Uutiset - News

Closing the season

The principal hunting season is open from Aug 10 until Feb 28/29; ofcourse" species spesific" dates and restrictions apply. But for me, if I have the opportunity, I will start with pigeons (columba palumbus), would not miss the grand opening of waterfowl on Aug 20 at noon (!!) and then widen my horizons to include the grouse family; capercaillies, black grouse, partridges.. And ofcourse wild cloven-hoofed game in September.

It´s close to the end of February and I had my season finale at the pheasant hunt over the weekend. It´s been a weird winter - the South of Finland has just seen a little bit of snow, currently none - whereas the North has a lot of it, and also cold weather. How I miss that!! But you do what you can, so I took my pointer and a borrowed side-by-side. It just happens, my Grulla needed some service and turned out the hammer needs to be replaced and the spare parts have been ordered from Spain. At the same time, I will have the barrels blue finished. I am very fond of my side-by-side, and it is THE gun I got my male capercaillie, so I am never letting go of this. 

I had a couple of beginners with me, so I concentrated on trying to offer them possibilities for their first ever downing of a bird. My dog started out well, he did good search, had a steady point and an explosive avancé. Clearly he is not in top physical condition anymore, he was ok in the morning but he made a couple of rooky mistakes in the afternoon, and also his speed slowed down significantly - but he made our first-timers happy enough :)

The weather was ok in the beginning, but quickly turned into drizzle and wind, luckily it did not get too wet, and what was even better - none of the fields had been worked over with a cultivator - so it was not muddy, but the ditches were full of water, and actually lots of water everywhere!! Once again, I forgot to put a tracking device on my pointer, I would have loved to know his mileage - I think I walked about 6 km, he must have run at least 3 times as much.

So it´s time to service the guns I have used over the winter, get some work done on my pointer, too. He has some lumps on his belly and I´ll have them checked out by a vet, hopefully they are harmless. Then I will be at the IWA - super excited about that.  Also Sako introduced their new rifle - must look for a venue to go and check that out. Lots to report - so do come back for updates!