I just got back from a trip to Iceland hunting Ptarmigan or Rjupa as they are called there.

Ptarmigan are a member of the grouse family and live at high altitude in hard to get to places!

I flew into Reykjavik and met up with my Icelandic friend Bjarni and a friend of his. We then drove five hours to where we would be staying. Iceland has a population of about 300,000 of which just over 200,000 live in and around Reykjavik. The scarcity of the rest of the population became obvious on the drive. We must have seen no more that ten vehicles in the last three hours of our drive to the extreme northwest of the country.

Our accommodation was in a house attached to a farm on the tip of a fjord. Nearest other house was about ten miles. Nearest shop, gasoline, bar, anything was in a village about fifty miles away. This place is empty!

That evening the farmer’s son who was to be our guide showed us the map.†We will start to climb the mountain here, walk 20kms along the top and then come down hereâ€.
I looked carefully at the map. “Um, how will we get up there? The contour lines look like it is nearly vertical?â€
“That is the only way up! It is only one thousand metres.†Only??

Well the next morning I could see that we were both right! It was raining hard as we set off. At first I doubted that we could get up there. It was difficult going: steep, loose and rocky. We made it up into the snow zone and then into the blizzard zone! “Ah perfect weather for Rjupa!†he said.

I can honestly say that the next seven hours were the hardest physical hours of my life! In the whole 20kms there cannot have been 200 yards of even ground in total! The ground had about three inches of snow, drifting to three feet in hollows. The ground was sloping and rocky in the extreme. I never had the luxury of looking ahead, I constantly had to look down and place my feet in the least-worst place. At times there were areas of grass tussocks…. the tussocks were just the right size for one foot but there was a two foot deep drop between them, so if you missed a tussock…over you went!

The Ptarmigan had got their white winter plumage and we had no dogs. Icelanders don’t hunt with dogs, and they really should! They fly like a Grouse when pressured: ground contour hugging, preferably downhill and fast. Icelandic hunting is very much a legacy of the subsistence food culture that must have existed for the rural people. They shoot the birds on the ground…the birds are food rather than sport. They all use 12 bore semi-auto or O/U. Their shot shell choice was amazing! 36-42g of No4 shot! I said that this would be a typical goose load in the UK and they said that my 25g out of a 20b looked odd to them!

I’m pleased to say that I soon was able to show that 25g out of a 20 was plenty…and at flying birds too! We had split into two twos, the guide and I together and the other two. The blizzard and ground conditions made it hopeless to try to keep to walking a line so it became hide and seek with the Ptarmigan. Once spotted I would try to get below them, while the guide tried to push them over me. They flew superbly! Total bag for the day was 16. 7 for me, 6 for one and 3 for the other. Once the wind dropped a bit (still snowing) they began to call each other with a “Brrrp Brrrp†and that made them easier to find. Still not easy though, just easier.

As the day ended the hard work really began…as if we were not totally knackered already. “OK, we need to go down here; this is the only way down†We looked down in amazement. How in God’s name would we get down there with guns and I had the only game bag which was now stuffed full of birds? It was much steeper than the route we had come up! At this point I realised that it was time to be realistic about my chances of staying upright the whole way down, I was not used to these conditions like the local guys, so I asked the guide if he would take my gun as I felt an accident was just too likely if I carried the whole lot. I’m glad I did. With about twenty minutes to go my legs were so exhausted that they were no longer fully in control and I took a big fall, sliding about twenty feet head first down some grass ( thank goodness I had not fallen earlier on the rocks).

When we got to the bottom and back to the farm I realised that it had been just about the best days hunting of my life! I was 100% tired but I’d go back again in a heartbeat. Luckily I had dressed for the occasion with technical mountain climbing clothes borrowed from my cousin. I’d never got wet, never felt hot or cold. Do not underestimate the importance of the right kit in such conditions. We all slept well that night.

Sounds like a great trip! Think what you could do with a couple pointing dogs.

Iceland has been one place I've always wanted to visit. Maybe someday!

Thanks for posting this.

UK Hunter

Great post - and it's apparent that you worked for your Ptarmigan. Great shooting after working so hard. Thanks for sharing.

Rgds Ianf

UK hunter,
A nice diagnosis of ptarmigan hunt in Iceland. Quite some use dogs for their hunting but going on a nice afternoon promenade, without a dog like you did is what the majority does.

You are right about the guns, I myself and most of my hunting buddies use either a O/U or semi auto 12ga and for ptarmigan, 36g no 4-5 is popular.
The 20ga is somewhat out of place in Iceland and likewise the 16ga.

The Icelandic ptarmigan has been subject to very much discussion lately as the population fluctuates heavily. People disagree why the population fluctuates so and what should be done, if anything, and some measures like a ban on selling ptarmigan and products of it has been implemented.

I find the hunt very pleasurable alas somewhat tiring as you mentioned and offers no guarantee whatsoever of catching anything.
Last time I went, I walked 15-20 Km in the exact same terrain as you describe just to have a group of say 20 birds streaking past me at a distance of perhaps 15m as I was having a midday snack. Only thing I heard was my hunting buddy mumbling "what the f***" through his sandwitch as they went by.

Regards

Congrats on your hunt UK hunter...
These birds can be hard to get sometimes and as you say it pays off to go well equipped to the highlands. Every year some hunters get lost in the highlands and an good set of cloathing can mean the diffrence betveen life or death..

Ive only gone once this year and like you got bad weather but unlike you i saw no birds this time. but thats just a part of the sport, im going again next weekend to try to get my cristmas meal(=

Like most of my country men i carry an semy outo 12ga using 42gr no4-6 hehe,
Ive never even seen an smaller bore shotgun exept for an 410 the local mink hunter owns.

Well congrats again on your hunt here and hope youll have many more like that here in the future!

Regards

Great story and good shooting. After all that travel did you only hunt one day?

You must really hate those little birds to go to so much effort to kill one.



It was a great story.