Rabbits are still partly grey in NE Alberta!

Thanks for you input ironsighter. It's always interesting IMO to hear from fellow hunters. As Silverback, Trevj (he moved to BC and is missed!) and myself can attest to, the area of northern boreal forest we often hunt at, is mostly very closely confined spruce and black poplar, with some fir trees. The longest shot was myself with a 12 gauge turkeyslayer shotgun, early last spring, at 47 meters. Which is an excpetionally long shot for here. But most often they are taken between 7-16 meters or thereabouts. Mostly, we just use 20 gauges with small birdshot or rifles in 22 LR.

Edit: BTW, I keep shotgun slugs on hand for the off chance of coyote/slim chance wolf opportunity too. Which is legal here on private land for coyotes and with a deer tag in a zoned open season, in my pocket for wolf.
 
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Brutus said:
Thanks for you input ironsighter. It's always interesting IMO to hear from fellow hunters. As Silverback, Trevj (he moved to BC and is missed!) and myself can attest to, the area of northern boreal forest we often hunt at, is mostly very closely confned spruce and black poplar, with some undergrowth. The longest shot was myself with a 12 gauge turkeyslayer shotgun, early last spring, at 47 meters. Which is an excpetinally long shot for here. But most often they are taken between 7-16 meters or thereabouts. Mostly, we just use 20 gauges with small bidshot or rifles in 22 LR.
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I'm familiar with that thick sh!t. :) I lived in Cold Lake (Medley) for a few years. Between the ages of 11 and 13 I used to hunt snowshoe hare with my Marksman slingshot and ball-bearings in the boreal forest, not far from my house. There was little chance of seeing anything much further than about 20 yards in those forests, IIRC.

Here in BC (Kamloops area) the hare can be found in fairly diverse habitat. If it is an area with low predation and subsequently high population, they can be found even in sparsely mixed coniferous/deciduous areas just hanging out in the sun. On the other hand, I have found several areas with plenty of sign in the stuff that is so thick it is nearly impossible to get through.

I stick to the areas that I can navigate easily on snowshoes. Sometimes they appear 10 yards away, seemingly out of nowhere. Other times I spot them quite far away through a shooting lane (or on the roads). It makes for a very enjoyable day in the bush.

I have also observed that the exact same area can be hit or miss, depending on the day. Sometimes I see nothing at all (except sign), sometimes they are everywhere, just days later.
 
Yeah, our best hunting seemed to hinge around having the bush so thick that if you dd a crowd-surfing type leap you wouldn't actually fall to the ground.

I got some of my best results in that thick stuff, and the rabbits did not seem to worry about you all that much until you got within a few yards of them. Sub-10 yard shots were pretty common.

I have not been out looking for them here, though I have it said to me that they are around at the higher elevations.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
Yeah, our best hunting seemed to hinge around having the bush so thick that if you dd a crowd-surfing type leap you wouldn't actually fall to the ground.

I got some of my best results in that thick stuff, and the rabbits did not seem to worry about you all that much until you got within a few yards of them. Sub-10 yard shots were pretty common.

I have not been out looking for them here, though I have it said to me that they are around at the higher elevations.

Cheers
Trev
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Yep. I see tons of them between 1200-1500m. Areas of sparse-ish Christmas tree sized regrowth with deciduous shrubbery adjacent to deciduous pockets with deadfall. Total honey holes. I took 68 of them out of a single 300m by 500m area last winter. There were plenty more, I am sure.

Right now I am only taking them opportunistically. Need to get out there and get deer #3 before the season ends. The real hare hunting begins in mid-Dec.
 
Nice!

Often when people ask me about hunting they are curious about where, why, when, how I hunt hares. They say they always see tracks but never see the hares.

Once you get an eye for them, they aren't that hard to spot, I find. In fact, if/when the hares are out, I seem to see them everywhere. I get a mental image in my mind of a hare, and then I scan the scenery with that image in my mind, and pow! there they are. I am sure there are many more that I don't see, though. :)
 
I think it's similar for me ironsighter. It's always it seems that the little curve of thier back along with thier long ears that grab my attention.
Then I shoulder the gun and wait for that one nervous twitch of movement from the hare.
Although this last one was a one off (seen one/shot one) with the temp' just -1 C.
The last time I came back with a double, the temperature was -18 C. But I did see a third that got away from me.

go figure huh?

PS: I often do this, walk a few steps, then stop while looking everywhere. Often includes bending down, twisting, looking under and around, behind, nearby ground cover. Then when I am thinking that nothing is nearby I move on and repeat.
I too wonder how many I've not seen and they live longer.

Cheers!
 
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I use the exact same method of walking a few steps and then stopping, crouching, bending and looking under and around and behind me. Often they will hop away after I have passed.

The long pause between steps makes the little buggers anxious and sometimes they'll move their head, twitch their ears or even hop a few times. The result is almost invariably a dead hare. :)

Not very often, but some days the only ones I see are quite far away and moving full throttle in the opposite direction. I suspect these are days when there has been a 4-legged predator in the area (I do sometimes find Lynx/Bobcat sign - maybe even Cougar, judging by the size).

Looking forward to more days like this...

9_hare.jpg
 
Sweet! That's a nice harvest friend. I work hard a buddy's 1/4 section to keep them away from his own planted trees. But it would be very unusual to take this many off his property in one day only. It's more like, ones, twos and threes for a few hours work. The Lynx like this spot too, along with an owl and a resident lone wolf has been busy taking the local ruffies and hares. Once we took 5 hares, but that was a singular event.

Have a good one ironsighter!!
 
Great thread guys.... deer hunting is over soon and then back to hare and grouse for me.... picked myself up a combo gun for hare only after grouse closes.... love me some pork and rabbit pie...

For the record, I hear you on the mental image thing... for some reason I tend to pick up on the eyes first....
 
Brutus said:
Sweet! That's a nice harvest friend. I work hard a buddy's 1/4 section to keep them away from his own planted trees. But it would be very unusual to take this many off his property in one day only. It's more like, ones, twos and threes for a few hours work. The Lynx like this spot too, along with an owl and a resident lone wolf has been busy taking the local ruffies and hares. Once we took 5 hares, but that was a singular event.

Have a good one ironsighter!!
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Thanks!

In my favourite area last year, an average day was 4-5 hares, a below average day was 1-3, and a good day was 6 to 9. I got skunked only twice, and as hard as I tried I never limited out (10). That's all going to change this year, as those ones out past 60y don't have a chance now. :)

I'll have to post a few of my recipes over in that section some time. We eat a lot of hares at my house. I debone them all and use the meat just like chicken or turkey. The carcasses make excellent stock for soups and stews.

Really enjoying this thread. Cheers to all my fellow hare hunters out there!
 
I've never seen more rabbits before in my life as I have this fall. There are literally tons of them around here. I could have bagged 100's of them while we were cutting our canola down this fall. As the swather was moving through the fields wind-rowing the canola they were scattering out of the crop everywhere. They must like to hide out in the standing canola crops…probably provides them with good shelter from predators. I saw a Bald Eagle pick one up right beside me….
 
Had a snowshoe hop and stop seven feet away from me while I was sitting in a chair waiting for deer last week. Everything was still brown except for his legs and muzzle, little bugger stared at me for 5 seconds before he hopped back where he came from... Had to contain myself from laughing when we were in a staredown, really goofy-looking with the white mask and socks!
 


An interesting harvest today. Invariably with increasing amounts of snow, I often witness the same mid-winter hare behaviour. With a lone hunter following them, they often avoid you with increasingly large circles. This one almost pulled this off. However I spotted him as he nestled down between two snowbanks and then completely disappeared into the great white background. I marked the spot and then sent the shot load at him like a mortar shell holding half a bead high. Resulting in success.
 
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Nice shot, Brutus!

I was out looking for a WT today. No luck, but I sniped 3 hares.

I left the first one on the trail to pick up on the walk back. When I got back, one of those "camp robber" birds had ripped the skin off the front section and devoured most of one shoulder. At least the back straps and hind legs are OK.

Sorry. No pics. I totally forgot.
 
How's everyone doing? I have whacked a few more hares over the past couple weeks, but still actively hunting deer (wanna get a WT this year on top of the 2 mulies).

Come December 11th, it's going to be all hares all the time till spring bear opens...
 
What type of cover do you guys find the hare hunting best in? Aspen forest with lots of thick undergrowth is where I've had the most success in the past. Do you have much luck in conifer (spruce, balsam, pine) forest? I don't think we have near the hare population here in Manitoba that you are seeing in Alberta. I have read that their population cycles peak within a year or two across most of their range, so hopefully we'll see good numbers here too in the next year or two. We sure have lots of coyotes and wolves here now. I'm sure that has an effect.
 
Well yesterday afternoon was my first empty handed trip in a bit.
Probably had something to do with the recent wolf footy prints in my favorite spot. Oh well.....he needs them more then me for sure!
Rob F, here in NE Alberta, pretty close to the Saskatchewan border, hares are most often found during the daylight hours hiding in amongst the thickest stands of spruce & fir trees with lots of overead cover. As my former hunting partner Trevj likes to say, the best hunting spots seem to be where you could trip in the boreal forest and the surrounding tree limbs literally break your fall. There are no aspen trees that I know of here, but some jackpine and birch on the higher dry spots between the soggy peet swamps. Along with lots of poplar trees. Hemlock close to the swamps too & some willow.
 
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