No snow shoe hare in ND

[texcl]

After deer season I started aiming for snow shoe hare and there was none anywhere, the only thing I can figure is the super high number of coyotes this year took them out. Maybe next year.

 

[Skylinewatcher]

Sorry to hear that, you got any other areas you can hunt? Maybe and area thats not a favorable habitat for the coyote. I've learned that game will find there own refuge. I killed a 12 point drop tine one year who bedded down with his back against an old barn that was falling down. That old deer had been seen and shot at several time and decided he would bed where dumb humans wouldn't look. I will admit I wasn't any smarter. I just happened to see him crawl into the brush around that old barn one day. I came back the next and got him.

 

[BrownBear]

Up here the populations are real cyclic on around a 10-year span. Is yours the same?

We are just swinging up out of a low. A couple of years ago I'd have to hunt 2 or 3 hours to see one, and it was up to me whether I got it or not. This year I average 2 or 3 per hour hanging on my belt, and usually see more I don't get shots at.

Next year will be even better, but I don't anticipate the peak till at least 2013. Last peak I was shooting 6 or 7 an hour. Head shots only with a handgun. And that was after missing several on top of all the ones I didn't even get a shot at.

Only reason I'm telling you all that is background for this: In low years, there are still hot spots. You'll go a long ways finding no rabbits, then come on an area with enough to encourage you. The big difference from years like this one, there doesn't seem to be any "depth" to the hot spots. You can go there and take rabbits about twice, but it won't be a hot spot on the third trip. In up years, it's likely to stay a hot spot no matter how many times you go back.

Long and short of it, I'm betting (or is it hoping?) you're in a down year and haven't found the right spot yet. More hunting required!

 

[texcl]

It might be cyclic, for the last several years there have been a ton of them, this year I've seen one the whole year. I travel about 150 miles a day and am always looking but to no avail, you can bet I'll still be looking and I'm sure there is a concentration somewhere. I'm just going to start shooting the coyotes, I see a ton of them.

 

[BrownBear]

Boy, that sure sounds to me like it's cyclic, and sorry to say you're on the wrong end of the cycle. We go from a rabbit behind every bush to zip-nada-none almost overnight when the population crashes. And we figure on 4-5 years before the #'s really start to come back up.

The good news is, with all that expansion the fox #'s have exploded, too. On the year of the rabbit crash they seem to be everywhere because they're so darned hungry and the easy pickings are gone. Good fox hunting for a year, but they're gone the next too, for the most part.

Sounds like exactly what you've got going with the coyotes right now, too. Enjoy em, because next year I bet you have trouble finding any of them either.

 

[hoochiepapa]

That must be what's going on here, too. But now that the snow is so deep, I won't get a chance to look again 'til next year.

 

[Skylinewatcher]

Sounds as if you got her pegged. The only problem I have is in my region the rabbits bring in the fleas. They munch around in the yard at night, deposit the fleas, then my dog’s get ate up with them. I visited a home one time infested with those varmints, due to certain laws I can't go into details, but it suffices to say I HATE FLEAS, real bad. If my dogs get one on them, they then hate me for all the baths. :cursing:

 

[texcl]

The deer bring all the parasites here especially ticks, but I sure love hunting the buggers in the fall. This is the first year I can remember that the rabbits didn't get into my garden i guess I should have seen that as a sign.