In a good year we've shot 27 snowshoes on a weekend but have also blanked out on the low part of the cycle. Wisconsin doesn't have a bag limit on snowshoe hares because of the feast or famine of the ten year cycle and it's amazing that in some years there's not even a track and then at the top of the cycle snowshoes abound every where. My lastest hunts have been w/ a flintlock and to me, it's more enjoyable than deer hunting because you're constantly moving. In our area there's a lot of logging and the brush piles if approached correctly offer many head shots and in past years have shot most of the snowshoes w/ either a .22 or my flintlock. In the lean years I use a shotgun and even then, sometimes I wished that I had my LR for the sitting shots. Have eaten "tons" of snowshoes but still think cottontails are more tender and taste better. Yep, your "rabbits" in the pic are the same as we have in Wisconsin and offer possibly the best of winter hunting.....Fred
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Shonuff Snowshoe Shooting
- Thread starter BrownBear
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Congratulations on a successful hunt. I have a Renegade set up the same as yours in Flintlock. I was able to harvest a doe this year using a .600 rb and looking forward to using shot in the spring for turkey here in WV. Would you describe your shot load as dense or scattered? I will have to work up a load with a dense pattern for turkey season.
We didn't have a daily bag limit(10/day) on snowshoe hares until just recently(5-6 years now?)which doesn't make sense to me because a person is allowed to snare as many as they can catch....easily 50/day and more for some guys that sell them. :idunno:
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MDK_WV said:
For your purposes I'd definitely call it scattered. I'm looking for no more than 1-3 hits on a snowshoe hare, and that would leave 6 or 8 turkey heads unscathed in the same spot.
A few people on the site have tried jug choking their 62 cal GM smooth barrels with great results. I know roundball is one and I think Greenmountianboy is another. I'd sure be looking at that a lot closer if I wanted a tight pattern for turkey hunting.
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henbrook said:
That really doesn't make any sense, does it? We don't have any bag limit or closed season, so it's pretty much a question of how many you can pack in years of peak abundance. And you don't even want to think about hanging out extra snares in those years!
Skychief
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BrownBear I'm looking for no more than 1-3 hits on a snowshoe hare said:
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Skychief said:
Isn't that the truth! I've sworn I missed them, only to have them flop over dead. Skin em carefully and you still can't find a hole. Almost like they have a heart attack. But one pellet hit anywhere, #6 or larger, is enough to keep them from running off. Pounce quick, and you've got em. I have made the mistake of reloading before retrieving them and had wounded ones find enough steam to get up and going again, though.
Shoot and pounce. That's a pretty good motto for snowshoe hunting! :grin:
hoochiepapa
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Out here ours are tough! Stringy! Remember the old man eating one of Jeremiah Johnson's rabbits and the noise it made when he tore off a bite? That's the way they are here. Wifeangel won't eat them but I will!
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Mike Brines said:
Yours sound like our old ones! The smallest are usually young-of-year, and they're as tender as cottontails. The big old "trophy" hares are tougher than tough, so we always stew or grind them.
The two I got last were both bigguns, so I sectioned them and slow cooked till the meat was falling off the bones, usually 2-3 hours. I refrigerated it till now, and just finished stripping the meat and shredding it a little.
Enchiladas are on tonight's menu and those tough old hares will be the guests of honor. You'll never settle for beef, chicken or pork in Mexican food, once you tried rabbit!
August West
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Mike Brines said:
When I lived in AZ I killed a bunch of jackrabbits, everyone told me they weren't fit to eat but being the hard head I am I had to try. Tough as shoe leather, so I started boning them out and grinding the meat, made dang good tacos and Spaghetti. Chris
jrmflintlock
45 Cal.
Awesome pics!! I saw a bunch of sign when I was elk hunting with my sister.. We got a good Snow last night wish I did not have to go to work this morning or I would have been after them.. We are supposed to get some more snow this next weekend.. If we do I'll be after them!!
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I'm not sure where you are, but I'll pass on some unsolicited Alaskan snowshoe hare advice.
Lots of times those tracks were made at night, while they spend their days in concealment elsewhere. If it's even a little hilly, I pick a set of tracks pointed uphill and work in that direction until I kind of run out of tracks, then work back downhill through the cover. Often they're easier to see from uphill. They're certainly easier to see if they break downhill before you can spot them sitting!
Good luck on your hunt. They're surely addictive little critters!
Lots of times those tracks were made at night, while they spend their days in concealment elsewhere. If it's even a little hilly, I pick a set of tracks pointed uphill and work in that direction until I kind of run out of tracks, then work back downhill through the cover. Often they're easier to see from uphill. They're certainly easier to see if they break downhill before you can spot them sitting!
Good luck on your hunt. They're surely addictive little critters!
There's a lot of logging where I hunt snowshoes and most of the time they're in the brushpiles. I don't approach the brushpile head on but come in at an angle to the right {right handed} like I'm just going by and they sit tight instead of being pushed to the next brushpile. Most of the time I'm using a rifle and take only headshots. Also I've found that they like to hutch on the sunny hillsides and noon to 3PM or so is a prime time. This is exciting hunting to me because of the stillness in the woods, no other hunters, quiet fluffy snow that gives a hint as to where they are and constantly moving because I'm a poor sitter. I prefer this and ruffed grouse hunting over deer hunting and have spent many hours pursuing both....Fred
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:hmm: A friend just dropped of a copy of the abstracts and I was surprised to see Snowshoes listed, season from Oct 21 to Feb 28 daily limit 1 per day. I haven't heard of anyone seeing one in years but I imagine theres some up in the North West corner, must be somewhere. :idunno:
August, I have heard you can't have real Tex-Mex chili without it has some jackrabbit in it.
:wink:
:wink:
123.DieselBenz
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Our jackrabbits are a bit bigger . . . (I just got a 36 cal Seneca, so I plan on using that in the future, shot it for the first time today!)
This is just the rabbit, not the bowl, I get about 2 pounds of meat off of them . . .
Cottontail for comparison:
This is just the rabbit, not the bowl, I get about 2 pounds of meat off of them . . .
Cottontail for comparison:
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I guess I better get out the scales, because I've been "guestimating" the weight of both jacks and snowshoes. I grew up shooting jacks across the state line to the east of you, then the last 35+ years shooting snowshoes up here. I still shoot some jacks at our place we now own a fwe hours north of you there in Cochise County.
Sum total, full-grown snowshoes strike me as jacks with shorter legs and a lot less ear. Should be interesting, and now you've got me all inspired to do some weighing after all this guestimating!
BTW- When I was estimating a pound of meat from a critter, that's boneless meat. I can say this- one snowshoe makes enough enchiladas for my wife and I to get three meals out of them. And we're not genteeel eaters, by any means! :rotf:
Sum total, full-grown snowshoes strike me as jacks with shorter legs and a lot less ear. Should be interesting, and now you've got me all inspired to do some weighing after all this guestimating!
BTW- When I was estimating a pound of meat from a critter, that's boneless meat. I can say this- one snowshoe makes enough enchiladas for my wife and I to get three meals out of them. And we're not genteeel eaters, by any means! :rotf:
123.DieselBenz
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BrownBear said:
I can't say if I was optimistic or piggy, but I just finished a new rabbit packer with loops for 5 to replace my old one with 3 loops. Two rabbits were still a fair break-in. Consider that you can hang 2 rabbits from each, five loops adds up to 10 rabbits- about as much weight as I'd ever want hanging from a shoulder strap!
So how does one of these "rabbit packers" work?
How do you you get it around the leg?
