New Shooting Facility for Hobby Hunters in Zurich on the Brink of Bankruptcy

The site was littered with the remains of clay pigeons and ammunition.

Various pollutants had accumulated in the soil. The ground was excavated to a depth of between 20 and 80 centimetres. The contaminated material was treated in soil washing and processing facilities in the region, sorted, recycled into construction materials where possible, and otherwise incinerated in specialist furnaces or safely disposed of in landfills. Approximately 320 tonnes of lead and around 10 tonnes of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were thus removed from the natural environment. To minimise the impact of construction work on the valuable flora and fauna, the remediation was carried out in two phases between 2021 and 2025. The cost to taxpayers amounts to approximately 19 million Swiss francs.

Just two years ago, in the summer of 2023, following significant protests from conservationists over the untenable conditions in Embrach, one of the largest and most modern shooting facilities in Europe was opened in Bülach at a cost of 30 million Swiss francs in public funds. The problem: there are not enough shooters — and now, following catastrophic planning failures and misjudgements by hobby hunters, bankruptcy is already looming. The canton must now bail out the private joint-stock company with 3.5 million Swiss francs in taxpayer money, as the Tagesanzeiger reports.

Following the closure of the shooting facility in Embrach, it is the only location where hobby hunters from across the entire canton of Zurich can fulfil the mandatory marksmanship certification required for hunting.

Since 2015, every hobby hunter in Switzerland has been required to periodically pass a shooting test before being permitted to go hobby hunting.

The hobby hunter fires a total of eight shots, four with shotgun pellets and four with bullets. The latter are fired from a distance of 100 metres at a ten-ring target. Hits on the eight, nine, and ten rings count as valid. With the rifle, the hobby hunter shoots from 30 metres at a moving target, such as a clay pigeon. Out of all eight shots, the marksman must record at least one hit. Otherwise, the test is considered failed. However, the hobbyhunter may make as many attempts as desired. This means: even the least talented or a partially blind person will eventually be able to demonstrate sufficient hits. 

In terms of accuracy, the figures for hunting accidents and tracking incidents show no significant changes since the introduction of the periodic shooting test.

A bankruptcy of the hunting shooting range in Bülach would mean that hobby hunters could no longer train there. According to a recently published cantonal government decision, this is exactly what is threatened.

Less than 50 kilometres away in the neighbouring canton, after lengthy discussions, the Thurgau hobby hunters are also set to receive a new hunting shooting range in 2029. The planned Heckemos shooting training centre in Müllheim is intended to offer them new and better facilities than before.

Hobby hunting protects and benefits nothing whatsoever. Neither wildlife, biodiversity, nor the taxpayer. The IG Wild beim Wild has been pointing this out for years.

Particularly with regard to hobby hunting, it is absolutely essential that the public scrutinises matters very closely. Nowhere else is manipulation through falsehoods so rampant. Violence and lies are two sides of the same coin. Hobby hunting, not only in the canton of Zurich, has for decades been nothing other than a permanently costly construction site and source of conflict for politics, forestry, agriculture, administrations, the judiciary, health insurers, insurance companies, animal protection organisations, environmental and nature conservation organisations, the police, federal authorities, the media, and so on. The canton of Zurich does not need nearly as many wildlife wardens as it would take to easily compensate for the damages and costs by abolishing hobby hunters.