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"And in fact none of the birds on this trip were blond!"



Capercaille and black grouse, two unique birds, are - in my opinion - very underrated if not outright ignored as trophy birds, especially outside of Europe. Granted, you don't find them outside of the wider Europe, however what I mean is that they are not really a known or talked about trophy in most African, American or Middle Eastern hunting circles and communities. Perhaps it is because of their rarity or simply that they do not feature prominently in the hunting pages and web sites or maybe as they are feather and not fur? Either way, they are a very 'continental European' trophy animal.

Whatever reason for them being on the back pages, this was a hunt that had caught my interest quite a while back and something that has been in the planning for a couple of years.



Capercaillie and Black Grouse

Western Capercaille (Tetrae urogallus) is the largest of the grouse family and is also know as the wood grouse or heather cock. In German, the capercaille goes under various names including Auerhahn, Uhrhahn and grosser Hahn (large grouse). Males can measure up to 1 meter to 1.2 meters in length and weigh as much as 7 kgs and hence the reason for the name 'grosser Hahn' and hence why they are not elegant, attractive flyers but tend to flap and flap and then glide from tree to tree rather than elegantly wing their way through the skies racing overhead. Mainly a ground living bird, the cocks are dark grey / brown and in winter have beautiful black green metalic plumage and feathered legs. The males also sport large red rosettes over their eyes ('roses') and have distinctive, large ivory coloured beaks, which develop a prominent curve with age. They are not migratory and do not have large home ranges, making them fairly easy to locate, stalk and hunt. At least thats what the outfitter said.

The western capercaille was found pretty much throughout the whole of Europe but became extinct in Ireland and Scotland. Scotland, however, successfully reintroduced the bird from the Swedish population and has now built up a sustainable population. Otherwise they are commenly found in Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Romania, Austria and Switzerland and are listed as 'Least Concern' by the IUCN. Interestingly Sweden is currently working on a reintroduction programme with Germany, with some 30 birds having been introduced into the forests of Thuringen.

They are diurnal, spending the day in old, dense coniferous forests of spruce, pine or fir trees, feeding on grasses, berries and buds and in winter feeding mainly on pine needles. At night they roost in sleeping trees. They leave such a large distinct three toe spoor and large droppings in the snow that it is possible to track and spoor them in fresh snow!

Capercaille breed in April / May often gathering in groups where they display bold courting rituals, accompanied by clicking and popping sounds.

Black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) are much smaller than their large cousins and also go under the names of Black Game, Blackcock, greyhen, heathercock and heatherhen. The male birds are about 50 cm in length and weigh up to 1,5 kgs. They have a wonderful black plumage, striking lyre shaped tail plumage and large red wattels above their eyes.

Numbers of black grouse have fallen in Europe but they are still found in healthy populations in the north of UK, Scandinavia, Estonia and into Russia. They are also listed as 'Least Concern' on the IUCN statistics.

Black grouse exhibit an amazing mating ritual with anything up to 30 plus birds gathering in open courtship areas to display and strutt their stuff under the title of 'lekking'! Typically this is at dawn so to catch them out you have to be the 'earlier bird' and get to the lek before first light if you plan on shooting one in the spring.

As a side note, black grouse tails / tail feathers are still today worn as ornamental headdress in the glengarries (caps) of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and they also often feature as hat decoration in Highland dress in Scotland.

In my book, two worthy and interesting trophies and a pretty unique hunt! Something very different to traditional wing shooting let alone plains game stalking and hunting. And the great thing is that they are often found in the same region making for a double bird / trophy hunt.



Plans are made!

In planning this trip, I looked at capercaille and black grouse in Austria, but 2019 was pretty well booked out (very few licenses / tags are available) and they are expensive in Austria at EUR 5.000 - 6.000,- for the two - like two to three times the price versus of countries where you can hunt them. Yes you are hunting them in the mountains but that alone doesn't justify a 300% price difference IMO. (Wake up Austria!)

Now, I had spoken to Dirk Fabrig of 'Jagdreisen Fabrig' in Germany before about this hunt. He works together with 'Nordic Footprints' in Sweden and so I looked him up at the Dortmund Fair in February 2019, and after a short discussion, I booked a 2:1 hunt for myself and my wife for the end November / first week of December 2019. We would fly to Oslo, Norway, from Duesseldorf, Germany, spend a day or two seeing the sights of the capital and then hire a car and drive the 4 hours north east into Sweden and the Nordic Footprints camp near Särna.

5 days of hunting - a capercaille and a black grouse each and maybe some pike fishing if the waters were not frozen over. We would use camp rifles in .222 Rem and 6x55 Swedish and camp cross country skis! Oh yes, I forgot to mention this hunt would be on cross country skis! They would also provide snow whites / overalls if needed.

The camp is your classic Scandi red painted timber house affair of three buildings and a sauna some 50 meters back from a river just off the main road into Särna. We would be based there and then go out hunting every morning around 09.00 h after capercaille and black grouse until around 14.30 h.

Basically there are two ways that they hunt capercaille. If there is no snow or just light snow on the ground, you go out with a dog, a Fin Spitz, which will find the birds and keep the birds treed / bayed whilst you slowly and carefully stalk in and try and shoot your prize from the crown of the tree. (Please no comments about back stops and safe shooting. All the shots that we took were safe.) If there is snow on the ground then it is a case of cross country skiing and seeking out birds in the woodlands in the trees or on the ground and silently stalking in for the shot with the rifle or shotgun. In December there will likely be snow! When we contacted Dirk in September to ask about expected weather he came back with expect "on average between minus 6 Celsius / 21 Fahrenheit and minus 15 Celsius / 5 degrees Fahrenheit. In the morning and evening it can be much colder .... so pack warm." I ordered a full set of Merino underwear through Amazon and it did the job! Super warm!

Black grouse are hunted near their roosts and by hiding out in the dark before first light to try and catch a cock bird when it flights in to its feeding areas or walk and stalk in the conifer forests with the cock birds perched high up in the tree crests. We would be out early in the mornings but not too early! It would likely be cold!

Exciting stuff!



Two becomes four !

In the middle of booking, very good friends of ours from the Lone Star State in the USA called inviting us deer hunting in Wisconsin in November, during the rifle season. We had to say no due to the planned Sweden trip and I countered inviting them to join us in Germany for the December German 'Christmas markets' and then all travel up to Sweden and hunt capercaille and grouse together. They jumped on it straight away. So we were now four! However, due to their schedule we would have to forego the sites in Oslo and drive straight through to Sweden on arrival. Not a problem, we could do that.

Flights to Oslo were quickly booked up along with a rental car. Gear was easy with us using camp rifles and skis et cetera, so it was a couple of travel bags and an empty large ice box to bring the (hopefully) frozen trophy birds back to Germany at the end if the hunting trip for handing over to the taxidermist!



Sweden here we come!

December came quickly and we were soon meeting Rob and Ilsa at Duesseldorf Airport. We enjoyed a few days together in Germany, visiting the Christmas markets in Düsseldorf and Krefeld, the first being one of the biggest and most famous ones. We got into the seasonal spirit with muld wine and Stollen (German Christmas cake) and some great German winter fare.

Rob and Ilsa also joined in as 'beaters' on a friendly annual December driven hare hunt / Feldjagd on the Saturday, being the day before we flew to Scandinavia. We didn't stay too late in the 'Dorf Kneipe' as we were up early the next day! (I have posted a separate report on the Feld-und Waldjagd as I try to every year!)







And then Sunday morning, bags packed, it was off to Duesseldorf Intl Airport and Scandinavian Airlines to Oslo Norway direct! Oh yes, and we had the obligatory Duty Free champagne purchase for the ladies ! After all champagne and hunting go hand in hand don't they! We laughed and laughed at the check in. Somehow my wonderful wife had booked me a 'light hand luggage only economy ticket' which got me seat 22A from a total of 25 rows, whilst she was in 1A Business Class !?! The flights cost around EUR 300/- all-in so how that happened Lord knows but we got all bags checked using United Gold cards and SAA Gold cards and Anja's Business Class baggage allowance!!

The flight was a breeze and I must admit that it was so much easier traveling without weapons and ammunition - no preadvices, no license checks and weapon checks, no extra charges! Hassle free. (But this doesn't mean that future trips will be without our own firearms - just this once.) Oslo Airport was simple and after 45 minutes we were belted into our VW Passat station-wagen rental car with snow tires heading north east towards Sweden! It was interesting to see how almost all the travelers visited the Duty Free shop on arrival and loaded up on alcohol! Almost everybody!

It was an easy 350 km drive albeit in the dark along snow ploughed highways and through small towns where the houses were lit up with Christmas lights. Snow and pine trees all the way. Beautiful! And at 7.15 pm we pulled into the entrance of Nordic Footprints, boldly signposted on the E6 main road - you can't miss it.













Samuel and Johnnes, our guides for the week met us and carried in our luggage into the old 1920s school house converted into the hunting lodge and tastefully laid out with bird trophies and hunting art. Great accommodations.

After settling the open 50% balances on our accounts straight away and signing Waivers for the week's hunting, Samuel ran us through shot placement on capercaille and black grouse using a book and also full size taxidermy mounts.

"Aim for the white spot above the shoulder and careful it's not the white fleck on the wing shoulder! Hit the right white spot and they drop like a sack of potatoes!"

We dinned on moose casserole, rice and pickles followed by hot apple pie and ice cream which the ladies washed down with champagne and Rob and I with Tuborg dark Julebryg! And then we called it a night with alarms set for 07.00, breakfast at 08.00 and start hunting at 09.00! All very civilized!

Monday it was up at 07.00 and after a cold meats and cheese breakfast we booted and suited up in snow camo suits and set off in two Hilux trucks on a 45 minute drive to a State forestry block where we would be skiing and hunting for the day!


Black Grouse in the pines!

Now Anja and I don't ski and I soon decided that the Creator never intended us to move around with 2.5 meter long 8 cm wide objects strapped to our feet in the snow!! But we laughed and cried happy tears trying!

Samuel off loaded the skis and poles and gave us a 2 minute session in cross country skiing and then we were off !

















We split up with Samuel leading the girls away up a snowy forestry track and Johnnes, Rob and I gliding and sliding and falling our way along another road. The snow was fresh, crisp, deep and cold and we had a great time!

The sun showed itself around 09.30 and at 3 degrees C below, we kept warm skiing along the tracks and through the woods looking for birds in the tops of the miles and miles of pines and it was not long before we spotted a grouse in the crown of a big fir tree at about 200 meters.

Johnnes asked who was up between Rob and I and Rob told me to go. We unstrapped the bindings on our skis and sank into the meter deep snow and with me following in Johnnes's deep footsteps we stalked closer between and under the pines to about 160 meters.

Johnnes loaded a round into the Blaser 93 for me and after me pulling off my mitt with my teeth, he handed me the rifle. With the Swaro scope at 8, I lay down on and in the snow and bedding the rifle onto the crossed ski poles, I sighted onto the grouse, sitting unawares high up in the crown of the pine tree. Now, black grouse are not big birds and at 160 m or thereabouts they don't exactly fill the scope picture, but settling down and taking all the time in the world I put the hairs onto the top 1/3 of the bird and slowly, ever so slowly squeezed .... The silenced 6.5 cracked and the bird was no longer in my sight picture! Johnnes's broad smile was infectious

"Well done, I think we have him!"

Quickly we pushed our way through the snow back to where Rob had waited, and after skiing up we slid and glided the couple hundred meters to where we through the bird should be and there he was - a beautiful, mature cock bird in his petrol blue and black winter plumage laying belly down in the soft snow with six or seven tiny droplets of contrasting scarlet red blood next to him. What a wonderful bird! I was thrilled.




















After handshakes and smiles, we took a number of pictures and then carefully bagged the grouse and put him in my pack. And then we set off to find more birds for Rob!

We skied along tracks and paths for a couple hours more and then Johnnes spotted three grouse in the pines out on our left. He and Rob put in a deep snow stalk but the birds spotted them at 400 m and took flight.

A good time to stop for a rest and some hot soup!

Johnnes quickly had a small fire and a pot of water on the boil for hot coffee. The Swedes love their coffee! A sharp axe and we had some pine wood and a sharp knife and we had pine kindling and in no time a small fresh pine fire was crackling and spitting in the snow! A hot meat and vegetable soup and a sandwich and a hot coffee and then we set off again through the trees looking for birds.




















We skied through the forest, up small hills and down slopes, falling over and laughing! At one stage I had to pull myself up on a pine tree to get back up on my skis! I laughed and laughed some more!






We skied back to the vehicles where we met Samuel and the ladies for the drive back to the Nordic Footprints Camp and hot showers before drinks ( champagne for the ladies! ) and dinner and Liar Dice.








The next day the ladies hunted together again in a new area with Samuel, whilst Rob and I and our guide skied and covered 6 kms in the same area as the previous day. We stopped for an early hot soup and fire fried / smoked strips of pork belly plus a hot coffee. There is something special about a bush fire coffee and a field lunch. We saw lots of fresh moose tracks but no birds and called it a day around 13.30. It was cold at minus 10-12 celcius and despite good boots I had cold toes!





(This was Ilsa after a fall in the snow!)





As a side note, we spent a lot of the day in timber and amongst the pines. I thought to myself that it was a shame that I had to concentrate so hard and so much on the cross country skiing and getting the skis to go in the right direction and not sliding backwards on the uphill slopes and making sure that both the skis were on the same side of the small trees and logs that I missed a lot of the scenery and beauty of the Swedish countryside and wilderness. Maybe the next days would be less challenging as regards the skiing as I gained in experience and confidence.

We stopped briefly in Särna to visit a shop that sold locally made hunting knives - beautiful knives of birch, reindeer horn and Damascus blades. They would make a great souvenir - if I did not already have drawer full of knives.




The girls and Samuel came back around 15.00 h. They had seen a few birds but did not have any shot opportunities. Lots of ground covered on skis - around 14 kms - but empty handed at home. That's hunting and tomorrow would be another day!

That evening we had a truly superb meal of marinaded capercaille breast fillets and mushroom sauce as a starter, followed by fallow deer venison and vegetables and then a mousse and berries with coffee. It was top restaurant quality! Superb.

Wednesday Rob and I hunted with Samuel. It was plus / minus nil degrees and the skiing was very tough going with wet, sticky snow. After an hour and having covered about 2 kms we lost the skis and battled through the knee deep, sticky snow on foot, using the ski poles to balance. We covered 6 kms in total but never saw any capercaille or grouse and were back at camp at 14.00 h. We did see two big moose cows. It was a tough, cold day, made tougher by the lack of birds. Samuel said that due to the weather the birds would be on the ground and there was nothing we could do. Tomorrow is another day!







The ladies had a good day out with Johnnes and saw birds but without any opportunity at a shot. They made up for the slow hunting with extra champus in the evening and liar dice!








The next day dawned with a sunrise at 09.45 h and light rain. There would be no skiing but instead walking the forest tracks and roads. Anja and I went out with Johnnes and Ilsa and Rob with Samuel.






Anja and I walked about 5 kms and saw two or three grouse on the wing but nothing in the trees or on the ground. We breaked at 12.30 h with a big pine fire and hot soup and fresh brewed coffee. Samuel texted Johnnes that they had shot a black grouse! It had flushed from the ground and Rob shot it at 50 m with Samuel's .222 with the bird dropping straight it the ground. A large, old cock bird. Wonderful!





Very shortly after that other birds flushed for them from the ground where they were feeding and Ilsa put in a shot at 150 m. The bird was hit and they saw feathers but the bird flapped and glided down from the pine tree. An hours searching the ground and snow around the tree didn't reveal the shot bird and they returned to camp with Rob's grouse for photographs and drinks before another great dinner.

The final morning, Samuel took his Labrador - one of his 4 or 5 hunting dogs - and they searched again for Ilsa's grouse, but without luck. Samuel said that occasionally a hit bird with glide down from the tree tops and literally bury itself deeply in the powdery snow, making it so very difficult to find. Hunting!

The final day was weather wise the nicest, with crisp fresh snow overnight and around 5 degrees below. A beautiful day for skiing and hunting.









Anja and I again went out with Johnnes and we covered a lot of ground, now confident skiers and without falling over! I spotted a dark black shape in a pine some 600 m away and Johnnes and Anja put in a stalk, dropping the skis and battling the knee and often waist deep snow. But the bird flew and Anja didn't get a shot.

We met Sam, Rob and Ilsa for a sandwich and soup lunch, before skiing another 4-5 kms in search of birds. But it was not to be and we finished the days hunting with a small fire and coffee back at the Hilux, talking about hunting and dogs with Johnnes, whilst his Finnish Spitz bitch ran around in the snow looking up at the tree tops.

It was all in all a glorious week sharing a totally different adventure with close friends with active cross country skiing and tough hiking in the deep snow. The country side was / is simply amazing and so different to everything we have experienced so far. The weather played against us somewhat and we only managed 3 grouse from the expected 4 Capercaille and 4 grouse, but again that's hunting. Nevertheless it would have been nice to have seen a Capercaille. The accommodations were good and the food wonderful. The ladies enjoyed G&Ts, lots of champagne and the guys different cold beers, Jaegermeister and Killerpitsch from Düsseldorf!

Saturday we enjoyed a late breakfast before packing up and a return 4 hour drive to Oslo Airport and the SAS flight to Germany, with the two black grouse, frozen, in our luggage, to be DHL'd to a taxidermist in Germany the following week.

We enjoyed the third Advent Sunday with Rob and Ilsa at the Düsseldorf Christmas market, before they returned to Texas on Monday morning and Anja and I could put the last touches on our Christmas preparations.

Dogcat / Ross usually comments in his AR reports as to whether he would do it again, as a mark of quality / enjoyment. Using his model, I can say that I would not do this hunt again in winter time. The skiing was hard the first few days and I spent too much time concentrating on the skiing and missed out on the surroundings. Plus the weather was against us putting the birds on the ground and in the snow making it all the more hard to see game. The main target of the hunt for me was the Capercaille and we never saw one despite covering miles and miles of ground. Yes, I know that's hunting but we went for grouse and Capercaille ..... Speaking with Samuel and Johnnes, they both suggested were we to return then come back in late October / early November and do the hunt with the dogs.




We will see. I think we will go back and try again earlier in the season. Maybe 2021.

Thanks to Samuel and Johnnes for a week of guiding, great coffee fires, catering and enjoyable hunting tales. A big thanks to Rob and Ilsa for flying over and sharing the week and the hunt with us and a big thanks to Anja for joining me on yet another great hunting adventure!

And thanks and happy holidays to all AR members that came along too on this report!

Hope all readers had a Merry Christmas and happy 2020 with more great hunting adventures ahead of us all in 2020!







Charlie

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Thanks for another great report.
Sounds like an interesting experience.
Beautiful birds for sure but the need to ski would ruin it for me.

A nice trip report,and a great hunting experience. An option to dont let the skis slide back are to put on a syntetic skin on them short under your foot area or long to give extra grip. An other option are to use traditional(Canadian) snowshues.

Two other Swedish winterhunts are for mountain grouse in february-march in the Scandinavian alps. On skis with a .22rl-22hornet rifle, its allowed to use a snowmobile up on the mountain but the hunting are away from it. Beuthiful scenery , nice hunting, more chances to shoot than in blackgrouse hunting.

Hare and fox hunting by a running dog called stövare can be done in most parts of Sweden from september to february. With shotgun, you hear the dog then the game are on its feet.

Charlie – Thanks for the great trip report. I know it takes time to put these together, but it’s greatly appreciated. This is something I’ve thought about doing on one of my trips to Sweden. Your point about the disadvantages of skiing are well-taken - it’s been 40 years since I last did any cross-country skiing! On the other hand, in late October / early November, there are a lot of other hunting opportunities in Sweden. Could be a difficult decision!

Sorry that you didn’t get the capercaillie. Disappointing to not even see any.

Did you not bring your own rifle because you were transiting through Norway? Or didn’t have enough time to get a Swedish weapon import permit?
Jeff

Just plain awesome! I'll be booking with them within the next 3 years.

Enjoyed your photos and report as usual Charlie.
A couple of years ago my hunting buddy did the Swedish grouse triple, including Hazel grouse ( Tetrao bonasia). His was an earlier season hunt, I think in October. Was Hazel grouse an option where you were?

The closest I've been is once when hiking by myself in the Alps here in Spring, I had a female black grouse erupt from almost under my feet. You can just imagine the fright that gave me, being completely unexpected as it was.

I agree that grouse make wonderful, slightly unusal trophies. Definitely a "some day" hunt for me.

cheers from Switerland
stu

Fantastic report.

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Jeff hi. Both Dirk and Samual suggested using the camp rifles (Blaser with Swaro sights) and we were happy to do so. Closest I have would have been a .223 CZ and to be honest it was a breeze flying without guns. That being said, Aftica in May we are taking rifles and shotguns !!!

Stu, we didn't see anything other than black grouse. But you can hunt all three species - caper, black grouse and hazel - in the area as we were told. Some nice mounts of all three in the school house!

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Great report Charlie... sorry no one scored a capercallie but as you said, that's hunting. But all in all, a superb adventure in the snow laden forest!

Very interesting hunt and it looks like fun.

As mentioned by Nordic2 skins do provide more traction than just a little structure (I assume that your skies had some?) on the bottom of them. But yes trying to learn to ski would take away from the hunt. Snowshoes would likely best for those who have never skied.

I've always been fascinated by grouse hunting there so thanks for posting this!

A great report and wonderful experience by the sounds and looks of things. Thank you for posting.

Very enjoyable post and I thank you for sharing. As a previous poster commented, as you described slogging in the deep snow, why the blazes didn't your guides provide snowshoes? They'd have made your lives a LOT easier. Those grouse are high on my bird hit list but as you opined, I don't think I'll be booking a hunt for them in deep snow, and I thank you for the insight on that!

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
Very enjoyable post and I thank you for sharing. As a previous poster commented, as you described slogging in the deep snow, why the blazes didn't your guides provide snowshoes? They'd have made your lives a LOT easier. Those grouse are high on my bird hit list but as you opined, I don't think I'll be booking a hunt for them in deep snow, and I thank you for the insight on that!

Don't be a pussy. Deep snow is the only way to go! 2021 I'm there but only if caps are in the mix.....not going for blacks only.

"why the blazes didn't your guides provide snowshoes? They'd have made your lives a LOT easier."

Snowshoes are slower than skis, you can cover a longer distance on skis than on snowshoes. The snowshoes used in Sweden are mostly modern, small and used later in the season on better snow conditions. 5000 years of tradition using skis in Sweden.

This winter are not a normal one today i hunted capercaillie by foot in the middle of January +3c. The snow varied from 0-9" hard and icy no need for skis or snowshoes.

I hate snowshoes too BUT the alternative is far worse. Only the absolute halest of individuals isn't exhausted after more than a few paces in knee-deep snow.

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Gents, I never intended this post to become a snowshoe ski walking in snow debate! Maybe that's a topic for a separate post!

The PHs knew what they were doing and we just had a couple of days of bad luck with the weather which made skiing impossible.

As I said, I'll likely return late Oct early Nov and try again for capercaille with a Finn spitz!

I'll see both Dirk and Samuel in Dortmund at the show in two weeks and catch up on it with them then.

Cheers

Charlie


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quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
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Gents, I never intended this post to become a snowshoe ski walking in snow debate! Maybe that's a topic for a separate post!

The PHs knew what they were doing and we just had a couple of days of bad luck with the weather which made skiing impossible.

As I said, I'll likely return late Oct early Nov and try again for capercaille with a Finn spitz!

I'll see both Dirk and Samuel in Dortmund at the show in two weeks and catch up on it with them then.

Cheers

Charlie


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Sorry Charlie.....should have told you KG and I know each other. I was just breaking balls when I joked about the snow. If the odds for both birds are better in the fall then I’ll adjust my plans.

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All good


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Fantastic report! Thank you for sharing. This type of hunt is now on my list. What I love most about AR? Learning....

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

quote:

Originally posted by Charlie64:
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All good


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Charlie.....Would you happen to have contact info for Samuel? I've tried both email and phone with no response. Thanks!

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Bull, PM sent.



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The guide doesn't allow for hunting on snow shoes.

I met Samuel at J&H in 2019. He doesnt do snow shoe hunts for the same reasons listed above.

Thanks for sharing Charlie.

Highly inspiring. I’ll keep these in mind.