours.
I congratulate you for that, despite what you have described.
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