The Province of Turin has decided to increase the difficulty of the exams for the issue of the hunting license so that only truly deserving candidates can achieve it.
The intent is to enable new, more prepared hunters and above all who are aware of the fact that the rifle they carry is in effect a weapon, therefore that they know how to use it adequately without harming themselves or others. .
To this end, for the Province of Turin, from November the practice test for obtaining the hunting qualification will take place at the Perosa Argentina (TO) polygon where a dedicated area has been specially set up with artificial environments and mobile targets to test both the preparation in the use of the weapons of the candidates who and their reflexes.
The new verification methods, as part of the revision project, will already start with the next selections to be held next November. In addition to the theoretical tests, the practical test will be carried out at the shooting range where aspiring hunters will undertake to face "different field situations, artificially created with the use of electromechanical equipment and audiovisual media".
In fact, inside the Perosa Argentina polygon native natural habitats have been reconstructed, from woods to lakes within which moving targets representing hunting prey such as wild boar, deer, roe deer, or birds such as ducks, pheasants, partridges move, set at different distances and conditions, that is, moving among the vegetation, rocks and fences.
The purpose of this new type of exam is precisely to stimulate and verify the reflexes of the candidates as well as verify that they know the correct handling of weapons.
The Councilor for Agriculture, Mountains, Protection of fauna and flora, Parks and protected areas of the Province of Turin, Marco Balagna, explains that it is a national innovation and that the test will be evaluated by a sub-commission composed of an expert in weapons and ballistics and at least one second commissioner: “All in a dedicated structure based in Perosa Argentina. Candidates for the release of the qualification will benefit from it and those who, already in possession of the license, want to test themselves during the year ". The Polygon area thus equipped could also be made available to the provincial wildlife guards.
The director of the Flora and Fauna Protection Service of the Province of Turin, Gianfranco Righero, makes it known that the final theory test will also become more thorough and objective with new exam methods: “By distributing multiple choice closed questions that focus on all the subjects being examined. Candidates, despite being faced with known questions - the total amounts to about 800 - must have a broad knowledge of all the exam subjects ", ie notions on sector regulations, zoology applied to hunting, notions of protection of the environment and agricultural crops, knowledge of weapons and ammunition, notions of ethics and hunting ethics and, last but not least, knowledge of the practice of first aid intervention.
Therefore the Province of Turin wants to guarantee, with this new initiative focused on a more objective and rigorous selection, that the hunters it has enabled are truly deserving of this "qualification".