Weidmannsheil. Nice bull, nice picture!
- mike

Help me out a bit, please. Reindeer and Caribou are obviously very closely related, and we know that, at least in North America, we break the Caribou into 6 species, or sub-species. Where do your Iceland Reindeer fall in this picture? Are they one of the 6 sub-species? Or another?

Very nice! Congratulations, he will provide many tasty meals.

Here is a picture of the reindeer bull i shot on monday.

It's not the biggest bull in Iceland but it's my first so I'm happy.

Weight: 89kg/196lbs gutted&skinned

Location: Eastern Iceland

Rifle: Sako75 in 280Remington with Zeiss Conquest 3.5-10x44

Load: 56grn Norma MRP behind 156grn Norma Orix (2740fps)

Range: 198m/215yds (Leica Rangefinder)

They are the same species, Rangifer tarandus.
Which of the 6 sub-species I do not know.
The Icelandic reindeer were imported from Norway in the late 1700.

280,

Congrats and nice looking bull, you will enjoy every meal!

Doug

280, when we US folks think of Reindeer, we tend to generally think of domestic animals. I suspect that I am safe to surmise that your Iceland Reindeer are not domestic, much more like what we think of when referring to Caribou, correct?

Congratulations! Wonderful bull and what a great landscape to hunt in...

Regards,
Martin

That sounds like a mighty fine hunt. What is the potential for foreigners like me to hunt Reindeer in Iceland?

It may not be the biggest but a beautiful bull by all means. And a beautiful place as well.
congratulations,
Montero

Hi there Arts.
Its not complicated. Just go to this website, http://www.hreindyr.is/
and your on your way. Let my know if you are having any trouble and I will try to assist.
S�lvi

The webpage my countryman Solvi, has pointed out, has relevant info on reindeer hunting in Iceland (and some nice slideshows too).



The hunting is done on public land and as you can see on the picture (and the slideshows on www.hreindyr.is) it is wide open.

No trees or brushes at all.



The Icelandic reindeer population is approx. 2500 deer.

The hunting quota for 2004 is 800 deer (368 bulls & 432 cows), divided on 9 different hunting-zones.



There were 1100 applications for those 800 deer.

You apply for either a bull or a cow in a certain zone.

I applyed for a bull in zone 2 and was lucky enough to be drawn.



Some of the zones are accessable on 4wd vehicles (on big tires) or atw's.

Other zones you hunt mostly on foot and you do ALOT of hiking.

Zone 2 is one of the "easy" zones.



You do alot of scoping and my guide (you must hunt with a guide) and I had been driving around and scoping most of the morning before we spotted this group of deer approx. 3km/2miles away.

There were around 30 deer in the group, cows & bulls, and they were grasing by this lake under a small hill.

We then drove around the hill to get down-wind and out of view from them and continued on foot.

Because there is no high vegetation we had to do the last 100m on our hands & knees and the last 50m we crawled on our bellies.

Even then it was a rather long shot, 198m, but I got a nice clean lung-shot on him an he only took a few steps and fell down dead.



Now I'm just waiting for my meat to arrive so I can have my first tasty meal from that beautiful animal.

That is a fantastic rack on that reindeer
Nice Going

Just one small side note if i may : Please

I would hope for you sake that santa claws does not find out you Wacked Rudolf

Once again Congrat's on the bull

I like what I see, though much is in Icelandic and I can't read it--slide shows don't seem to work, that's OK. If a foreigner like me wanted to hunt there, what would be the best approach? Seems as though it was mentioned that a guide is required, so that part is answered. How does one arrange for a guide? Should a hunter apply for the tag himself, or would it be wise to organize with a guide on all respects? Can applications be put in on a group basis? By that I mean, can my friend and I put in together so that either both of us are drawn or neither of us. It appears that these hunts are from camps set up out in the bush, correct (as opposed to driving out from town each day)? Are there guides that have the camping gear? It would be very costly to bring all that stuff from the USA. If we were to bring our woman folk, are there things for them to do in the towns while we hunt? What is the general duration of one of these hunts? Is it problematic to bring firearms into Iceland? What other activities might be combined with a Reindeer hunt? i.e. bird hunting, waterfowl hunting, fishing, tourism, etc.

Congrats on your game fellow counryman, hope i see one as such in my crosshairs next year!



Arts: i think this is the best source for info on how to apply for a Reindeer here in Iceland, this is the Icelandic hunting administration (think its spelled right) and they should be able to tell you everything!

veidistjorn@ust.is or http://english.ust.is/assignments/

Dont worry about writing in english, i have yet to meet an Icelander who dosent understand at least the wery basic in the english langue!



If you have any problems just post it here on ar and some of us Icelanders here will probably help you!



Regarding some other questions of yours:

Quote:

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Is it problematic to bring firearms into Iceland?

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No i think its not any more difficult than most other European countrys!

Quote:

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What other activities might be combined with a Reindeer hunt? i.e. bird hunting, waterfowl hunting, fishing, tourism, etc.

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Regarding other hunts it depends on what time you are here!

Watherfowl season, ea, greylags and pinkfeets starts 20 august and ducks 1st of september!

you could probably get your self some seals to hunt too, dont have to pay anything for hunting em!



Fishing: just find a pond, a lake or a river and there youll find at least a trout. in many rivers youll get atlantic salmon!

some are free some not but the salmon rivers can be wery expensive!!!



For touism i have to say we have a wery beutiful country to offer ,the east (where the reindeer are) and the north part are my favorite!



Well i think im empty for now but if you need any info just send me a pm or post here



Regards Ben

Iceland

Thank you, thank you, thank you Sako. I'm going to be looking into this. I have hanted a lot of places throughout the world, but I hear little about Iceland, but I think I would like to experience it.

I believe that the Safari Club lists the Icelandic reindeer as the same subspecies as the European version found and hunted both in Norway and on Kodiak Island. I think that there is one more Eurasian subspecies that is considered to be separate and that lives in Siberia but it is so remote that a hunt for it involves war-surplus Soviet helicopters and some truly horrendous tundra. A hunter utterly addicted to collecting the various Rangifer would therefore end up with a wall-full, eight heads. Don't I wish! Beautiful animal, beautiful country (and beautiful women as well!)