Browsing ungulates are one of the most important determinants in regeneration dynamics. Although research on the impact of ungulates on forest ecosystems has become well established over the past few decades, direct links between different hunting regimes and sapling growth have been rarely reported. To address this need, we assessed the impact of a controlled and a lease hunting system on the sapling performance in lowland beech forests of Northwest Germany, investigating 111 randomly placed plots of 40 m² (2 x 20 m) with a total of 18,425 saplings. For each species, abundance, browsing status and size class were recorded during March and April 2007 and 2008. We applied generalised linear mixed models (GLMs) to account for the effects of distinct study plots. Overall and species-specific browsing intensity notably decreased under a controlled hunting regime, whereas sapling abundance and species composition of the current regeneration stages were not affected by hunting management. Our results demonstrate that the improved regeneration potential depends largely on hunting strategy. The effectiveness of hunting is thus a relevant factor in realising the objective of near-natural mixed forests in the future.