{"id":1072,"date":"2018-11-16T20:10:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T20:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/intern\/sportsoptics\/hunting\/en\/?p=1072"},"modified":"2020-02-05T09:29:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T09:29:31","slug":"hunting-capercaillie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/sports-optics\/hunting\/en\/hunting-capercaillie\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hunting Trip for Capercaillie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the Heart of the Winter. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A hunting trip for capercaillie to the far north of Scandinavia turns into a journey of self-discovery for ZEISS hunting ambassador David Carsten Pedersen. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been really good to hunt with you.\u201d The statement came from one of the greatest hunters, I have ever met. The man was\u00a0Tommy Holmberg, the legendary hunting guide from\u00a0Swedish Lapland, who had once taken a man-eating bear. We were both lounging besides a small wood stove, tired after some hard and successful days of\u00a0hunting moose. In the few days we had hunted together, we had become great friends, and his praise meant a great deal more to me, than I think he knew. \u201cBut you have to come back for a\u00a0capercaillie hunt\u00a0in the winter. That is really something really special. That is where you really get to experience the\u00a0spirit of Swedish Lapland.\u201d Knowing that I had to go back the next day, I was all ears and wide eyes for more adventures in the future. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0not an easy hunt\u00a0though.\u201d He said in the long low dialect of the Northern Swedes. \u201cYou hunt on wooden skies. Shoot very far. And it can get really cold\u201d. He said this with the same matter-of-factness in his voice, as he talked about everything else. In\u00a0Lapland, they don\u2019t spend unnecessary amounts of words on anything. So, if Tommy said it was a good hunt, then that\u2019s what it was. And of course, I told him I would be back. At that point Tommy could have told me to crawl inside a bear den and hug a sleeping sow, and I would have done it with a smile. All I could dream about was coming back to this place above the\u00a0arctic circle, to hunt the royal bird of the woods: The\u00a0Swedish capercaillie. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It’s is going to be really cold, buddy. You better dial in the right temperatures.<\/p>David Carsten Pedersen<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A few years later I found myself at the shooting range with my good friend Nikolaj. We were going to visit Tommy in Lapland to\u00a0hunt capercaillie. And we were expecting some\u00a0very long shots\u00a0under\u00a0extreme temperatures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, we were discussing the effect that temperatures have on the ballistics of the bullet. \u201cThe bullet drops about 0,3 TS for every 20 degrees difference, give and take, so we better take that into consideration\u201d Nikolaj was telling me, while we were setting up the\u00a0ASW+\u00a0for the coming hunt. \u201cAnd it looks like it\u2019s going to be bloody cold, mate\u201d he said with a smile on his face. The weather forecast predicted, that it would drop to -20 during the day. This would mean at least 30 degrees difference to the relative warm conditions, we were experiencing at the range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we had both been to Lapland before, and we were accustomed to hunting\u00a0under hard conditions.\u00a0Packing wool and multiple layers of clothes, we were not that worried, that we could keep warm. And after\u00a0confirming the ballistics in the\u00a0ZEISS Hunting App<\/a>, we felt confident, that any shot we were presented with, would be possible to take, even on such a relatively small target as the vitals of a\u00a0capercaillie presents at long range. The only thing left now was to pack all our stuff and ready for 4 days\u00a0above the arctic circle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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