Lapland Capercaillie hunt

[KimE 487]

A friend and I was up to Swedish Lapland to hunt Capercaillie and Black grouse in January. We hunted on skis its not a shooting its a stalking with rifles scoping for birds in the treetops. We had nice weather clear sky and about -10c , great snow conditions with about 14" and soft fresh snow on a hard crust.

/Kimmo

 

 

[Stavross 13,711]

Good stuff, completely different to anything we do over here, what calibre rifle do you use for the capercaillie

Edited February 16, 2020 by Stavross

[KimE 487]

I used a .308w with competition bullets. We had a exiting stalk then we spotted the first bird(and then two-three) shot at one Caper together and on the way towards it i saw a second one and shot it. They had a weight of 4kg.

 

[Stavross 13,711]

That looks amazing, I’m always interested to see how people hunt in other countries, we don’t shoot birds with rifles often in England, if we do we use small calibres, we use .308 for deer, sometimes on fox, what else do you hunt?

[Sausagedog 7,381]

That's brilliant and I read how it's done in Sweden years ago. I understand they can spook very easily.

Is it correct some use a very light bullet for this? Possibly aluminium?

[foxdropper 17,092]

Dosnt look like its shot with a 308 to me 

[KimE 487]

"That looks amazing, I’m always interested to see how people hunt in other countries, we don’t shoot birds with rifles often in England, if we do we use small calibres, we use .308 for deer, sometimes on fox, what else do you hunt? "

My Tikka .308w are my general purpose rifle i have hunted moose for many years but i have a break now, i have also hunted wildboar, fallow deer and roe deer with it in southern Sweden. In the spring i hunt beaver with it. Yes i have used the .308 for fox to. Now in march i am going to hunt mountain grouse with my .22wmr in skis in alpine terrain.

[KimE 487]

"Is it correct some use a very light bullet for this? Possibly aluminium?"

Never herd of aluminium. My friend P-E used military steel jacket 6,5mm 139gr fmj. In a .22centerfire some use 50gr fmj bullets, in 6,5mm most use 107-140gr, for .30 its 123-155gr most people use.

"Dosnt look like its shot with a 308 to me"

FMJ makes small holes.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

On 17/02/2020 at 16:25, KimE said:

"Is it correct some use a very light bullet for this? Possibly aluminium?"

Never herd of aluminium. My friend P-E used military steel jacket 6,5mm 139gr fmj. In a .22centerfire some use 50gr fmj bullets, in 6,5mm most use 107-140gr, for .30 its 123-155gr most people use.

"Dosnt look like its shot with a 308 to me"

FMJ makes small holes.

I appreciate your comments and fully understand that 308 is more useful than most realise. Also 6.5!

Years ago now I sold many rabbit per annum. I had orders to fill most weeks in winter. Even in foul weather I had to go at night. In bad weather I used my 308 and fmj and a reduced charge of fast powder for around 1100 FPS. I loaded the bullets backwards to. It was better in the wind than the 22. At the time I had a source of cheap bullets and plenty of powder around.

Here is a photo of a rabbit load in 357 with reversed bullet.

[KimE 487]

I am thinking of getting a carbine for both beaver hunting and target shooting. A .357 would be great as i am already reloading for .38spl but i would even more like a 32-20 or 38-40 so i can use it for black powder competition. For the beaver hunting a 60-100m trajectory/range are more than enough. In Sweden its not allowed to hunt with black powder so i will have to use other powders, i like your percussion gun shooting.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

38-40 and 44-40 are good.

It's a shame about black powder being outlawed. They won't let me hunt with a m/l rifle here, only smoothbore!

Strange rules!

Can you guys use bows?

[KimE 487]

No we cant use bows, they have made a study and have suggested rules for bowhunting but the new law has not been up in the parlament. The suggestion for a new law has many strange changes as to ban adjustable stocks.

[KimE 487]

Legal big game cartridges (class 1) start with 6,5*55 power level 156gr bullet 2000j. The most popular cartridges are .308w, 6,5*55, 3006 and 9,3*62. 

For roe deer, beaver, lynx class 2 are required it starts about 222rem,223rem, 25-20. 

[KimE 487]

Rabbit and pidgeon  can be shot with .22lr, 17hmr and similar.

While fox and capercaillie requires 22wmr, 22 hornet or larger.

As its an older law some strange things can be seen, as 257weatherby are not allowed for anything bigger than a roe deer, seal need class1 140gr+ bullets, only boar and fallow deer can be shot with slugs, 17hmr are not allowed for fox. As bear and roe deer are allowed in August in the north and roedeer and boar in the southern of Sweden many hunters need a class 1 rifle most of the time. FMJ makes the cartridge only allowed as class 3 even in larger kalibers.

[Sausagedog 7,381]

On 22/02/2020 at 08:01, KimE said:

Legal big game cartridges (class 1) start with 6,5*55 power level 156gr bullet 2000j. The most popular cartridges are .308w, 6,5*55, 3006 and 9,3*62. 

For roe deer, beaver, lynx class 2 are required it starts about 222rem,223rem, 25-20. 

25-20! That's a nice sweet round too.