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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 8,624
Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 8,624 |
Anyone hunt them? What do you prefer to use, shotgun or rimfire? Are running shots the norm?
Think I might go snowshoeing for snowshoes later this winter.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,441
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2010
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Hunted them in northern NYS when I was a kid. Dad had beagles and many times we shot “strays” not the hare the dog was running. Got many standing shots, but when they are running flat out, good luck. Sometimes all you would see is a spray of snow. We used shotguns. In a place with many hares and good hounds there is not much that is more fun. Hunting without dogs, a 22 or rimfire would work. Just look for the black eyes.
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 8,624
Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2018
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Thanks for the feedback. I have bird dogs, not rabbit hounds so I'll be hunting without a k9 companion. I think I'll carry whatever my buddy doesn't (be it shotgun or .22lr).
Last edited by Jackson_Handy; 12/12/20.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 78,300
Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 78,300 |
Shot quite a few here in Montana. Always standing shots and using a rifle or handgun. Tasty-like a cottontail, but bigger.
"...the left considers you vermin, and they'll kill you given the chance..." Bristoe
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Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,573
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2011
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I think it is snow shoes in Alaska. We were up going Dahl sheep hunting and the hares were in the fall color change. Was a ball just to watch them and none of them had the same body in the change. They might have 1 white foot and a white ear... or white spots and they would just hop in front of you about 2o feet and turn and look at you. We wanted a couple of them but we were shooting 338s and that may have been a little much for a 2 # hare so my boy was picking up big rocks and trying to hit them. Trouble is my boy is a firm believer in over kill and was trying to throw a 10 # rock and hit something. He would run up and try to hit one and he never got close and the little bunny would hop maybe 10 feet and turn and look at him. Was a three ring circus and all I got was a sore stomach from laughing.... but I am betting that Ingwe is wrong.... I bet they taste like CHICKEN !! Ray
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Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 444
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 444 |
I caught one in a snare. I've tried hunting them with a .22 in the past, but they always seem to hold up in the thick brush until after dark.
The meat was good. A little stronger flavor than squirrel or cotton tail, but still made a great stew.
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 7,964
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 7,964 |
Kodiak had a lot of freeze thaw periods and the white hares would sit against a brown background 20 ft away, we shot a lot of them with my Colt MK1V series 70 45 ACP head shots only was the rules! 200 gr SWC
kk alaska
Alaska 7 months of winter then 5 months of tourists
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,855
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 29,855 |
Here's a spring time version. Moving around at a slow walk finds them quite easy to approach. Like 15 or 20 ft.
1Minute
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,608
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,608 |
I eat 30-40 snowshoe hare a year. Like mentioned, yah gotta walk the thick nasty brush to get good numbers. A trail pistol is best. 22 mag fmj, or a 357 mag fmj loaded with 7.5 grains of unique. Best shotgun I ever used, was a coach gun with 5 shot. I think it was all of 31-32 inches long. 5 shot went clear through Brush is so thick, I woulsnt dare take my bps upland.
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 10,262
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Aug 2003
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I have only seen a couple while hunting.. but I diden't shoot them, they got a free pass from me in hopes they would multiply'
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,608
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,608 |
Hubert, Snowshoe hare follow a multi year cycle. Upland birds get hit harder during the low hare cycle. Where hare are plentiful, upland birds are found in better numbers. There will always be good pockets of small game density, that defy the cycle.
You not shooting a snow shoe hare will do nothing to the population cycle. The abundance and protection of raptors, they are way more effective than the humans and harder on small game.
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Joined: May 2019
Posts: 430
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: May 2019
Posts: 430 |
Virginia used to have a Snowshoe Hare season, believe it or not, we're at the southernmost extent of their range in far western Highland County. A friend used to hunt them, the population has dropped and they're now off limits.
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,422
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,422 |
I "hunt" them here in upstate NY. I run them with beagles. I say "hunt" because I rarely shoot one. More in it for the dogs. Dead hare don't leave tracks, no tracks.....no race for the dogs
Life is but the memories we've created.....Sully Erna
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Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,373
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,373 |
Some of my most memorable hunts were for snowshoes mid winter when I'd get 5-6 guys from work together and we'd make a day of it up north in the popple slashings. Scope sighted .22's looking for those black snowshoe eyeballs, then burgers and beer at one of the local joints. We've had a really late winter this year and I'll be bet the hares were turning white before the snow got here. That might have been taking too much of an advantage. I sure miss those days, but the wife wouldn't cook them anyway now, so what's the point?
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 24,231
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 24,231 |
Walk logging roads in older clear cuts on sunny days after a fresh snow. I like a .22 with a scope on 2 to 3 power. Cut fresh tracks
They like alders swamp areas too and move slow. Blast to hunt. My griff loves to hunt them
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Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 90
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 90 |
I've been hunting Snowshoe hares for 50+ years... snared thousands as a kid... we had more hare meat in the freezer than.moose or deer. I've hunted them with slingshots, blowguns, pellet guns, .22 LR, .17 HM2, 22 Mag, .410/28/20/12 gauge, various centerfire rifles that I happen to be carrying, including two last night with a .223 coming out from a coyote stand. I wish we could still hunt with handguns in Banuckistan... I would hunt most small game with a Ruger MKIII Target Competition pistol.
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Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,373
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,373 |
This might be a better thread in which to post some snowshoe hunting technique. Much as some people enjoyed Silverstar’s video from the other snowshoe thread, I thought that the the video needed a little work on snowshoe hare hunting technique. From the pictures it looks like some of you northern guys have figured them out pretty well. I do wonder how far south their range extends as I’ve never seen one south of the northern third of Wisconsin. I’ve run across them in evergreen forest areas, but the mother load was always in the regenerating poplar logged off areas. I’ve hunted them with beagles and while a lot of fun to hear the dogs on one, the best way we always found was still hunting through those thick pencil poplar new growth trees. A shotgun would work fine I suppose hunting solo if they run, but they never ran too far and a couple of guys with .22’s working a cover together was more fun. We never found that they came out of or went down any kind of rabbit hole like a cottontail rabbit. I never thought that they tasted as good as a cottontail, but come Winter here, there wasn’t that much else to go hunting for.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 45,132
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Sep 2011
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I haven't seen one yet, but they are said to be in the Warner Mountains of NE California. +/- 41degrees N latitude.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
member of the cabal of dysfunctional squirrels?
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Joined: May 2017
Posts: 198
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
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I used to hunt them in the trees and pond areas on one of the passes here, do that in the morning and then down in the valley for cottontails. Started with a 12 ga then to a 22 then for several years used a 357 stocked with 38 full wadcutters. I have spent a lot of time, effort and money hunting elk and deer,but by far my favorite hunting is rabbit followed by birds.
Remember why, specifically, the Bill of Rights was written...remember its purpose. It was written to limit the power of government over the individual
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We have quite a few Snowshoe's here in north Idaho. I usually get a few every year. Usually incidental to what ever else I am doing. Surprising how close to them you can get some times.
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