Hunting in Sweden

[Ironbeard]

Here in Finland things are nearly same as in Sweden. Maybe the biggest difference is the bird hunting with (mostly) Finnish Spitzers. Spitzers hunt in big area (about one km) in front the dog handler. When a dog finds a bird (a capercaillie or black grouse) it flushes the bird and usually the bird sits high up in the tree. Then the dog starts barking and the bird concentrates completely to the dog and the dog handler has an opportunity to crawl closer and shoot the bird, with rifle or with a shotgun. It can take long time to crawl and spot the bird, so it can be quite challenging. In northern areas, where forests are less dense, hunters usually use rifles. It's a really old way to hunt with a dog, because it's been done maybe thousands of years. In the old days weapons were bows and crossbows and we have still some guys who shoot birds with spitzer and bow. I used to do hunt with spitzer when I was younger, but now I shoot grouse, black grouse and capercaillie over my spaniels.

In Nordic Countries it's easy to hunt. Everyone has possibility to hunt on state owned areas, where you must pay a fee which is not too big. Or you can be a member of a hunting club, which have quite big areas. For example, I'm a member of two hunting clubs. Both have annual membership fee 20 euros and hunting area is about 7000 hectares.

[Naj]

Interesting. I'd read about the use of Spitzers hunting in this fashion but didn't realise that they covered such a large area of ground when hunting. Do spaniels retrieve the capercaillie without any problem? I've never seen one in the flesh but they look intimidating birds. It must be nice to have such ready access to hunting/shooting grounds & wild birds.

Naj

[Ironbeard]

Yes, my springers and cockers have retrieved a capercaillie cock. It's quite a big bird and when wounded it can fight and scare a dog away. Some years are better when hunting totally wild birds, population can vary depending on weather during nesting time. If you can shoot one or two capercaillie cocks in one season, you can be really satisfied. If there's a good grouse year in Lappland, then you can have nice bags. Of course it's nearly impossible to train a young spaniel with wild birds, so we use pheasants also here.

[Naj]

Our red grouse are the same. In a bad breeding year there may be no shooting on estates which rely on driving birds over guns. In a good year they can take remarkable bags. We have Capercaillie in some areas of Scotland but they are in very low numbers due to loss of habitat & high mortality rates on ground fenced off for deer. As far as I'm aware they are now a protected species & can't be shot. Is there also a wild population of pheasants in Sweden or are breeding conditions not suitable? Do you get woodcock migrating through?

Naj

[Ironbeard]

In southern parts of Finland we have little population of wild pheasants, which originate from shooting estates. In Sweden is better situation I think, because southern Sweden has better climate conditions. Woodcock is nesting here and we have also migrating birds. Best season for woodcock is around end of September-October. Shooting woodcock over spaniels is IMHO the ultimate sport!

[Naj]

I'd agree with you there, although where I now live, numbers are generally so low that I find shooting them over a pointing dog to be the more productive.

Naj

[nordichunter]

Here in Norway it's mostly the same as in Sweden. The "real" hunting dogs are Norwegian elkhound, English setter, wiredhair Vorsteher,long legged haredogs like "støver", "dunker" , dachshound etc. It's mostly roedeer and elk hunting here, and also treeing birds called "orrfugl", capercallies and off course lots of grouse in the Northern part of the long stretched country. There is no culture for shooting estates selling duck shooting etc. for guns, retrievers and spaniels are not looked upon as anything other than fat shortlegged showdogs. Our pheasant season is only 14 days long because we have very little of it, the ones we have are all bred and placed out for the pointing dogs to be trialled on (more or less).

The number of working bred retrievers and spaniels are growing though, and this year the Norwegian Retriever Club is organizing 2 real field trials for retriever in many many years. Cold game and dummytests are used otherwise.

Link to photo of the breed dunker: http://www.easypetmd.com/sites/default/ ... nker_0.jpg
Photo of støver: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/imag ... JcCB5E3yiL

[Naj]

Thanks. what strikes me is that you have such a rich variety of game to hunt with such a rich variety of traditional hunting dogs, why on earth bother with spaniels & Labradors?

Naj

[Judy]

Thanks. what strikes me is that you have such a rich variety of game to hunt with such a rich variety of traditional hunting dogs, why on earth bother with spaniels & Labradors?

Naj

We have a rich variety of traditional hunting dogs in the country a few of those breeds are on the danger list and still people keep buying HPRs!

[Naj]

Yeh, but they've been with us since the last World War & do a similar job to our indigenous breeds. And some would argue that they do a better job than our specialist indigenous breeds in some situations...