Wood pigeon hunt and (again) scouting for grouses

On the morning before Tampere half-marathon, I decided to go hunt wood pigeons because I couldn't sleep. I took my trusty Baikal MP-153 shotgun and went to a place where my future father-in-law had seen pigeons.

 

On my way there, I heard a familiar sound. It was a grouse's warning signal, to tell others that a danger is approaching. I spotted a grouse guarding the area on top of a small birch tree. Too bad it's not allowed to hunt grouses yet. As I approached the grouse, 6-8 other grouses jumped up from the side of the road and they all flew away.

This is the field where wood pigeons like to hang out.

I was using a Vortex Recon R/T 15x50 for observing the area. It's a nice little monocular with a ranging reticle.

After a while, I heard faint pigeon sounds. Using the monocular, I soon spotted about 10 wood pigeons sitting on top of a power line about 500 meters away from me. Some farmer was already harvesting his crop, so the pigeons were eating leftover grains. They stayed there and wouldn't fly to my direction at all.

This is the place where I was planning to ambush the pigeons. They like to sit on this tall birch, where it would have been easy to shoot them with a shotgun.

My old knife got broken a few months ago, so I had to buy a new one. I got myself a Jääkäripuukko from Terävä, which is a Varusteleka's knife-brand. It has a nice leather sheath, which has a quite tight fit around the knife.

The blade is made from carbon steel, and it's quite sturdy. The handle is made from non-slip rubber, which is a big plus in my opinion. The knife seems nice, now it just needs more testing.

 

 

Next morning I got up early and went to another scouting trip trying to find grouses for Ruska to bark at. Normally it's quite easy to find them in the morning, but not this time. We didn't find anything, didn't even heard a sound. I wonder what has happened to the birds?

But here's a few pics from the trip:

 

On the left side of my palm you can see normal blueberries, but on the right side are so called "tar-blueberries". They do not have wax-coating on them, so they look darker than normal blueberries. But they taste the same.

Unlucky duck hunting and another trip trying to find grouses

I went duck hunting to a small lake, where normally can be found lots of ducks. But not this time, I only saw six mallards, which were flying so high over the lake, that I didn't even try to shoot them. I also took Ruska with me, so that she could run freely in the forest. But for some reason she didn't want to go run around, maybe she was afraid of lynxes?

A few days after the unlucky duck hunting, we went to another scouting trip, trying to find grouses and capercaillies. We didn't find any live ones, only one dead grouse, which some animal had eaten. Next time we are going to go there in the morning, when the birds are eating berries and more likely to be found.

My new camouflage suit Anglija Jagel, the Russian version of Finnish M05 camo. I think that this version is better than the original, as its cut is more loose, pockets are better and hood is also a big plus.

 

Almost like a bonsai.



A bear has been eating maggots out of rotten trees.

Squirrel's dinner.

Ruska found the remains of a dead grouse.

Scouting the hunting area

The wood pigeon and duck hunting seasons have started, but I'm not that interested in them. But on the 20th day of August, it was again legal to let dogs run free at hunting areas, so me and Ruska went for a little scouting trip. We were also testing the new Garmin Astro dog-tracker.

Here's some photos of the trip.

 

 

The "grouse-swamp"

The leftovers of northern goshawk's dinner.

Lot's of blueberries for grouses to eat. Too bad the summer has been so cold and rainy, so the young grouses might have had hard time surviving to this point.

Lots of moose tracks all around the place.

Lunch time!

Nomnom.

Trekking in Yyteri

Did a little trekking in Yyteri with my friend. We walked around 12 kilometers from the Yyteri beach to Selkämeri national park in marshes and back. Weather was good, it had just stopped raining when we started, so the air was cool and it was easy to breath.

Here's some photos:

Start of our walk. We passed by Munakari, which is a small island near the beach. Normally you can only go there by boat, but now water was quite shallow, only meter or so. Maybe we'll go there sometime.

Ruska spotted a raccoon dog in the woods. It was Ruska's first time seeing such a creature, so she was a bit confused at first. She didn't know that was it an enemy or a friend.

Quite a lot of blueberries already.

Another creature for Ruska to wonder and try to eat.

Two weekends of long range shooting

May was a good month, as I had time to go to two different long range shooting areas.

The first one was in Hätilä, which is located near the city of Hämeenlinna. The shooting area is actually an anti-tank weapons range, where soldiers from Armored Brigade conduct their training.

The furthest distance to set targets was at 750 meters. Me and my buddy set our steel targets at 550 m and 750 m. We were using my .308 Tikka T3 and .223 AR-15. Wind was quite challenging, so it was a good training opportunity for us.

Here's some photos from Hätilä:

The shooting area in Hätilä and some targets.

Firing position.

View trough Vortex Recon R/T 15x50 monocular at 750 meters.

Target at 750 meters. Diameter is 50 cm.

Target at 550 m. Dimensions are 30 cm x 20 cm.

Our firing position.

My friend was using a shemagh as a shell catcher.

Fine precision rifles. Sako TRG's, Accuracy International AW's and AX's, Remington 700's, Tikka T3's, H&K MR338, Dragunov and some custom rifles.

The other shooting area was in Niinisalo, which is a training area of Pori Brigade. The range where we were shooting is normally used as a weapons testing range, mainly for artillery pieces.

I only have one photo of that day, as we weren't allowed to take photos of other people and their equipment.
We were shooting reactive targets, which were scattered at different distances between 530 m - 930 m. We trained how to shoot using shooting sticks and DIY wooden tripods, and how to shoot with the weapon canted sideways. We also practiced different shooting positions such as sitting, kneeling, standing and using your buddy as a support.

The shooting range in Niinisalo.