Snowshoe hare hunting tips/tricks

[7mmfan]

As the title says, I'm thinking about getting after some snowshoe hares. I've only ever seen a couple while out and about so I'm hoping to get some tips and tricks from guys who have gotten after them a bit. What would be the best habitat to focus on? Elevation? Really just planning on putting the snowshoes on and getting some miles in, hoping to learn a little about some off season opportunities.

[JM]

Get beagles and find fresh tracks. Pretty simple

[Bango skank]

Seems like the last several years weve had a bumper crop of snowshoes in my area, but then this year suddenly im not seeing near as many around.  Way less tracks than usual in the snow.  Maybe its just me, but it sure seems like a pretty sudden dropoff in their numbers after several boom years.

[KP-Skagit]

I have gotten quite a few between 3 and 4000 feet on the eastside. Seem to like wet areas, I have shot many on the discharge side of culverts or near creek bottoms. I usually find where one is deer hunting and then circle back later and get it with the 22. Or find them driving. Hunting them in snow is a challenge, they blend in really well and are VERY fast. On the order of 25 mph.

Seems to have a been a good year for them in the Winthrop area. They definitely boom and bust though.

[boneaddict]

Seems like the last several years weve had a bumper crop of snowshoes in my area, but then this year suddenly im not seeing near as many around.  Way less tracks than usual in the snow.  Maybe its just me, but it sure seems like a pretty sudden dropoff in their numbers after several boom years.

Pretty common.  If you watch  it long enough, you'll note the predator populations ebbing and flowing, matching it.

[RobinHoodlum]

I shot the heck out of them when I lived up in central Canada one winter. They were abundant in groves of quaking aspen around potholes. Used a dalmatian - of all things! - as a flushing dog and used a 22. He figured out the game pretty quickly and loved chasing them.

In WA I have found them in pockets along forest roads in thick reprod about 10-20ish years old. In that situation I've used a bow and thumper tip and a shotty.

My experience is they can occur in lower elevations, but are more abundant above 1,000 feet.  You will generally find them in clusters. They tend to think they are invisible, so they will go a short distance and stop. Even if they skitter off a road into the veg, you can approach and often find them barely into the cover.

Good luck and have fun!

[KP-Skagit]

Seems like the last several years weve had a bumper crop of snowshoes in my area, but then this year suddenly im not seeing near as many around.  Way less tracks than usual in the snow.  Maybe its just me, but it sure seems like a pretty sudden dropoff in their numbers after several boom years.

Pretty common.  If you watch  it long enough, you'll note the predator populations ebbing and flowing, matching it.

Growing up there was a bumper year for cottontails. Would not be uncommon to see a dozen or so in our yard at one time. About a month later I was walking down our driveway and saw what can only be described as a HERD of weasels run across the road in front of me. Must have been at least ten of them. In a week there was not a rabbit to be found.

[KFhunter]

All I've ever seen are singles!  That woulda been cool, and a good place for some trapping action. 

[DOUBLELUNG]

I've hunted them quite a bit in NH (with and without beagles) and in Wyoming without dogs.  Look for dense mixed live deciduous and conifer mixed woody twigs within 3' of the ground.  Clearcuts and willow patches are go-to locations, they seem to be most abundant in the east Cascades above the Ponderosa zone.  Western hemlock and cedar edges along younger clearcuts and willow bottoms are a good place to start.  After a fresh dusting of powder is the best time to still hunt them on fresh tracks without a dog, they will typically run ahead and bed watching their backtrail at the base of a tree.  You can use binoculars to great effect to locate them before they bolt, the shiny black eye really stands out against the white.  Great fun with a shotty or scoped .22

We would scout after several days without snowfall, locate concentrations of tracks and then go back after a fresh snow and stillhunt them.  You can do it alone, or with 2-3 hunting parallel about 20 yards apart.  Shotgun is best when group hunting as often one of the flankers will get a shot at them running from the tracker.

[boneaddict]

    A herd of weasels.   That would be cool to see.   As long as you didn't raise birds that is.

one of the flankers will get a shot at them running from the tracker.

SO thats why Idabooner always sent me ahead into the brush tracking them things when I was a kid. 

[7mmfan]

Good tips, thanks everyone. I'm planning on trying to find some higher elevation west side spots,  as these will be opportunistic hunts at best for me. Do you often find them in areas without snow? I can't imagine they follow the snow line. From what jve read they have a quite small home range.

[Bango skank]

Good tips, thanks everyone. I'm planning on trying to find some higher elevation west side spots,  as these will be opportunistic hunts at best for me. Do you often find them in areas without snow? I can't imagine they follow the snow line. From what jve read they have a quite small home range.

Theyre super easy to see this time of yesr in snowless areas.  Bright white blob on a brown / green background.

[boneaddict]

They stand out like a sore thumb when there is no snow, but you are right, they are there.

In the snow, DOUBLELUNG was right, their eye is what gives them away 9 out of ten times.   Train yourself to watch for it.   

[7mmfan]

Hoping to get out this weekend for a couple of hours. If I find anything I'll update the thread.

[cbond3318]

I’ve never hunted them or specifically looked for them but when I do see them it seems 9/10 times I’m wading through nasty blow down areas. Not sure if there is a correlation there. Oh and I’d say I see the most on North Slopes. Maybe because it holds snow longer?

Good luck, sounds like a fun way to keep the legs in order!