Wandernjagd in Finnland

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1 Mrz 2017
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Grüs Gott Alle Jäger!

Ich bin ein Finn, ein bischen über 30 Jahr alt, ganz neue in diesen wunderbar Forum und habe in Deutschland seit zwei Jahr gearbeitet. Aber mein Herz ist noch sehr viel in Finnland und ich will in halbe Jahr zuruck umzogen. Meine deutsch is ganz schlecht aber ich versuche mein Bestes!

Seit viele Jahre ich habe gedanken dass ich sollte mehr Zeit in Wildniss verbringen, weil es ist mein Traumleben - Urlaube habe ich nicht genug und meine Frau mag nicht dass ich bin ganz Urlaub jeden Jahr in Wildnis (ich glaube Sie könnten eine Ahnung haben, was ich meine Meine) Lösung ist, um zu versuchen, ein kleines "Geschäft" um mein Hobby zu machen. Dafür habe ich jetzt nicht genug "Bälle" aber diese Thema ist die erste konkrete Sache in Richtung meines Ziels. Ich suche jetzt "test Kunden" und würde gerne Ihre Meinung zu meiner Idee zu hören. Mein Plan ist ganz anders als bei bestehenden Firmen. Die restlichen schreibe ich auf Englisch. Ich kann doch alles übersetzen, wenn jemand möchte!

So my trips that I have been doing for now almost 15 years have more and more moved from ordinary hunting towards what I would call hiking-hunting. I spend 5-14 days in the wilderness with my dogs, tent and a shotgun. The most important reason for this is that this to me is a perfect way to relax all the stress that is caused by ordinary working life (I am a physicist with a doctor tittle working with quite stressful issues). Plus I like the landscapes, being alone but not lonely and definitely enjoy also the pure nature there. In this trips I rarely see a single person, I often see a lot of polar lights, wild animals and, at least so far, also have had the pleasure to catch game. As I have two german shorthaired pointers (Deutsch Kurzhaar), my primary goal is to hunt birds in these areas. My dogs are not hunting champions, but I would say that they are about the average level hunting dogs in Finland (maybe even above the average) and usually they do their job rather well. Typically I hunt every year at least 1-3 weeks capercallie and black grouse (Auerhahn, Birkhuhn) and at least 1-3 weeks willow grouse (~Scheehuhn). I try to bring my fishing gear with me and often try to catch wild trout (Forellen), Artic Char (Saibling), grayling (Äsche), perch (Barsch) but sometimes have to be happy "only" with a pike (Hecht) that can be quite gigantic around there (up to even 8-10kg). Some of the areas are famous brown bear country but I have never seen a living bear there, although almost every year I see several traces of them and they definitely are there. With out a specialized bear dog, they are quite difficult to catch. One can buy a licence to shoot them but it is pretty much useless for me, as said, with out a bear dog. Mine only mark the traces, not follow the tracks or so. Same goes with other big game like moose, reindeer and so on that live there. For those you cannot even buy a licence that easily. Therefore, I will not even try to offer big game, I offer only bird hunting but it will the best bird hunting that Scandinavia has to offer. Naturally, there is a possibility to aim the trip according to the wishes of the client. If you want to try capercaillie, I will choose the region that is the best at the given year to meet that goal and so on. Please note that I observe in real-time during the summer what is the weather situation around in Lapland, how is the breeding going on (pretty much weather after the egg-phase decides how is the hunting next year) and what are the results of the annual inventories (Finland has by far the best wild game inventory system in the world, organized by local hunting clubs) just before the hunting season starts. This guarantees that we will always head to one of the best areas!

My trips take place almost everywhere in Lapland, both in Finland and in Sweden. I've used Canoe to move closer to the heart of Wilderness. As I have done this for years, basically all of my life, I've gained a lot of expertise on where to go and when. Also I have learned to really respect the areas that I visit. In fact, I extremely rarely shoot anything more than I can eat during my trips - it is also very much a practical thing since you don't really want to carry too much weight with you! I always respect the locals and even though I do not usually need any services, I try to utilize those whenever possible (for example book a cabin before I start my trip for the last night, or any other help that I might need). As said, we can pretty much choose the hunt according to your preferences. Here are some examples of my personal favorites: 5-6 days in the borealis forest hunting (mainly) for capercaillie. This happens in North-East Finland, we can use the canoe to transport one of the wilderness areas there, we can use tent or a tradinional finnish loue (a bit like open lean-to) and prepare all the food in the campfire. This option is difficult to combine with fishing. We will buy a permit to chop firewood that allows to live like my ancestors lived: by the fire, with the fire. Another favorite of mine is 5-6 days of willow grouse hunting either in Finland or in Sweden. This offers you to see some of the most rough nature that we have to offer. Really the remainings of the wilderness that we still have here in Europe! No trees, just fjälls (like a small mountains), rivers and lakes. And of course birds! This is a perfect option for the ones that like to combine fishing to trip, option to pretty much catch anything from grayling, wild trout to arctic char. Please note that in both countries you do not need a fishing license, you just pay the permit. I have fishing gear for you as well. Usually I set up a camp next to a lake with good fishing, hunt for the day and during the evening try my look in the lake. I also sometimes carry fishing gear during the day and when suitable lake comes by, try my luck. There trips are done with a tent (the weather can be quite harsh in terms of wind), and a gas boiler since one can not rely on finding enough firewood.

My idea is to keep the costs of these trips minimal, but the quality should always be top level since the original reason to organize this is to spend more time myself. So if I wouldn't do my best to maximize the quality of the trips, I would never even consider starting anything like this. My first idea was that the clients should would pay the costs, which in this kind of trips are quite minimal and then would have at the end of the journey an option to pay for my services as a tip - anything starting from 0 € to the sum that they consider is appropriate for my efforts. Just to give you an idea about the costs: a flight from München to Oulu and back ~300€ (might need to pay something for the gun, if you want to bring your own), there I will pick you up and we will drive to Lapland, diesel ~100€, the optional cabin before and after the trip ~100€, everything to eat and drink ~150€. Hunting permits 15-25€/day, fishing permits almost nothing. I might have missed something here, but the biggest parts are here and sums up to something around 700-1000€. If you need something extra, that can always be arranged but might cost more. You could also fly to Kuopio and we can stay at my own hunting cabin and thus save some money and maybe hunt some ducks there as well!

Please note that I am already aware of all the regulation necessary to get you, your weapons and the hunting licence for you for this trip. This is, however, only in theory and we have to start the process quite early to see how it goes in practice. I do not expect any problems if you can share with me your i) european gunpass and ii) german hunting licence. Please note also that I take care of everything from buying the hunting licences (this is quite tricky here in Finland, you must be a professional to get them for the best times and best areas but I have so far managed to be quite lucky in this process), and taking care of the transportation from airport and so on. I'll also will take care of a role of a cook, I have a few special dishes but I can guarantee that everythign you will be served will taste good (it is not because I am the best cook in the world, but mainly because after walking around outside for the full day you are so hungry that it is the best spice ever!).

The list of items you need for this kind of trip are something like this: light weight shotgun (12 16 or 20 caliber is fine), bunch of ammo (I personally use 32g, 2.7-3.1mm for all the birds, they are also handy to carry with you), a backbag 60-80L (can be rented), sleeping bag and matress (can be rented), proper waterproof outer layer cloths, 2-3 layers of underwear clothing, personal gear (toothbrush etc) and that's about it. Everything else I will provide. Please note also that I am not a fan of all these "survival stories". I will NOT go the wilderness to survive, I go there to enjoy! It is after all my bed room, kitchen, living room, movie theater and play station! Who could then join? The trips can be a little physical since we need to carry our gear to the wilderness and back. Usually the backbag at start is anything between 15-35kg, so quite heavy. But I usually set up a main camp to ease the effort. So you suffer most the first day, and a little bit less the last day. The days between are done with light weight bags from the main camp. So, everyone that can carry around 35kg for around 10km can definitely join to all of my trips, and quite a bit less enables still good trips as well! It is definitely possible to ease the transport effort by using canoe or asking the help of locals (for some particular places it is possible to organize 4wheel transport of the gear). One most realize that the hiking part is, however, an essential part of these trips. This allows us to be well separated from the road network that will take most of the hunting pressure. We are usually starting our hunts further about 7-10km to nearest road and thus enjoying hunting of truly wild animals that might have never seen a human being! Please note also that I use my dogs to carry their own food and part of my gear with a dog-backbags. Sometimes the adventure is complete using canoe to move around, due to space restrictions it unfortunately works with maximum of 2 humans plus the dogs.

Due to the nature of these trips, you will be treated more like a friend rather than a client. We will anyway sleep within the same tent so it must be this way! I cannot guarantee that we shoot certain number of birds (the limits are 2 caparcaillier/trip, 1 per day, 3 willow grouses/day in Finland and 8 in Sweden, and they are all personal), so far I have never made one with out getting anything though but it does not mean that this would not happen ever! I cannot guarantee polar lights either, but we are definitely outside in the areas where it is very likely to see them (I enjoy several full green dancing skies every year). What I can guarantee that you will spend a week in a good company, enjoying truly wilderness and this trip you will remember (one way or the other) for the rest of your life. I must, however, warn you that it is not only me that has been sentenced for life - a man can leave from Lapland but Lapland never leaves from you! Every night I dream about the next trip, about the next morning in the wilderness, about the next experiences with my dogs, just simple life that will full your soul! Maybe it sounds poetic but it is the truth!

Die erste Frage. Würden Sie denken, dass deutsche Jäger Interesse haben würden, an diesen Reisen teilzunehmen? Auch dafür zu bezahlen? Und die zweite Frage ist. Würde jemand von hier aus bereit sein, das zu versuchen? Vielleich schon September-Oktober 2017? Da ich gar nicht entschieden habe ob ich das Geschäft anfangen werde, würden wir genau so tun wie bei echten Kunden, aber dieses Mal können wir alle Kosten 50/50 teilen. Die Reise ist mit 1-2 Personen möglich.

Ich freue mich auf Ihre Antwort! Fühlen Sie sich bitte frei, auch etwas über die Jagd in Finnland von mir zu fragen, ich werde versuchen zu antworten! Wenn es sich nicht um diese Thema handelt, dann benutze bitte pm.
 
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25 Aug 2006
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Are the Birds limited for male or female?What about Hasel grouse?i already hunted capercalie and black grouse,so i need not to shoot a lot of them just for cooking,but snow and hasel grouse i would like to taxidermise at least one of each.the rest i would like to eat.
Is the time limited to september and oktober?What about Februar and March?
 
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1 Mrz 2017
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No limitations for male/female. The limitation in the forest zone is 2 birds per day including 1 capercallie per day and 2 per year. In mountain area it has been so far 3 snow grouse/day (note that here you are not allowed to even shoot forest birds even though you might have a situation to do it). In Sweden the limits are 3 forest birds (capercallie, black grouse, hazel grouse) and 8 willow grouse per day in all areas. In forest areas I mostly hunt capercallie but there are specific areas where one mostly finds black grouse. Hazel grouse is a difficult to combine with those since it lives in a mixed dense non-natural forests that usually taken care of humans, so it is not wilderness at all. So to catch hazel grouse we would need a trip to a separate area (still possible), and a different hunting method (they usually do not want to respect the pointing dogs). I am not specialized on hazel grouse hunting since it is at its best in different part of the country where I usually go. But I know the techniques and try maybe once in two years or so, back in the past I hunted more of those. It is not a particularly difficult to catch when you know what to do. The best way to get those is to first know where they live (this is often by far the most difficult part!), then buy or build a whistle (I have at least a couple of them), use good camo clothing and start whistling while trying to be as static as possible. These birds are so curious that usually they will check sooner or later whose whistling in my area, they usually also reply to whistling to make it quite interesting. They often actually come too close <5m so it can be quite difficult to shoot them (especially keeping to body intact)! Snow grouse/willow grouse is not a big problem, I shoot ~tens of them every year so one can almost promise to catch at least one of them, the average daily catch would be something like around 2-3 birds. I will try to find out whether taxidermy is a possibility, I have never did it (even though I got one snow grouse as a gift, and to me it is the most beautiful bird in the world in its snow fur) so I need to learn how soon after the kill you need to do it.

The season for forest birds (capercallie, hazel grouse and black grouse) is in Finland from 10th September to end of October. They limit the season, if necessary, from the end (at least so far it has been the case). A couple of last seasons have, unfortunately, had some limitations in certain areas (my personal cut feeling is that not all of these were necessary, since the bird situation was still reasonable) and in any case the best time for these trips is early in the season (winter comes to Lapland quite soon, end of October can be already really cold, lakes are frozen, day light is extremely limited, snow might slow your walking speed considerably and so on, it is still doable but might be too rough to start with so not good for beginners). In the mountain areas we are allowed to hunt snow grouse until the end of March. However, the hunting permits are limited and not available every year. There is a never ending night from ~end of November all the way till mid January. The weather can also be a problem: too high winds, too cold temperatures (-30 is usual around this time) and way too much powder snow. When the time approach the end of March, conditions usually change for the better. It is milder (can be still -15), there is loads of sun light, and if you are lucky the snow becomes packed and allows you to easily move with your skis.

This is my personal favorite time to go snow grouse hunting but since the conditions can not be guaranteed I cannot recommend it. It might be a trip of your life time or disappointing journey. Some years we for example could not use the dogs at all, there was a rough surface on the snow that allowed a person to ski but the paws of the dogs penetrated this layer and it was sharp as a knife and cut the legs in just a few hours and that was it. Hunting with out the dogs is for me boring and it is also way less effective especially in terms of willow/snow grouse! Some years, there are 30-50cm of powder snow, so dogs need to swim to move and it makes their life very difficult and limits the daily distances quite a bit. Humans can still ski but it is very demanding, much heavier than to carry your back bag! Weather can also be such that it is very easy for both the dogs and humans to move, sun is shining and everything is fine except that the snow grouses are just sitting on top of frozen snow, are gathered at huge flocks and disappear when you try to approach them so it can be quite frustrating in terms of trying to catch them. I can definitely organize this kind of trip as well but then I cannot promise anything regarding the weather/catch and so I would not recommend it for the ones that wants to keep things controlled. But I see the point, snow grouse in the winter fur is a beautiful bird and well worth all the effort! I personally go every year, if there are permits, independently of the weather. I would say that you have very good/good hunting about 1/3 of the cases if you just book a random week around the end of March, 1/3 it is almost impossible/very difficult to hunt and the rest are something from between. Since the weather is usually still very harsh, I've often booked a cabin and stayed nights there. This limits the areas you can reach but is definitely more comfortable that time of the year. Note that during end of March is the start of the peak season for ice fishing. If the hunting is really bad instead we/I usually use the time for ice fishing. It can be an experience of its own, looking down to the hole through a crystal clear water and trying to lure the fishes to take the bait is just like watching movies! You need to take double sun glasses since the sun will burn your eyes with out those, you get blind (but will recover in darkness) in just a few hours so it is not a joke! This year I could not book hunting permits but I will make a long skiing expedition with my dogs first in Finland and later in Norway. Will ski around 100-150km in the tundra from one lake to another catching arctic char and trout. It is not as optimal as winter hunt but that's the best I can do this year with no hunting permits available...

In Sweden the season starts already 25th of August but due to new regulation (next year will be the first one) they sell permits for foreigners only starting around mid September. The season length depends on the altitude (in north the season is longer than in south) but the female forest bird hunt end before kaamos (=never ending night), and male ends end of January. Snow grouse is doable until mid March at the very north. Even there I would propose going early in the season so September/November in stead of winter hunt.

Please note that in the areas of where spend most of my time there is no mobile network. This I forgot to mention in my first message. This means that we need to pay special care especially with the firearms, the help will not arrive anytime soon. Every now and then at the top of the mountain you find a network but in principle handy is a useless piece of plastic there. Instead we will navigate using map and compass. I will always carry a mobile with gps and map for safety, although I rarely actually need it. Later on I will try to find some good photos from my hunts!
 
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1 Mrz 2017
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I have asked about the taxidermy from a couple of sources. It would be beneficial to do it later in the season (late September/October) because the feathers are in better condition especially for the young birds. It would also be beneficial to immediately freeze the bird which might cause some problems early in September in the wilderness. But all of this can be sorted out, still cannot guarantee the end result as I have indeed never done it. There are several people in Finland that do taxidermy so that is not a problem, keeping the bird in a good condition might be. Will let you know when I have learned more about this...
 
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1 Mrz 2017
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Here are some photos from my hunts during the last 2-3 years:

Here I show you some pictures from willow grouse hunts in Sweden and Finland:
Me, my dogs and the place where my soul belongs to: http://aijaa.com/PdKUIl
Winter hunt for willow grouse. This was quick hunt of about 1.5 hours plus the transportation to hunting area of about 7km skiing. Back then limit was 2 per day: http://aijaa.com/62xWQ4
Wild brown trout. This was a succesfull small fishing session just before lunch break. Biggest one is ~1kg, which is a typical size in this area: http://aijaa.com/gxqYZf
Successfull combination of willow grouse hunt and grayling fishing. Each grayling was ~700g, needed three throws to get three of them, it was amazing that the fish session was over in just 15 minutes (more you cannot really eat) including the preparation of the fishes! http://aijaa.com/5QnDos
Nothing is more delicious than fresh willow grouse breast! http://aijaa.com/Nwgmsg
Every now and then I stay in a rental cabin, this was a succesful two days here: http://aijaa.com/tSPEAt
Reindeers life in the fjäll area. You can see tens or hundreds of them in a day. Dog must absolutely not chase them!: http://aijaa.com/O8KTg6
October willow grouse hunt. This hunt was over in an hour, back then limit was 2 per day. Note the whitish color, winter is coming: http://aijaa.com/GXhUFV
How long can you see even with some mist?: http://aijaa.com/1z1HWj
Sun setting at your camp lake: http://aijaa.com/mzjrbh
Our home camp: http://aijaa.com/UcakWs
Scenaries from the top of a fjäll close to our campsite: http://aijaa.com/YT2psT
First ever catch for my younger dog, a snow grouse in winter. Still remember it like yesterday. Enough powder snow that the birds stay inside the snow for the time they are not eating (saves energy since snow is a good thermal insulation). Dog with unsecure point in a small downhill, I ask it to flush the bird. Dog takes steps forward trying to locate the bird. I have to encourate a little bit, after 200m solid point, I ask the dog to flush, bird leaves the snow pit leaving powder snow flying in the air, together with two other ones, one clean shot, bird down in 20m. Asking the dog to my side, asking it to apport and then we celebrated really good!: http://aijaa.com/s8OhqK
Superfood for the breakfast: http://aijaa.com/3PDwMh


This section is from hunts in Nort-East forest of Finland:
Female capercallie from my younger dog: http://aijaa.com/clKMAV
Young male capercallie from my younger dog: http://aijaa.com/WtapEw
This is a typical catch in the forest, young male capercallie, me and my dogs. The older one delivered this bird: http://aijaa.com/vSsqRQ
This is a youngish male capercallie (1.5 years old). This one came with my younger dog: http://aijaa.com/jKAhCp
This is the traditional loue I mentioned earlier on, together with a trophy class male capercallie as a result of perfect point from my younger dog. You do not get too many of these and when you finally get, you walk for the next suitable place for a campfire, make a fire and respect the gods of forest that have pledged you with luck to get one of these amazing birds. Obviously the hunt is over for the day and you head to your camp: http://aijaa.com/PboAYW
This is a young male black grouse early in the season, note the brown color of a young bird: http://aijaa.com/XXQ0UX
This is a old and larger than usual female capercallie that I got with my older dog: http://aijaa.com/CVujOZ


 
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1 Mrz 2017
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In late April I did a two week journey to Finland and Norway, with mostly just spending time in the wilderness with my dogs and ice fishing. But at the same time of course paying attention to willow grouse population in the eye of the next hunting season which is not far away anymore! Hunting season was over so I didn't carry a shotgun. Would have caught many birds with a gun, even though I didn't even try to find those. Population seems to be a bit under the average, with high local variation. There are vast areas with almost no signs of birds but also areas where you see tens or hundreds of birds per day. One just needs to know where to start searching from! The timing was not good to monitor population since they tend to pack for the mating season and thus there can be a lot of empty space and then huge flocks of birds. In any case, here are some pictures!

First week we lived in a wilderness cabin, and traveled there with a snowmobile.
You can find some snowmobile tracks in the wilderness (there are also marked routes), which you can utilize then for dog sledging, which is the main way to transport for me. Here we go in a track that we generated earlier on during the same week...

Second week I was alone with the dogs, skied about 50km from the road to spend some time in peace. Here was our set-up. Nothing fancy, just a pulk sledge, attached to the lines that go to dogs with husky harnesses. Living in a tent. Of course during winter ice fishing trip you need things like ice drill and other quite heavy equipment. I often also pack "leisure items" such as a couple of beer bottles, 3 litres of Riessling and a loads of meat! All those are quite easy to pull with you in the pulk sledge (with the help from the dogs) and skiing is much faster than walking. The speed with the dogs was in a good day roughly 20km/3 hours. In winter you do not need to worry about wetlands so orienteering is trivial. But rivers are usually open this time of the year and you need to pay special attention when crossing them!
Quite soon after the start, we headed to the tundra. Here you see the last trees.
One big motivation is always to enjoy the landscapes. Here is a fjäll 20km from the road. Most of the traces on the snow are caused by the local people that were working there with their reindeer (didn't took a picture of their herd, now it feels like a bad idea). Here is a picture 20km away from that one, and there the snow was untouched.
My dogs are super used to living in tent. They have their own sleeping bags and feel quite comfortable even when the temperature goes down to -20C just like in this trip. However, the spring sun is warm even up in the north. It went down around 11.45 in the evening and first sun rays you could see already after 4 o'clock in the morning. Morning the tent can be quite wam!
As said, I has happy that quite frequently our journey was discontinued with the following situation: dog pointing at willow grouse. This particular bird was about 20m away, would have been an easy catch with a shotgun.
Main reason to select this area was to search for arctic char lakes. The fish was not biting, many days went pass by just 1-2 fish, but aren't they quite beautiful!. When I finally found slightly better spot, it was about a time to head towards the car, especially since my ice drill extension broke so I couldn't drill holes anymore. Ice was almost 1.5m thick and one needs special extended drill high up in the fjäll lakes. A bit lower just a standard ~1m drill was enough.
The last day before heading back to home I hit a jackpot in a greyling lake. The fish was really biting hard, had to stop fishing after only about one hour! Enough is enough, I never fish more than I eat plus a little bit souvenir to home folks. Certainly smoked greyling is worth all the effort!

Another adventure in the Lapland is now just a memory. After the trip, I had some hard time to explain myself that next time is in August/September. On the other hand, it is better to come out with that feeling rather than with a "I just want to go home now". Now I can't wait anymore for the next trips, exploring some new areas also led to a chain of plans how a hunting trip could be done to those arctic char lakes. Those plans are now waiting for execution, one year I will be back to those lakes with a shotgun and fishing gear...
 
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18 Feb 2013
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4.993
Thank you so much for taking us along! :thumbup:

I've been to Norway twice this year and was deeply impressed by the nature. Unfortunately so far without fishing rod or shotgun but we'll see what the future brings :cool:

Good luck for the civilization time!
Baffi2003
 
Registriert
25 Nov 2009
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128
Hi Antti,

Unfortunately, not much response for you here.. maybe u wrote too lengthy posts..
How did it pan out, were u able to run that as a business? Really curious to know.
 

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