Hunting Rabbits (edit, Hares) in the Snow?

I've found that the more persistant you are the more success you will have. I hunt hares by slowly walking large circles it thickets with a lot of tracks.....seems after an hour or maybe more the hares will hold still more than take off.....look for the beady black eyes....you'll be surprised at how close they will hold before flushing!
 
I want to try hare hunting this year, but i don't really know where to start.

I was up in Sun Peaks for the weekend and was planning on trying up there, but i didn't have a car and everything close to the road seems to be private property...

Can anyone suggest general areas that would be worth checking out? I'm thinking either towards yale/lytton maybe? I'm not asking for a honey hole or anything, just a general area that might produce, as the terrain around here is all thick forest so I don't see me getting very far without driving a while. I feel like whistler/pemberton would be too thick, same with Hope?
 
hawk-i said:
I've found that the more persistant you are the more success you will have. I hunt hares by slowly walking large circles it thickets with a lot of tracks.....seems after an hour or maybe more the hares will hold still more than take off.....look for the beady black eyes....you'll be surprised at how close they will hold before flushing!
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This holds true for me as well. The property I often hunt is a quarter section of mostly thick forest, with some swampy areas bordering a wheat field.
Most often in the thickest parts is the most fruitful. But really, predator pressure is so high I rarely see one on my first sweep. It's usually the second or third sweep that produces.
A sweep takes about 40 minutes or thereabouts and yes engagement distances are close. About ten yards or even sometimes less too is normal, and twenty yards is unusually far for this boreal forest.

Cheers!
 
hawk-i said:
I've found that the more persistant you are the more success you will have. I hunt hares by slowly walking large circles it thickets with a lot of tracks.....seems after an hour or maybe more the hares will hold still more than take off.....look for the beady black eyes....you'll be surprised at how close they will hold before flushing!
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I agree to some extent. Often it does work out that way. Sunday was like that, actually. For the first 90 minutes or so, I only saw one hare and it was on the move, keeping well away from me. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed they turned stupid and I got 5 of them in about a 20 minute period, then a 6th about 15 minutes later. Then things dried up again, and I didn't see another for the next hour, so I went home.

This has happened before, more times than I can count. It is like they have periods during the day when they come out for a snack and a little bit of sun and then head back to their hiding spots. Some days, this period of activity is very short, but other days it can last for hours. I think this is where the solunar calendar comes in handy (sometimes) at indicating when that period of activity might be.

The best method, as you say, is persistence. Show up early and stay as long as it takes, and you are usually going to get at least a few. Even if their active period only lasts a half an hour, you'll be there for it.
 
Here's an example of a couple of things discussed previously in the thread.

I was making my way through this area and was approaching the large tree marked with an X. My main direction of travel was actually slightly to the left of where this photo was taken, but I had stopped to take a look around and I leaned my torso sideways to the right to peek around the tree and the hare was perched right there on the little snowy platform near the other tree. Might have been 6 or 7 yards, max. The hare just sat there and waited to get shot.

However, as I was lining up the shot in my scope, I noticed another hare sitting in the area indicated by the circle in the background, at about 35-40 yards. I shot the close one (as you can see in the photo) and the one in the distance didn't budge, so I shot it as well.

This is not an unusual scenario.

double_kill.jpg
 
Ironsighter do you post on huntingbc under another name? If so I learned a lot about hare hunting from your posts, thanks.
 
conor_90 said:
Ironsighter do you post on huntingbc under another name? If so I learned a lot about hare hunting from your posts, thanks.
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I used to, but I found that place incredibly tiresome. The egos!

You are welcome. Glad to have helped. I learned a lot from various people on various forums, including this one, so the least I can do is pass it on.
 
Great picture Ironsighter! Was out walking the dog today and the crust was semi-breakable so it was rough walking but the dog got pretty excited sniffing around in circles and we saw some older tracks.
Might have to bring the .22lr on the next outing!
 
Yeah there are egos and bigshots everywhere, it's easy to talk yourself up on the internet and the venue allows for all types. There's always someone who owns more guns and has cut more tags than you. That's why I just lurk there. I learned a lot about blacktail and small game hunting from them though.

More disturbing how quickly stuff can get racist as hell on that board.

As for the topic, I am all about the 22 mag for hares.
 
conor_90 said:
Yeah there are egos and bigshots everywhere, it's easy to talk yourself up on the internet and the venue allows for all types. There's always someone who owns more guns and has cut more tags than you. That's why I just lurk there. I learned a lot about blacktail and small game hunting from them though.

More disturbing how quickly stuff can get racist as hell on that board.

As for the topic, I am all about the 22 mag for hares.
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Yes. The racism, ###ism, and so many other isms.

And yes, back to the topic. Sorry for the diversion. .22 mag is an emphatic killer of hares, and if something big comes along and shows too much interest in messing with me, I'd rather have the mag than an LR. :)
 
I have bagged a couple over the years where one just barely spotted me and jumped up and took off but didn't go too far and stopped to check out the situation again and I was able to wack it with pure luck. Usually they scare the shat out of me!--Dieseldog!
 
Anyone have any luck lately?

Regrettably, I didn't get out at all last weekend, and it was a 4-day weekend for me. Need to get out this weekend for sure.
 
Spooked one with the dog out walking the bush yesterday.....stopped about 20 feet away and sat there till I got the dog looking that way....:)
 
Hares smares rabbits when I'm hunting our big JACKS here I just look for lumps out in middle of field or in the ditches along untravelled roads. Sneaky boogers will hide anywhere just have to whistle loudly when they're running and they will stop for a picture???
 
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