Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Snowshoe hare

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.

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.

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).

Shot quite a few here in Montana. Always standing shots and using a rifle or handgun. Tasty-like a cottontail, but bigger.

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

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.

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

Here's a spring time version. Moving around at a slow walk finds them quite easy to approach. Like 15 or 20 ft.

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.

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'

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

I haven't seen one yet, but they are said to be in the Warner Mountains of NE California. +/- 41degrees N latitude.

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.

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.