Snowshoe hare....

[pinemarten]

Yes...those feet are something! I've got the ones from mine drying and ready to tie some flies! My wife is horrified of course... I have them sitting by the 10 pt buck's head on the wood pile in the garage where my wife and step son know not to look ... Hee hee :v
I am excited for March because I know the snowshoes are going to be more active on those sunny (hopefully) winter days. I hope this one wasn't just luck and I can make this a yearly productive sport! I spend all the time I can out in the swamps and hills around here looking for places to build my longbow blinds (and now longrifle blinds!) so, having snowshoes to hunt is a big plus. As the snow melts I'll switch over to manic spring deer scouting, shed picking, and blind building.

Daniel

 

[BillinOregon]

Great thread. Wow, that's a lovely rifle you have there Daniel. Care to share details?

 

[Sean Gadhar]

This whole thread has me jealous, I never got my hounds on snowshoes In Colorado with an October start for rabbit & hare, and short Basset hounds there is a small window where you can hunt with hounds (no hounds during a regular big game season) and after the 4th season the snow is normally too deep for Bassets.

:idunno: Most years work got in the way, then the days I did have were in one of the big game seasons.

Now Paladin has passed, and Buddy is old fighting Cancer & can't walk but a 1/2 mile or so.

in our time we made the cotton tails pay the price, but I always wanted to see my hounds run those Snowshoe hare

 

[Patocazador]

From what I understand, you almost need Walker hounds to chase those boogers. :hmm:

 

[BrownBear]

From what I understand, you almost need Walker hounds to chase those boogers. :hmm:

I'd heard that too, that is until we started raising and training beagles and bassets on snowshoes. Snowshoes are fast and cover big territory, but they're loath to leave familiar terrain. A good dog with a good nose and wise to their ways can score big. Snowshoes almost never drop into a hole like cottontails, so the chase can go on quite a while. One memorable hunt the hare had to circle six times (count em!) before I managed to get a shot. Took over half an hour, and you'd never get that kind of chance with cottontails.

The trick is that the hares are waaaay out in front of the dogs compared to cottontails (trained dogs on those too, back in the day). When your dog jumps the hare, move post haste to the vicinity of where it jumped, then wait quietly and very still.

You can hear the dogs following the hare going far away, but stay tuned. The minute you hear the dogs turn, go on high alert and don't get too distracted by the song. The hare is going to come right back through where it jumped, but anywhere from 200 yards to a quart mile ahead of the dogs.

Slow bassets on snowshoe hare? Actually one of the best dogs possible. The hares don't run so hard and don't go so far. They're also kinda poking along when they come back by you, prone to stopping frequently. I won't use a rifle over beagles, but you can manage a high degree of sitting shots with a basset. A smart slow basset is also lots better at sorting out confusing scents than a fast beagle. And wise old snowshoes certainly know how to confuse a scent.

 

[Carolina_Skinner]

Guess I'm a little late to the party. :haha: Great story, I really enjoyed it! Also, that's a beautiful gun!!

 

[crockett]

I've noticed before a fair amount of fly fishermen. Both muzzle loading and fly fishing are gear oriented and both offer making your own equipment- I think that might be the "ty in". No pun intended. :grin:

 

[pinemarten]

The rifle is a .50 cal made by Tom Caster of Michigan. It was finished up last December and I have been playing with it ever since!
Please scroll down under the Photos section for my old post 'My roving set up'. The gun is shown up close if you scroll down through the posts on that and a description from Tom is there too.

Daniel

 

[nhmoose]

Anyone else have techniques that work if you don't have dogs?

Daniel

Fresh snow follow tracks with your eyes looking for a black dot. That is what I first see and then WHAM, the rest of the hare.

 

[pinemarten]

Thanks! Yes, I am trying to use my deer hunting skills and it makes it fun. Go a few steps, look carefully under all cover for the hare, move a bit more, repeat... Fun way to be out in the winter with the rifle!!

Daniel

 

[BrownBear]

It usually helps to work into the sun when it's at a low angle, in order to get a silhouette and the shadowed side of the hare, rimmed by sunlit hairs if the light is just right. Once the sun is a little higher, look for their eyes. Within head-shooting range those little dark eyes are a surprisingly good tell.

Also, for some reason snowshoes look gray when they're in deep shadow, such as under heavy brush. Dunno why, but without that direct sunlight hitting them they go more gray than white.

If you're tracking, it's a huge help to get off to the side of the tracks, and with a little elevation if the terrain gives you that gift. Hares are especially spooky about someone coming right up their back trail, but off to the side a little they're prone to staying hidden and waiting for you to pass.

There's more, but those are the high points of hunting solo.

 

[Vaino]

All good ways of hunting snowshoes....which I've also snared. This "rabbit" is unlike cottontails which don't emit a sound.....snowshoes make a sound that resembles a shriek...quite unsettling when running the snare line in the early gray hours of day light at the age of 10. Living on my grandparents "survival" farm in northern Minnesota was an adventure only because I was young and didn't realize how difficult it was for my grandparents.

The snowshoes were a welcome change of diet because it was fresh meat. A young beef and a pig were slaughtered in late fall and were salted in large earthen crocks...this meat preservation was done out of necessity...no electricity. But, salted meat isn't as good as fresh. So...when a snowshoe was caught, it was an event...they weren't that plentiful. There was no "sport" in hunting snowshoes in those days, just an urge to eat better.

The above depicts a life style in a remote area of northern Minnesota during the later yrs of the "Great Depression" and the nearly as bad yrs afterward and the snowshoe hare helped in our survival.

The above experiences explain why, even today, I'm mainly a "meat hunter".....Fred

 

[BrownBear]

...my grandparents "survival" farm in northern Minnesota....

The snowshoes were a welcome change of diet because it was fresh meat. A young beef and a pig were slaughtered in late fall and were salted in large earthen crocks...this meat preservation was done out of necessity...no electricity. But, salted meat isn't as good as fresh. So...when a snowshoe was caught, it was an event...they weren't that plentiful. There was no "sport" in hunting snowshoes in those days, just an urge to eat better.

The above depicts a life style in a remote area of northern Minnesota during the later yrs of the "Great Depression" and the nearly as bad yrs afterward and the snowshoe hare helped in our survival....

That's a worthy and worthwhile insight. I'm fond of recounting that my grandpap fed three kids and a wife through 2 years in the depression on a box of 22 shorts and half a box of Winchester 12 gauge. But you need to know he was a world class trapper and could snare a shadow from under a bush on a dark night.

I still own that other half box of 12's and it's a family treasure.

Folks still live that way through much of remote Alaska, and even close to some larger towns. Many villages have no grocery store, and there are lots of cabins scattered where there are no villages. Not directly related but with glimpses of the lifestyle scattered throughout, this is a neat story about a neat young guy who came through the lifestyle.

 

[satx78247]

VERY tasty those hares are!!!

When we were at Ft McCoy years ago, we ate lots of them.
(One of my SGTs was a rabbit hunter, deluxe. - We would ask him, "How the hunting today?" & he would say, "JUMPING.")

yours, satx

 

[hanshi]

Ah, yes. The infamous "Heir Bunny". :hmm:

 

[ron wehmeyer]

Looks like a fun hunt along with some good eating.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Good hunting! I enjoyed your pics. :thumbsup: GW