Ptarmigan Hunting in Iceland

DavyDee

Myself and Lofty95 been grouse enthusiasts, after weeks and months talking about how much we'd like to go ptarmigan hunting, we done some research online and were very taken by videos on youtube by a certain Icelanders videos. He owns and trains the Icelandic field trial champion which happens to be a german shorthaired pointer, he looked exceptionally good on the videos but were interested if his master could bring us ptarmigan hunting. Thankfully he messaged me back and works as a hunting and fishing guide. He is telling me of the huge numbers of birds and I am finding it hard to believe, until he backs it up with videos and photos. The idea had already gone too far so planning permission off herself was the next thing which of course was the hardest part of all! After some not so kind exchanges permission was granted !

Now the season over there is dictated by the government and changes on a yearly basis. This year hunting of ptarmigan was permitted for only 9 days, the last Friday, Saturday and Sunday of October, the first, third and fourth Saturday and Sunday of November. The guide told us what dates to come over, so we flew out last Friday evening. Picked up at the airport by our guide and his wife who is just as mad into fishing and shooting as the he is! We drove 2 hours to a cabin, basically a holiday home which was very modern and warm. Saturday morning we drove to the foothills of the mountain, met up with his buddy who owned a daughter of his dog. Both he and his mate were driving Toyota landcruiser Amazons, one had 35 inch tyres and the other had 38 inch tyres. It took 3 hours to drive up the mountain, but man was it worth it. It was freezing up there and the wind would cut you in 2. We walked with the wind to begin with, the first 2 ptarmigan that got up I never even got a shot off due to my hands been freezing. After another 10 minutes walking we warmed up and were ready for action. This guys dog was the best I have ever witnessed and I have been at many field trials. The dog was ranging out to 800 yards and was taking the wind in a diagonal line down the moutain and working straight back up the moutain with his head in the air, he picked up one covey at 600 yards from the opposite side of a hill at one stage, we had never seen anything like this! I have it on video and will upload it this weekend! Once we got in on the speed and range we hit fairl well, but still should have hit 10 more between us! For me regardless of what we shot, the most amazing part of this was to watch this dog working, he was exceptional! Towards the end of the day, we met up with his buddy and we ran both dogs together, lets just say the apple didnt fall far from the tree! We got back to the cabin about 6pm and every hunting lodge there has a big hot tub outside for soaking your tired limbs, drinking beer, -2 outside in a hot tub! They cooked a meal for us you wouldnt get in a michelin star restaurant, lobster starter, reindeer main and dessert, unreal!

Day 2 we went to a different spot, seen some more hunters there who had done no good. We were out with the son of his dog and yet again another exceptional dog. We seen less ptarmigan this day but still managed to shoot 7 between us. We seen one nice covey of 6 and shot some very good birds for stuffing which are with the taxidermist right now! We got another exceptional meal of ptarmigan and wild goose. All in all it was my best hunting experience to date, it didnt cost the earth, we could have spent more money and shot better grounds but we were delighted to have shot 16 between us! I would highly reccomend it. If anyone is interested in doing it I would only be glad to pass on this guys details so just pm me!

Bag Day 1


Father and daughter back each other up on point


Falls on mountain top


Lofty in action


The dog we were out with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsvXTYbGIo

His last dog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZldZm0fN1Po