Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Should make for good hare hunting

The downside of having the change of your coat lagging the weather.

We had 4" of that crap at the house this AM. Probably time to fire up the summit and piss off the neighbors!

That was last night, about 4" this morning. Needs to melt off so I can get the roof on my wood shed before it's here to stay.

Wouldn't mind actually getting to use a sno-go for once, been a few years. Though it looks like some SOB stole my rev-arc ramp out of my yard at some point this summer.

No snow here. Know a good hare area?

PM location.

I wish I knew a good hare location, not sure where they are at in their cycle.

The most hares I've seen have been around the house, figures as its in a non hunting area.

Post-peak here, hence the ask.

Friends had 12 inches last night.

hares are low there, amazingly before they killed off a lot of cow moose we saw hares all over. I have not seen one since the kill off again until we saw 2 this fall thankfully.

Not sure how that ties but it sure seems to be tied, unless it was just the cycle, but to go from tons, to none for a number of years seems weird.

That is the normal hare cycle of peak and crash. Unrelated to moose.

Interesting, our rabbits never do it that severely around here, but they are not hares eitehr.

I see the cycles easily, but never do they just go away.

There seems to be some evidence that their food - willows- is part of the equation, that getting trimmed too harshly may trigger a chemical that gives the plant some recovery time. Certainly some plants, like the birches, have chemical protection in their lower parts, but tip a birch tree over in winter and watch those tops disappear literally overnight.

Hares don't actually go away, but the population falls to small numbers and then peak rapidly 'about' on an 11 year cycle. Hence the name 'varying hare' for them.

The hare-lynx population cycle relationship is a well-studied one.

They are more closely related to jackrabbits than cottontails.

I think it's a periodic "Darwin cleansing". Boy, the 'leftovers' sure ain't dumb like their brethren are when they are plenty.

I got 20" ....and no power. ...3days now a countin

They must not be dumb. We don't hunt on the roads or trails much, though around 2007 there were hares everywhere. That was the last time I had seen them in numbers. And we get into the bush quite a ways and do lots of walking and then lots of sitting.... this year was the first time to see 2 hares since 2009 IIRC and both were seen in areas we FREQUENT...

Who knows.

I do konw our jackrabbits are back here, and thats due to the drought thinning the fire ants down enough for the population to rebound... they have been mostly gone since around 1990... GOOD to see them back.

What is the ant/jackrabbit connection rost?

fire ants kill the babies as fast as they can, anything around fire ants that used to ground nest is almost extinct in many ways...

Interesting I knew they are nasty bastards but I've never lived among them. Thanks for the info

We get used to them in ways, like everything else everyone has some critters that ain't fun.

I dont like getting stung half a dozen times a year in bed by scorpions. But its not doing anything worse than hurting, same with a number of stings of wasps per year.

Snake bites.... yeah that wouldn't be all that good. Been bitten twice and lucky both times, once in a rubber boot, once deflected off my glove....

Ants, well at least they are rough on the wildlife, but hard to kill you like killer bees can...