Just back from a great hunt in the Eastern Fjords of Iceland superbly organised by IanF. I will let the pictures speak for themselves - suffice it to say it was a special experience and a great way to experience the vast empty Icelandic interior.
(Available: - Reindeer hunting - Icelandic safari Aug 2020)
This is the original post which piqued my interest and led to an application in the annual Icelandic draw; with a 30% success rate, it was a big surprise when both me and my hunting buddy managed to draw bull tags. The next few months were comprehensively screwed by covid so it was a another surprise when August rolled around and Iceland was still allowing foreign visitors to arrive, subject to passing a covid test on arrival. Following the first health screening I've ever passed with flying colours, we were off on a cross-country drive from Reykjavik to the town of Egilsstaðir on the other side of the island, where we would be based for our hunt.
We stopped for a night at the coastal fishing town of Akureyri and managed to snag a few flat fish for dinner - it's always worth bringing some fishing equipment to a trip like this, as we were soon to discover.
Apparently this is called a lumpfish.
Flounder - sadly all caught by my hunting buddy.
Most hunts include a 'it was worth it for the scenery' moment - this is a repeated occurence in Iceland and I'll stick up a further post with some scenery pics if that would be of interest.
Here is a good example - snapped in the middle of the hunting unit, looking back at Snaefell, being the large rock in the middle distance. The areas were vast and we saw a great deal of 'big sky country' in the course of our hunt.
At one stage I was concerned that hunting reindeer might be 'too easy' and the chief difficulty would be in choosing the right one to shoot. As it happens we searched high and low for many hours and covered thousands of hectares of ground before Reinar, our Icelandic PH and resident tobacco chewing expert, spotted a mob of 10 bulls in the middle distance. They were nothing more than grey dots in the 20x spotting scope and it took a circuitous approach of over an hour, finished with a final crawl over a shale strewn hill before the bulls were finally in range.
The herd was grazing peacefully below us at circa 200m and we were set up on bipods before having the usual whispered conversation where I calmly explained that I would shoot the largest bull and that the fisherman could shoot any of the others. The herd included three impressive mature animals so after a brief chat, we agreed a countdown following which we would shoot simultaniously- despite spurious accusations regarding my ability to count from 1 to 3, we managed to loose off a shot each and actually managed to drop two fine bulls within yards of each other. They were in superb condition and the meat is a traditional Icelandic Christmas meal, every scrap of which will be enjoyed this winter.
(Available: - Reindeer hunting - Icelandic safari Aug 2020)
This is the original post which piqued my interest and led to an application in the annual Icelandic draw; with a 30% success rate, it was a big surprise when both me and my hunting buddy managed to draw bull tags. The next few months were comprehensively screwed by covid so it was a another surprise when August rolled around and Iceland was still allowing foreign visitors to arrive, subject to passing a covid test on arrival. Following the first health screening I've ever passed with flying colours, we were off on a cross-country drive from Reykjavik to the town of Egilsstaðir on the other side of the island, where we would be based for our hunt.
We stopped for a night at the coastal fishing town of Akureyri and managed to snag a few flat fish for dinner - it's always worth bringing some fishing equipment to a trip like this, as we were soon to discover.
Apparently this is called a lumpfish.
Flounder - sadly all caught by my hunting buddy.
Most hunts include a 'it was worth it for the scenery' moment - this is a repeated occurence in Iceland and I'll stick up a further post with some scenery pics if that would be of interest.
Here is a good example - snapped in the middle of the hunting unit, looking back at Snaefell, being the large rock in the middle distance. The areas were vast and we saw a great deal of 'big sky country' in the course of our hunt.
At one stage I was concerned that hunting reindeer might be 'too easy' and the chief difficulty would be in choosing the right one to shoot. As it happens we searched high and low for many hours and covered thousands of hectares of ground before Reinar, our Icelandic PH and resident tobacco chewing expert, spotted a mob of 10 bulls in the middle distance. They were nothing more than grey dots in the 20x spotting scope and it took a circuitous approach of over an hour, finished with a final crawl over a shale strewn hill before the bulls were finally in range.
The herd was grazing peacefully below us at circa 200m and we were set up on bipods before having the usual whispered conversation where I calmly explained that I would shoot the largest bull and that the fisherman could shoot any of the others. The herd included three impressive mature animals so after a brief chat, we agreed a countdown following which we would shoot simultaniously- despite spurious accusations regarding my ability to count from 1 to 3, we managed to loose off a shot each and actually managed to drop two fine bulls within yards of each other. They were in superb condition and the meat is a traditional Icelandic Christmas meal, every scrap of which will be enjoyed this winter.
