We've got them up in the Cascades here in southern Oregon. Anyone hunt them? I've heard they aren't exactly the best rabbit for eating.
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Snowshoe rabbits?
- Thread starter BillinOregon
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Idaho Ron
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Here in Southern Id, we have two species of rabbits that turn white. The snowshoe, and the White tailed Jack rabbit. Most of what we have are the white tails. People call the white tails Snowshoes but they are not. Here is a picture of my son with two white tails. We traded them to a taxidermist. These two rabbits together weighed 16 pounds. Ron
Big bunnies, Ron! Taken with a pistol? Wonder how they would taste.
longcruise
70 Cal.
They eat ok. The ones I've eaten have been wintering on willow. Some winter on cedar and may not be so tasty. I got one yesterday that was hanging in the bristlecone pines. Not sure what it was feeding on 
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We take a bunch of them, and winter is not complete till we have a shelf full in our freezer.
Their meat is a little darker than cottontail- just about the same color as thigh meat on a chicken or turkey. You can pale it up or mild it up by soaking it overnight in saltwater. Taste is very good if you like rabbit, and only gets strong very late in a bad winter when they get to feeding heavily on spruce. Then it's stronger, but not bad in my book.
We use it in all sorts of ways, though the big old ones can be tougher than cottontail, probably too tough for frying.
Best recipe by far is for Texas-style chili. I swear, Texans "invented" chili for tough jackrabbits. Based on my own experience, poor ranchers don't eat beef. They sell it and eat whatever else grows on their land. Just substitute cubed rabbit in your favorite chili recipe and you'll be convinced, too.
Next best use is to take it to a custom smokehouse and make pepper stick or summer sausage out of it. Ours requires 25 pounds of boneless meat to turn out a 30 pound batch of sausage, and truthfully you'll be lots happier if you turn in 50 pounds of boneless meat.
Their meat is a little darker than cottontail- just about the same color as thigh meat on a chicken or turkey. You can pale it up or mild it up by soaking it overnight in saltwater. Taste is very good if you like rabbit, and only gets strong very late in a bad winter when they get to feeding heavily on spruce. Then it's stronger, but not bad in my book.
We use it in all sorts of ways, though the big old ones can be tougher than cottontail, probably too tough for frying.
Best recipe by far is for Texas-style chili. I swear, Texans "invented" chili for tough jackrabbits. Based on my own experience, poor ranchers don't eat beef. They sell it and eat whatever else grows on their land. Just substitute cubed rabbit in your favorite chili recipe and you'll be convinced, too.
Next best use is to take it to a custom smokehouse and make pepper stick or summer sausage out of it. Ours requires 25 pounds of boneless meat to turn out a 30 pound batch of sausage, and truthfully you'll be lots happier if you turn in 50 pounds of boneless meat.
Haven't hunted them in 15 years.
Had a lot of fun with then in the NorthEast Kingdom in Vt. Used to run them with my friend's beagles. they would run a half mile loop and come back where they started.
They looked like a bleach bottle running when there was no snow on the ground.
I thought they were good table fare. Snowshoes with eggs for breakfast.
Had a lot of fun with then in the NorthEast Kingdom in Vt. Used to run them with my friend's beagles. they would run a half mile loop and come back where they started.
They looked like a bleach bottle running when there was no snow on the ground.
I thought they were good table fare. Snowshoes with eggs for breakfast.
jtmattison
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I took a few of those fat buggers up in Alaska. They fry up real nice. Lot's of meat on them too.
:thumbsup:
HD
:thumbsup:
HD
We raise a domestic variety called a "Californian" that runs 8 to 10 pounds. We usually kull at six pounds (or four months, whichever comes first) for delicious eating . . . but then that's on a good diet and little stress or muscletone.
Ain't much sport. In fact . . . ain't no sport at all.
The adults weigh about 3X what the local cotton-tails weigh.
Just to the north we have what are called "varying hare" or "snowshoes" that change to white in the winter but they still don't break 5 pounds (I don't believe).
Ain't much sport. In fact . . . ain't no sport at all.
The adults weigh about 3X what the local cotton-tails weigh.
Just to the north we have what are called "varying hare" or "snowshoes" that change to white in the winter but they still don't break 5 pounds (I don't believe).
I like hunting snowshoes better than cottontails but much prefer the cottontails on the table. In Wisconsin there are no bag limits of any kind on snowshoes and in the good years they're very plentiful. A few yrs ago 4 of us shot 33 on a weekend and all w/ .22s and RBs. Also the snowshoes of the year taste a lot better than those big, old ones......Fred
bigbore442001
50 Cal.
They are tough hunting without a dog. I have seen tracks of snowshoe hare in the snow . I shot one once up in Maine when it was still wearing its summer coat in October. Shot it with my TC Contender with the .410 barrel on it.
They taste wonderful. I wished we had more of them here so one could have some decent hunting of edible game in the winter.
They taste wonderful. I wished we had more of them here so one could have some decent hunting of edible game in the winter.
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Stumpkiller said:
We kept pretty good statistics a few years back because we were boning them out to deliver the meat to a smokehouse for making pepper stick and summer sausage.
Our average over several years was a solid one pound of pure boneless meat per hare. Some were bigger and some were smaller but we could always get 25 pounds of meat out of 20-25 hares. Our biggest ever might...MIGHT....have hit five pounds live weight, but I doubt it.
In a peak year we delivered 50 pounds to the smokehouse for a return of 60 pounds of sausage, on top of all we put in the freezer for cooking other ways. That was in between my era of BP shotgunning and my current fixation on ML rifles, and we got every one of those with our bows, too. Had the shotgun when we raised beagles, and 100 a year was kind of our minimum take.
And anyone who has tasted that saugsage agrees that it's about the best that ever hit a plate.
Dang it, guys, I wish my fusile de chasse was all ready to go, as I believe a light 20-gauge flinter would be a great gun for snowshoes.
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BillinOregon said:
That's what I'll be building for snowshoes when time and money line up again. I used a double 12 for close to 15 years, running them with beagles. Always wanted a 20, because my typical load for them was only 7/8 oz or 1 oz of shot at about 1100 fps.
BTW- I'd stick to #5 or #4 shot if your gun patterns them well. Those will penetrate the hares completely out to 30-35 yards and save trips to the dentist, while #6 will start leaving strays behind in the meat when you get past 20-25 yards.
