Capercaille hunting



This last weekend I convinced a couple of mates to join me in a hunt for the capercaille. Well, they weren't hard to convince. Lot's of snow, cold temp and a general good weather forecast told us we would have a very good chance of success. And we got more success than we dared to dream of..

We started of on Friday. I had borrowed a small cabin from a friend. And we got him to transport us up with his snowmobile, to avoid skiing with heavy back packs for several miles. The temp was down to -19 C, and it took some time to get the cabin warm..

We enjoyed some delicious eating during the weekend, with lamb and game meat from the last season. And more fluid than neccessary.

Here's my friend Svein in the cabin.



The next morning we were up early and took of into the woods after a quick breakfast. It didn't take us long to find two birds. But they saw us before we saw them, and then the game is over.
After another half hour we were standing on a small lake when I suddenly spotted a single capercaille. What a beautiful sight!
I got ready to try stalking him. Svein was paying attention to the big bird while I started off.
When stalking like this you have to use heavy cover. The birds have very good eyesight and will normally fly if they catch even the slightes movement. The difficult part is finding the bird as one closes the distance. With a little bit of luck I managed to, and ten minutes after leaving Svein my crosshairs were jumping all around a big black caper. I managed to stable it though and let of a shot from my drilling 6,5x75R.. I saw that I hit him, but he didn't fall right out of the tree like they're supposed to when hit correctly. I got to Svein and asked him what he thought.. He had a better view of the bird after leaving the tree, and thought he landed after 100-150 meters.

We took of skiing parallell in the flight direction. I took the scope of my drilling, and loaded up with US 3 Wismuth. After max 100 meters I saw a black object. A quick look with my binos confirmed it to be the tail feathers of my caper. The the head came up looking at me. A quick shot finished him of! What a relief!



We hunted until no more light that evening. Saw a total of 10 capercailles, and three or four unindentified birds. Probably females.

The next day Eivind had also arrived. We split up for the day. Svein going for himself. Eivind and me together. To make a short story short.. Eivind and me saw a couple of females, but nothing more. We tried out another part of the woods that I had never tried during winter hunts and it was no succes at all. Svein had success though and came back to the cabin with a very big capercaille. We were very happy for him. Took some pictures outside the cabin and celebrated into the night..



The next morning we cleaned up the cabin and went out to look for a bird for Eivind. Svein had to leave for home, because of work.
Eivind and me went towards the absolute best part of the woods. At least for winter situations. We hadn't hunted there since Saturday and our hopes were high.
And we found birds. Eivind started stalking. His goal was to get within 150 meters of two birds that we had seen sitting in the same tree. There were at least one other bird in another tree, and probably more, so he had to be very careful.

After some minutes a shot was fired, and the caper at the top of the three fell out, but it seemed he managed to fly a little bit. Two more shots were fired, but the bird at the bottom was still in the tree.. Strange! Eivind uses a silencer, and the birds didn't seem to hear anything. After ten minutes Eivind came crawling back. The last two shots had missed. He didn't trust his gun anymore, and wanted me to try. "The bird is still there. Just follow my tracks and you'll see him".
I started of. After 100 meters of easy stalking I saw him. I just had to stalk another 30 meters to get into position. After a lot of hazzle back and forth I found him and got into a steady position using. Eivind had ranged him to 125 meters, so I didn't even have to do that.. At the shot the bird fell right out of the tree and landes underneath.. Puh! Perfect! Athe shot three other birds took of from neighbouring trees.

After retrieving my second caper, we startes looking for Eivinds bird. After half an hour we still hadn't, but suddenly we saw tracks. It seemed it was his bird that had landed and jumped into a small hole in the ground. Again with the shotgun barrells ready we closed the distance. The incident that now happened is one of the funniest, but also most shocking moments I have ever had during hunting. As we got closer to the hole in the ground we could see tail feathers sticking up.
As we got even closer I was sure that Caper was dead. I was now standing right over the hole, with my skies on each side. I saw that the bird was laying up side down, with his head burried more than half a meter into the snow. And the hole was just big enough for the body. "Congratulations!, I said to Eivind and put my hand out to shake his. The "hell" brake lose. The bird came back up between my skies. It felt like those long wings hit us while he tried to get out of there. "Shoot", Eivind yelled. The bush was so dense, but after 10 meters the big bird entered a small clearing and my drilling sorted the situation out, and the caper fell to the ground.. Wow!
Eivind was very happy. This was his first caper and a tense situation..



The batteries of my camera ended because of the low temperatures, so I haven't got any photos of my second caper..

After this there were time to get back home and getting hold of the last Christmas presents. I think hunting is the best way to get away from the stress before Christmas. And of course because I love hunting..

Congratulations! I was supposed to be going in January but don't have the time and caper numbers are reputed to be low in N.Sweden this season!

Well done Anders

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family.

Jonathan

Wow. Sounds like a nice time with great game densities too!

What is the ideal gun for this hunt? Do you use FMJ ammo?

Gabriel

Thanks guys!

Gabriel
I'm starting to gain a certain level of experience with this kind of hunting, but I'm far from an expert. Before this hunt I would opt for a bolt rifle, but not sure anymore. Earlier I thought using a drilling would just mean have to carry shot gun barrells that's not needed. But this time I really got to use them.

I have a 1,5-6x42 scope wich is a little low in my view. I would really like 9x, 12x og higher. 6x is ok for a caper at 100 m, but when stretching that distance or aiming for a black grouse (much smaller) it's getting more difficult.

Regarding calibers you can use a lot of different ones. In Norway hunters use everything from .222 up to 8 mm. I would say a 6mm or 6,5 is perfect. Round nosed FMJ is your best bet. With smaller rounds maybe a though soft point is better than a FMJ, but haven't tried. All I know is that they're quite though. You have to put that shot right into the vitals, which on a caper is the size of a fist..

Jonathan
Are you ready next year?

Waidmannsheil Anders. Very interesting and great write up and fotos, would like to go up one of these years, sounds like you enjoyed that. Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year, Dom.

Nice hunting there....nice cabin too...

quote:

Originally posted by Anders:
Jonathan
Are you ready next year?

Hi Anders,

Yes I'm definitley ready for next year

I've never tried Capercaille hunting or cross-country skiing so it's going to be one hell of an experience!

I think my combi 12-7x57R will be perfect, just have to get loading some FMJ's and get some practice on the range.

Anders,

Waidmannsheil, Buddy.

Good story as usual and great photos, too.

Sounds like some serious good fun; these Capercaille.

Merry Christams & Happy New Year!

Anders

Many congratulations and brilliant write up and pictures. Thank you for posting.

Absolutely brilliant.

Best

JB

What about wing shooting? Is this done or are they always shot with a rifle?

great,how does it taste like must b yummy

Waidmannsheil! Sounds like a very nice way of hunting.

Exellent report, nice result.

I think I can guess what you`ll have for dinner at new years eve

Most excellent and sounds very exciting! I suppose it tastes like chicken?

quote:

Originally posted by wetdog2084:
What about wing shooting? Is this done or are they always shot with a rifle?

Wing shooting is probably the most common way actually. Normally with pointing dogs or as walk up.. I love both, but since I haven't got my own dog it's mostly walk up.

The best chance of getting a mature Capercaille is during winter with rifle, IMO. But you'll get your chance every now and then during autumn as well..

Here's some pictures of other hunts during non wintertime..







Happy new year everyone!

Thanks for the reply. What other grouse species do you have there?

ptarmigan(fjellrype)


willow grouse(lirype)


hazel grouse(jerpe)


black grouse(orrfugl)

Looks like plenty of birds to keep you busy.
Thanks for the reply.

Sure is!
Most common target during winter hunts are the males of capercaille and black grouse. The females tend to sit lower in the tree and are almost impossible to see..

They're a more common bag during autumn hunts.

Very nice...beautiful birds and country

G'day mate!

Too bad I couldn't join you this year. Seemed like you guys had some good times nice pictures. I'm all jealous!! Looking forward to the UK in February now.

Cheers!

God morgen, Geir..

Do you remember this?



A beautiful black grouse!
Welcome to the forum!

Hi Anders,
even if I'm a little late best wishes for 2010 year.

It is a long time that I'm dreaming a hunting like that, and my 22k-hornet anshuetz rifle too ...... I've to organize something.
Maybe I already did the question, but having read an article on an Italian Magazine where white ptarmigan and hares were hunted, is it possible to hunt the three species at the same time/period?

grouse, ptarmigan and hare: 10.sep-28/29.feb
capercaillie, black grouse: 10.sep-23.des

so yes, you can do your combo hunt from 10.september to 23. december

Hi Steve
Best wishes for 2010 to you as well!
Like Steffen says. It's very possible.
December would be the time to do so, as late in the month as possible.

If you're coming to the AR hunt in UK in a month we can discuss details and try organize something for you..

The 22 k-hornet should be great for such hunting.

Awesome all around. I absolutely must do this hunt some day. Thanks a bunch for sharing!

Anders,

I remember for sure perfect conditions that day! Too bad the capercaille hunt ends 23rd of december in Norway. A january caper would have been nice!

Anyway, we should really try finding some good locatins foxcalling soon?

I'll try to come like the last year, I have not too much time to organize myself for hunting in Baldock.

Kiri was trying to get a hold of you regarding the tfp, Steve.. But I guess this means you're joining us without a gun.

Good to hear that you're coming!

Geir, we need to start practice calling foxes. Not sure if I have the right call. It seems I can only produce rabbit distress sound..