Jump to content

Sten Ch

Members
  • Posts

    73
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://www.naturredaktionen.se
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • From
    South Sweden
  • Interests
    General shooting interest, especially rough shooting with my spaniels, pigeon shooting and driven wild boars... Have shot pigeons and doves in Sweden, England, Scotland, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Used to shoot with Archie Coats in the eighties and learnt a lot from the dear old Master.<br />
  1. Big, yes, but not beautiful. A really big AND beautiful buck was shot a few kilometers from my house on Setember 11th 2001 (sic!). It is 222,1 points CIC, a fraction smaller than the Scottish head, but REALLY beautiful (see picture). In fact this is the most beautiful big head I have ever seen and I have seen and handled a few, including a couple of world records. It weights 787 gram and is one of the biggest in the whole of Sweden. Our record trophy weighs 875 gram and measures 246,9 points and held the world record for 25 years, but it isn't nearly as beautiful as the 11th September buck!
  2. Never seen anything like that in a pigeon, but it happens to roe and fallow deer from time to time. Here's a roe I photographed some years ago in Sweden. Saw an even worse one in Denmark this year.
  3. The text is about why we hunt, summing up that apart from sheer pleasure and the contact with nature hunting is natural to man. To hunt is a natural way of living, it says, and hunting allows us to harvest from nature in a sustainable way. Hunting ethics are important, it states, and it is a good feeling to collect one's food directly from nature. It also says that comeradeship is a very important part of hunting and that much of the hunter's joy is a result of his cooperation with his dog, both during training and actual hunting with him.
  4. In one or two hours' time there will be much bigger and even fatter creatures feeding!
  5. It just struck me that the times the feeder starts are Swedish time of course. So if you live in UK it is 8, 9 and 10 PM.
  6. Today the camera takes pictures with two seconds intervals. Anything faster is not possible because of lack of bandwith out in the forest. But they are working on it and in due time there will be moving pictures plus sound.
  7. In case anyone wonders; they are all wild animals, no fencing.
  8. The distance between the ground and the lower, horisontal bar under the feeder is 63 cm (2 feet).
  9. The Swedish hunters' association has a web camera at a wild boar feeder in mid Sweden. It takes a picture every two seconds day and night. The feeder starts every evening at 9, 10 and 11 PM and there is always some action then. But it is also interesting to watch at other times. There are birds feeding in daytime and when darkness comes, almost anything might show up. http://www.jagareforbundet.se/webbkamera/
  10. Is that the only gun you use in bed?
  11. The best by far of the slim ones are Peltor SportTac. The over all best are the Pelto Tactical XP, but they are too thick in my opinion. As you probably do not know, Peltor is the Swedish company which invented the electronic ear muffs and they are still the market leader. The founders of Peltor (Pelle and Tore were their first names) first constructed earphones for fighter pilots which had radio connection in them so they shut out the noise from the engine and at the same time promoted the sound from the radio. They were first in this and the year was 1950. Then an engeneer in the iron mines in Lapland wanted something that took out the sound from drills and trucks, but still made it possible to hear a shout if something dangerous was happening. He joined Peltor and together they constructed the first electronic ear muffs some 25 years ago. The same engineer, Bjorn Jakobson is his name and he is still active, has now improved Peltor's muffs considerably by inventing a new chip which does not cut off loud nois directly, but smoothly in four very fast steps, The SporTac were the first muffs with the new chip. They may have it in more models now, but only Peltor has this chip. A couple of other good things with Peltor SportTac is that you change the outer shell easily. You get two different colurs when you buy the muffs. They come in olive, camo, orange and bright red. So when shooting clays och stalking, you use the orange shells and when bird shooting the camo or olive ones. Furtermore, the most common reason for malfunction in ordinary muffs is that sweat penetrates into the electric circuits and makes them malfunktion or destroys them completely. This is not possible to avoid if the construction opens on the inside (the side of the ear) when you change batteries. The SportTac is sweat tight from the inside and you swop battries from the outside as easy as you change the coloured shells. Everybody should use electronic ear pads! Some people think they are expensive, but is your hearing not wort a hundred quid or so! Don't be stupid. If you can pour out money on guns, scopes, petrol and beer in the Pub, why can't you afford to save your hearing? I have used electronic pads when shooting (even game and pigeons and when stalking) for 15 years and if I forget to put them on I immediately feel something is wrong till I realise I have forgotten my muffs. Just go and get you a pair, but remember that the cheap ones are cheap because they are no good. What use are they if they don't let through too many decibels and you cannot hear from which angle the ducks come in? http://www.peltor.se/int/Page.asp?Pagenumber=142
  12. Three dead foxes and one sleeping. Great!
  13. You can watch the hunting of capercaillie with barking dog at http://www.jagareforbundet.se/jagarfilmforum/ Click the film called "Jakt med tradskallare". Not very often you see the bird as well as in this clip.
  14. Quote: "The only complaint i have is the unsporting nature of the Ptarmigan shooting. Why wait until its in the tree not moving before shooting." “arnt they caperkellie (or what ever )†“Not sure of the numbers over those parts but they deserve a lot more respect than that in my opinion.†"I realise different country, different culture, but not sporting none the less." End of quote. I think you are quite wrong there! Capercaillie hunting in Scandinavia is great sport. I agree that the guy shouting when he hits a bird and pointing his gun in all directions is not good advertisement for the sport, but he is Norwegian and they are a bit mad, most of them.... Back to subject. The caper is hunted in three different ways in Scandinavia; with pointing dog, with barking dog or sitting in the tree tops in winter. How pointing dogs work you all know. But do not for a moment make the mistake of thinking it is like walking up partridges or grouse. You often have to run beside the dog when it leaves the point to flush on order and then shoot at a bird you might see for only a second or two, if you see it at all. A caper never flushes in open areas. It runs in front of the dog for hundreds of meters (and you must hang on to it, so be fit!) and takes to the wing only when it is hidden by a wide and dense spruce or some other cover. There are rare occasions when they are forced to flush at the edge of a mire, but that's rare. Old cocks never make mistakes like that. The barking dog, a small spitz (either the Finnish spitz or the Swedish Norbbotten spitz) finds the birds on the ground, flushes them and follows as long as he can see them. Then he stops and listen for the bird getting into a tree, estimates how far away and runs in that direction. When he by sight, hearing and smell finds the exact tree where the bird sits, he barks under the tree. When hearing the dog, the hunter approaches, stalking the bird. This is EXTREMELY difficult! When he spots the bird, he shots it sitting. Yes, sitting! There are many reasons for that. If a spooked bird flies away there is no chance of getting it high up in the tree tops. Be lucky if you see it for half a second. But the main reason is that it would destroy the dog. The dog must only bark when he knows where the bird is. As soon as the bird moves, the dog must be quiet. Otherwise the dog will become dishonest, barking without having control of the bird, which results in the hunter trying to stalk a bird which is not indicated by the dog, which in practice means that neither of them know where the bird is. If there still is a bird around. So it is EXTREMELY important not to shoot any bird which does not sit and which the dog has not located by barking under the very tree. Otherwise you migh as well sell your dog as a pet. The stalk is the sport, and I tell you, it is exiting. Especially in the big wilderness of northern Sweden, where it is sometimes 150 miles between roads. You are there all alone with your dog, having permission to shoot over maybe 100 000 acres, bears, elks and lynx in the forest and those elusive, big and vary capercaillie cocks. Don't call it unsporty. Unsporty in the eyes of these guys is standing by a peg, shooting reared pheasants, no matter how high they are... And he will tell you that the higher the pheasant, the more likely it is it is only wounded, and he will ask you if you think that i etical. The shooting of capers in winter when they feed in the tops of fir trees is quite different. You use no dog and move around on ski, dressed in white and rifle wrapped in white. This time of the year the birds feed on fir needles. You have to stalk them very carefully and mostly have to take you shot at over 100 meters, often 200. Trying to shoot flying birds under these circumstances is ridiculous. But, by all means, try it if you like. I can fix you an invitation (a day permit will cost you £20 and the bag limit is 3 capers or black game plus 8 grouse or ptarmigan) and have somebody drop you and your skies a winter's day with 50 inches of snow with your shotgun somewhere in Lapland, 30 miles or so from the nearest human dwelling. Don't forget to bring matches and a good, heavy knife! You might need that to keep warm. Firewood is provided without any cost. Then you can shoot as many flying capers as the bag limit permits!
×
×
  • Create New...