New CL55 night licence for deer stalkers demands caution, not haste

England's new CL55 licence lets deer stalkers shoot at night with a single annual registration instead of repeated permissions, and Shooting UK columnist Keith Edmunds argues the change deserves careful thought before stalkers lean on it this season.

Snapshot

Natural England's CL55 licence, introduced in February 2026, shifts night deer shooting from a case-by-case permission system to one of pre- and post-activity reporting. Edmunds, writing in Shooting UK, calls the coming season a milestone but questions what wider expansion of night shooting means for deer welfare, land access and the culture of stalking.

Key points

• How it works: Applicants meet one of four Natural England categories covering deer management and night-shooting experience, then notify Natural England before each operation and report species, sex, age class and location within 14 days, even if no deer were shot.
• Notification rules: Police and the local firearms licensing authority must be told at least 24 hours before night shooting at a new site for the first time.
• Tech timing: Edmunds notes the licence lands alongside cheaper, more capable thermal and digital night optics, meaning more licensed stalkers could be using better gear at once.
• Welfare and access worries: He warns that greater efficiency at night could mean fewer stalkers taking more deer, squeezing newcomers out of scarce stalking land.
• His own experience: Edmunds describes controlling a growing fallow herd using dawn and dusk thermal work rather than night licences, showing traditional methods can still disperse troublesome deer.

Quick take

For anyone building a night-shooting kit list, this is worth reading before the 1 November doe and hind season opens. Edmunds isn't against the licence, but his caution about efficiency, land access and deer welfare is a useful check before treating CL55 as simply a green light.

Read the full story: shootinguk.co.uk