Just finish packing for the 2003 reindeer hunting trip. Got a tag for a bull. Will be packing my 11-87 as well for some gees and ducks.
Live is good

Hey S�lvi, in which hunting area are you going to shoot Rudolph ?

S�lvi

Gentlemen

Soo you are trying to close down X-mast for the Christians, this is most rude. Trying to shoot santa's messenger, good luck Glad that I only follow the x-mas celebration as a cermony and not by heart
Post pictures when done and have great fun

Shalom
/ JOHAN

S�lvi, I beat you to it , I got Rudolph at area 2 just 3 weeks ago. The animal weighed 95kg (209 pounds) skinned, gutted and beheaded. The crown had 31 points.

Regards

[ 09-05-2003, 22:49: Message edited by: GBF ]

So what's it like hunting reindeer? What are the conditions like? Are they challenging? Hard to stalk? Tell us a little about what I could expect if I was to hunt one someday.

Thanks,
Stu

Stu, the conditions vary a bit between hunting areas. Some are easier than others, some are almost void of roads so there you have indeed a challenge in having to walk miles to get to the one animal you are satisfied with taking.
The terrain can vary from being barren highlands to deep rocky valleys.
There is NO WAY to forecast weather conditions, the weather may be sunny and dry and may be wet and windy (and everything in between). The weather does influence the behaviour of the groups or herds, making the animals hard to get.

to sum things up...pure happiness , unless you geared up for a nice tropical sightseeing.

Regards

Georg,

Thanks for that. I might have to pick your brains a bit here. What size herds do you encounter? How close can you stalk to them, or what are the usual ranges you shoot your animal from? I only have a vague idea of what a reindeer actaully looks like. If I think cariboo am I on the right track?

Stu, to be honest I must say that I am not sure of how large the herds can become. My countryman S�lvi has probably better info on that but I myself have seen groups from say 10-200 animals. The time of year has a lot to do with both size and composition of the groups as in so many deer species.

But Caribou and Reindeer are most likely the very same thing, you could perhaps say that Caribou is a subspecies of "Rangifer tarandus" as you could perhaps also say about all other populations of Reindeer in the world.

The ranges are from say 50-200 meters depending on terrain and wind. The minimal caliber in Iceland is 6mm (.240) with 100gr bullets.

Regards

Good information. Thanks Georg.
Hopefully Solvi will also chime in here and give us all his perspective as well. It sounds interesteing to me.

I just had a friend head to Iceland for some fishing. Haven't had a chance to catch up with him yet to ask him about it, but he was very excited about going there before he left.

Just came back from the hunting, it started on Friday, and it took us 7 hours to drive to the farm where we would be staying. The hunting party was four hunters and a guide.
We started on Saturday morning, the drive up the mountain on two jeeps and two Hondas ATV 4wd. After searching for 8 hours we found 3 bulls that we decided to try to take.
The stalk was over open terrain and it took us maybe two hours to get in shooting range.
When the rangefinder gave us 240 meters we took the shots and down they went. Then we just got the ATV to fetch the animals and bring them to the cars and we started skinning them at eleven that night down on the farm. They weighted 112-115 and 119 kg skinned and gutted with the head removed.
More info to come, with pictures

S�lvi

Solvi, thanks for the details on your interesting hunt. Sounds great.

Georg, thanks for the photo you sent me. Nice head. You should post it here as well, if you haven't already done so.

Youre welcome Stu, I�ve been having some problems posting so that has to wait untill later. Is your friend back from the salmon fishing ?

Regards

Georg,

He's back, but I haven't had a chance to meet up with him. BTW - I'm not sure what fishing he did. I know the salmon rivers are famous, but I have a feeling he was trying for something else. Will find out in the next couple of weeks.