This year my fiancé and I decide to do a “Scandinavian Safari” in lieu of the more traditional summer holidays. The plan was to start in Norway with some Reindeer hunting in the mountains, followed by a return trip to northern Sweden for Capaercaillie, Black Game, and Ptarmigan. This is the second part.

Date: 27-29 August 2011
Outfitter: HarjedalsGuiderna
PH: Henrik, Nicolas, and Maria
Location: in the forests near Hede, Sweden
Species Taken: Capaercaillie & Black Grouse

It’s good to be back with our friend Henrik, Nicolas, and Maria in the Swedish woods. We did this hunt last year and were hugely successful, taking Capaercaillie, Black Game, & Ptarmigan in the same trip. Unfortunately, this year was nowhere near as successful. Overall, the weather was way too hot, which had effect on the dogs and the birds.

The cabin we call home for this trip, quite comfortable.

Day 1: it’s been raining a ton over the summer, which is supposed to be great for the Capaercaillie, and we’ve been told to expect a banner year. Unfortunately, its ~20C, way too hot for the dog, as well as the birds, who are sticking to the wettest areas. In any event we walked about 12km in the day, hunting behind Miko, our favorite little Finn Spitz (type of dog found in Nordic countries, which is known as a tradskallare, or “tree-barking” dog—they have the ability to locate birds perched on branches, and bark at very high-speeds / high-pitch at the birds, allowing the hunter to stalk into them—super cool type of hunt).

Miko (the tradskallare)

We walked a lot of beautiful country behind our little friend

Unfortunately, the only Capaercaillie we saw, I spotted while sitting and eating lunch

View from lunch…

Capaercaillie – yeah, that’s far… I love my Canon SX30 IS – this picture is taken with the 800mm zoom… across the way from above picture!

Doesn’t get better than hot-dog cooked out in the woods after a morning of walking!

Other highlight of our lunch break… seeing a “falcon owl” (I believe is the closest translation… don’t know the English name)

Poor Miko was dead tired by mid-afternoon, having run ~45km (which although that sounds like a lot, last year he did >80km p/day… so @ 8.5yrs old, he’s not quite as spritely any more). So we switched to Nicolas/Maria’s Gordon-Setters

We did, under a not-so-light rain, connect with 1 Black Grouse (female) at the end of the day, and was lucky enough to make the shot

Day 2: well, it’s still very hot, about 20C, and raining even harder. But, we must get out there…

although, we ended up only walking about 2.5hrs before it was really pelting down, so we took a small break in a small cabin tucked into the woods, made a fire, and promptly all fell asleep… it’s good to be on holidayJ

Again, after having run Miko ragged, we switched to the Gordon-Setters, and were able to connect with the only Capaercaillie of the trip (yes, it’s a female, which we are asked to shoot as well as males). Did 18km in the day (sometimes the GPS just gives me a headache:()

Day 3: I had high hopes, as the temperatures have plummeted overnight, down to <8C, and this should be good for the birds & dogs. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. I missed a shot at a covey of ptarmigan, which flew out over the other side of the thicket, but was able to manage to connect with another Black Grouse only <1km from home toward the very end of the day.

In the end, was not a very successful trip in terms of game harvested. But, was a lovely 3 days out in the woods with the dogs and our friends. The place is as beautiful as ever, and definitely worth a trip for those that haven’t hunted this part of the world. Hunting with a tradskallare is a unique and fun experience any avid bird-hunter will appreciate. It only means we’ll have to go back to find that big old black Capaercaillie… and in any event, want to take a turn at topjagt (another Scandinavian form of bird hunting) this winter.