Title: Hunting in Sweden
Tags: Sweden, Hunting
Blog Entry: Okey, i have the day off from all kinds of duties so i was thinking on writing the post about swedish hunting. A problem is that the hunting differs so much over here, that it will be almost impossible to cover everything. For today, i will try to cover the basic in Swedish Big game hunting. Lets start with the species: Red Deer: [img]http://www.stoltzfamily.se/images/kronhjort.jpg[/img] Moose: [img]http://www.harnosand.se/images/18.70028bd510bcd17677d8000286/Älg.jpg[/img] Fellow Deer: [img]http://biphome.spray.se/karl-erik.westerberg/dovhjort.JPG[/img] In sweden Roe Deer is not considered a Big Game but i´ll list it here because the hunting methods are almost the same: Roe Deer: [img]http://www.jagareforbundet.se/akila/media/29575.jpg[/img] Of these mentioned the Roe Deer is by far the most common deer. Its also the one with longest hunting period (16aug-31Jan). Sweden is considered one of the top Nation for Roe Deer Trophy Hunting, and it Currently holds the World Record. The roe Deer are Not quoted by the Goverment so any number can be put down as long as it is during Hunting Period. Next is the Moose which one can find everywere ,exept on Gotland (A Island in the Baltic Sea). The Moose is the Biggest of the Deer Species and also more widespread over Sweden than any other deer specie. The Hunting period starts in Souther Sweden on the second monday in October, and in Northern Sweden 1st September. The Hunt is always Quoted with a limited tags that is governed by a Development plan. The end of the hunting period differs alot from area to area, it can be everything from 31okt-31Jan. The fellow Deer was introduce along with the Red Deer in the during 1900. During time they have spread trough out southern Sweden. Today they are common everywere in the southern parts. The hunting period for Fellow Deer starts 1Sep-31Jan. And the Hunt is not Quoted by the goverment. The Red Deer hunting starts at 1 Okt but many hunters wait for the start of the Moose hunting period before they start hunting. The Red Deer is quoted the same way the Moose is. We also have Hog, Lynx and Brown Bear but since these are pretty famous and almost everyone knows how they look like, ill dont post any picture of them. Lynx and Brown Bear are heavely restricted by quotes, and i´ll have never hunt them so i will not cover these two here. Hog on the other hand i spreading with an incredible speed over the southern parts. Its open for hunting almost the whole Year exept females (Whatever a female hog is called :D) with small childs(Dont have a dictionary at the moment, hope you´ll still get it). The Hunt is not Quoted. Thats the species, Now the Methods: Hunting with Dogs: Hunting with Dogs is bt far the most common hunting teqnigue for Big Game. One really important thing is to understand that Hunting with Dogs, differs much from different countries in Europe. For example the "Pack Hunting" that is common i UK, France and Germany is forbidden here in sweden. We only use 1-3 dogs each time. There are mostly three different methods for hunting with dogs. Since they does not have english name ill try to refer to them by number. Method nr 1. is commonly used for Hunting Moose and Hog. The dog searches i large area for possible game. When it finds a game it starts barking at it. The Mosse and Hog is different from the other big game in the way they reacts to a dog. They are not afraid of them, and dont run off as easily. This gives dogs with special inbreed qualities an opportunity to locate the Game and cirkulating it while its barking. The hunters hear the bark and can locate where the Moose/Hog is. The Dogs work is to keep the game at the same location and at the the same time bark so the Hunter can locate it. The Dog are not allowed to bite, because of the "injury risk" and the game might get afraid and start running. The Hunter stalk the game who is being occupied by the dog, so it does not notice the hunter. Hopefully the Hunter bags the game. Method nr 2. is commonly used for Deers; Reo, Fellow and Red. Here the dogs have a different approach. The dogs purpuse is not to keep the animal at the same place, rather to flush it out to a number of hunter that have been positioned out over an area. The dog searches a area for track, then locate the deer. Thereafter it starts to bark in the track, to notify the hunters that it have found a track. The Game hear the bark and starts moving. Therefore the dog pushes the Deer a good distant infont of him the same time it is tracking it. A good dog should stay on track 1-2hours, depending on how big Area the deer moves. Since only short-legged breeds are allowed for this hunting method, the deer moves slowly and nice and are not getting stressed at all. It is very uncommon that the dog ever have any contact with the animal whats so ever. Hunting Method nr 3 is a variant of method nr 2. This method is used for all kind of Big Game. The difference is that in Method nr 3 we are using long-legged dogs that have pace, stressing the animal much more and flushing them out in an much higher speed. For this to be effective the dogs isnt allowed to track a animal for longer than 15min. Here the purpuse is to flush the game out of the area into the hands of the hunters positioned around the area then quickly return into the area and flush out another one. Since a Deer which is being tracked by a long-legged dog is being more stressed (often the dog just minutes after the game) it takes a more direkt escape route not trying to stay in the area. While in comparison to Method nr 2, the game is not stressed and stays in the area. Stalking and Stand hunting I dont think this differ very much from your way of doing it over there. I have read a couple of whitetail hunting books, and it got alots of similarities in method. Exept one different. Here one consider a good position over Wind. If a Swedish Shooter would have to choose between a Good position with an bad wind direction and a less productive position but a more favorly wind, he would still choose the Good Position with wrong wind. I thing the reason to that is since hunting with bows is banned in sweden, we bagg games at a bigger distance which makes the game more unsensetive to the smell. Well thats a brief summary of big Game hunting in Sweden. Since my english is not perfect, feel free to ask about anything. //Mattias
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