(As also posted on the European hunting forum)

As usual here in Norway, the hunting season for grouse started on the 10th of september, and it was thus time for me to drive up to the mountians to spend a long weekend with my wifes family hunting these birds. The grouse we hunt is called "Rype" in Norwegian, "Ptarmigan" in English, and "Lagoopus lagopus" in Latin. We use English Pointers to hunt these grouse, although many other people here in Norway use the various Setter races, and some use German Shorthaired or Wirehaired Pointers.

This hunting is often quite hard walking, as the terrain can be steep in some places, and we are out all day. Thus, the backpack with gear, ammo, a couple of liters of water, and food for both ourselves and the dogs can end up quite heavy. As the weather can change quickly high up in the mountains, it is important to bring warm clothing and preferably a sack of some sort to crawl inside to sleep or seek shelter in if needed, even if the day starts out warm and with sunshine.

Myself, with my dog Tiko on the right, and my aunts dog Ciss on the left. I borrowed Ciss for the weekend:


Collecting a few birds I shot over Ciss:


A few of the many sheep that wander around in the mountains to fatten up. They are usually brought in by the owners in mid september:


Having a snooze during our midday break:


That mornings bag, which is a decent amount for this type of hunting:


My wife, and the dogs having a nap. Even though my wife is 4 months pregnant, she still toughed it out and joined me to go hunting:


The weather changes quickly, and the clouds rolled in the next day:





My father in law, who was a bit depressed after missing quite a few shots... Luckily, he got a couple of birds shortly after, and his honor was restored!


My Father in law together with his English Setter; Maya:


All in all, it was a nice few days with lots of walking, a bit of shooting, and good fun with the dogs.

Fine photos and wonderful scenery. Thanks for such a professional job with the report. Good looking dogs as well!
Art in Wyoming

Erik,
Beautiful photos of a wonderful hunt. Thank you for showing how other folks do it. I love the look of your land. I often hunt chukars here and the going is pretty tough. I do like the nap at midday idea.

By the way, tell me about your shotgun. I like the looks of it.

Chic,

The midday nap is mainly because the birds are virtually inactive at that time (having their own nap!) and thus smell very little. When they start feeding again around 14:30, the smell strengthens, so it's better for the dogs.

The shotgun is a plain Beretta 471 Silver Hawk in 20/76 with 28 inch barrels. It's a good gun for this type of hunting, being light, and comfortable to carry both in hand and with a sling.

Chic,

By the way, what do Chukars look like? I'm not sure what they are. Are they high up in the mountains or lower down?

Thanks Eric
You are a lucky man - looking at the photos I was quite envious.
Great looking landscape with no habitation; sharing with your family especially your wife and some keen dogs.
Looks quite cold already especially for someone like myself when we are just leaving winter with temp around 26C!
Hard to beat a day on the hill with dogs and birds!
APB

APB,

It was around 0-2 degrees in the morning, and at midday it was around 10-12 degrees. And then of course there is the windchill factor which lowers the temp a bit. But with the backpack and walking, it was more than warm enough for us!

Erik, following is a photo of a chukar. They will run uphill when pressed and find a rocky outcrop where they will call and torment you. You hike uphill and when you get close they will drop off the rocks and soar downhill curving right or left. When you pursue them, they will repeat the process until you absolutely detest them.





Here is a link to a good source for hunting chukars. They were native to Asia, from Greece thru India. They were imported to the Western US in the late 30's into the early 40's and felt right at home.

That is a fantastic trip you took. I am amazed at the size of that Land Rover. I have been looking at them and just bought a used one (95 Discovery) for my son. I have seen them for sale in magazines but never got the relative size of them until I saw those pictures of you and your wife beside and on top of it.

Chic,

Thanks for the picture and link. Do these Chukar taste good? Our Ptarmigan are very good eating (if you like a strong gamebird taste, as we do).

As for our little trans-africa trip website, I hope you enjoy reading some of our diary entries. The Land Rover is still going strong back here in Norway, even after the 65.000 km thru africa. More off road than on.

Chukar are very good eating and may be a bit more mild than Ptarmigan. I consider our grouse to be our best eating game bird. The chukar is not far behind them.

I have seen two sizes of Defenders here in the Us. The smaller one and the monster like you used. The large ones bring demand a high used price. I have seen them on ebay at 12 years old, 85,000 miles and an asking price of $80,000. I have spent the day replacing shock absorbers on my sons Discovery. I should have worked and taken it to a shop, they would have had it done in hours and I would have gotten some work done. It is good to get to know a car though. I think I "knew" it too well with the barked nuckles I ended up with.

I would guess that the high asking prices for the Defender in the US is since they were only available on the market for a few years. They have their good sides, and their bad sides, but asking for 80.000 is insanity in any country! For our purpose, the Defender 110 was good due to loading capacity (it weighed about 3300 kg when fully loaded with 240 liters of diesel, 100 liters of water and all our gear), its terrain capabilitys in the deserts, bush and jungles of africa, and the possibilities to get at least some basic spares/parts in the most remote regions of africa. I can tell you for example that you won't find any part for US trucks/vehicles in most of west and northern africa. So things like that had to be taken into consideration. Btw, I had a Disco myself some years ago, and they are also fun vehicles. Your son will enjoy his.

A few more pictures from previous seasons:





Note that the bird I am holding is not a Ptarmigan, but a female woodcock:

Enjoyed that; thanks for sharing Erik! The scenery reminds me of Scotland.

Great pics, fine dogs, nice gun, beautiful wife and wonderful hunts.Congrats!Best-
Locksley,R.

Nice story and photos. The terrain and geography remind me a lot of the Caribou country in Northern Quebec, Canada.

EricD:

Those are great pics. In fact, beautiful pictures. I just have one bone to pick with you! Do NOT under any circumstances whatever call those birds "grouse" to an American hunter of REAL grouse. We have the ruffed grouse. ("Ptarmigan" is a bird of the Canadian north and a different bird. I have heard that they can be killed with a stick!) I am too lazy to look up the Latin designation for our ruffed grouse. In any event, as I said, beautiful pictures. I always thought that Norwegians were great hunters! Why not come over here and hunt some REAL grouse!

Gerry,

(You used to be called 416Gerry didn't you? When did you change your "handle"? )

Believe me when I say that the birds pictured, may they be called "grouse" or not, cannot be killed with a stick!

I have been told that the ones in Canada(and Alasks?) are very tame and can virtually be stepped on. It is the same up on Spitzbergan (the isolated Norwegian island in the arctic).

However, the ones here on the mainland behave totally differantly, and can often flush 100 meters from you, depending on how far out in the season you are, and if there is snow on the ground or not. On the otherhand, you do sometime find that they can virtually be stepped on, but this is not as common as it seems it is in North America.

Eric:

Yes, I did have the other "handle". I dropped away from the site for awhile and had to reregister under the new set up. Haven't figured out yet how to exchange private messages yet under the new set up. Regards, Gerry

Eric, I enjoyed the pictures and the wonderful secenery. Thanks for sharing them. My ancestors came from Norway, and I hope to visit the old country someday.

Our landscape is very flat, and we hunt 2 varieties of grouse--sharptail and prairie chicken. We do lots of walking to find them. Sometimes they flush wild, and other times they cluck at us while perched on a telephone line. At least they don't run away as our ringneck pheasant do!