Guide to Early Season Snowshoe Hare Hunting

These early season snowshoe hare looking ideas will assist you to carry house each fur and feather.

Nothing will get my blood flowing greater than looking upland birds in November and by chance flushing a snowshoe hare. Every fall, early season snowshoe hare looking catches me off guard. Seldom am I prepared for these first wild flushes that mark the start of hare season.

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Snowshoes are generally present in the identical locations as ruffed grouse and spruce grouse. To prime it off, they are going to take a look at your taking pictures capabilities to their fullest. You assume taking pictures a ruffed grouse busting by means of the alders is hard? Strive hitting a snowshoe hare that’s simply as quick however sprints throughout the bottom.

Improve the chances of including a hare to your recreation bag earlier than the snow comes with the following pointers.

Snowshoe Hare Searching Methods

Usually, for snowshoe hares, the early season happens between the season’s opening day and the primary important snowfall of winter. Over the past half-decade, not less than in my neck of the woods, the snow that marks the start of winter has occurred round Christmas.

Searching early season hare takes extra dedication and endurance than the late season. The bushes and undergrowth nonetheless have their foliage, which extends the quantity of canopy accessible to snowshoes. Nonetheless, locations the place you’ll discover snowshoes extra usually than wherever else embrace river edges and foliage instantly adjoining to dense conifers. Snowshoes focus in these areas within the mornings and evenings as they depart their hideouts to feed. 

Flushing Snowshoe Hare

Personally, I hunt river edges and marshes throughout the early season. Potential hunters can cowl floor whereas protecting the water to at least one facet, which is a barrier to any hares that flush. Blowdowns in these similar areas are sometimes magnets for snowshoe hares. Have one hunter beat round an enormous fallen tree whereas one other covers the other facet. This technique normally leads to a hare behind the sport vest. 

Learn Extra: Tips on how to Hunt Snowshoe Hare with a Pointing Canine

Observe that snowshoe hares is not going to be completely white throughout the early season. You’re way more prone to cross paths with a hare resembling an japanese cottontail, besides with massive, cream-colored toes. You additionally received’t be capable to observe them by means of snow. To capitalize on most alternatives, focus your looking efforts on high-probability areas and break these locations down into grids, working your means by means of one, then one other, and one other. 

Stand Searching Snowshoe Hare

One other nice tactic that works in locations the place you understand hare stay is stand looking for them. Assume turkey looking with out the camo and sneakiness. Go to an space the place you’ve seen hare earlier than and arrange in opposition to the trunk of a tree. In the event you can maintain nonetheless, this tactic locations the hunter within the direct path of hares who’re leaving their heavy, impenetrable cowl to feed. You may not consider it, however seeing a number of snowshoe hares materialize out of nowhere will get your coronary heart beating greater than you’d ever anticipate. 

When To Hunt Snowshoe Hare Throughout The Early Season

Early season snowshoe hares are drab-looking. When they’re completely nonetheless, their pure camouflage makes them nearly disappear. Nonetheless, generally, autumn climate will get just a little wacky, and we find yourself with a untimely snowfall. When this happens, I cease all the things, cancel my plans, and go snowshoe hare looking. Why? As a result of you’ll be looking a brown-colored animal in a sea of white snow. 

Learn Extra: A Look into Shotguns, Chokes, and Shot Measurement for Snowshoe Hare Searching

If the snowfall coincides with a big temperature drop, a lot the higher. You’ll possible discover half-white, half-brown hares out within the open sunning themselves. This can be a good time to stroll the perimeters of dense cowl with a 20 gauge shotgun loaded with three-inch quantity fours or a really correct .22 LR.

Searching Snowshoes Whereas Chasing Upland Birds

Early season hare looking isn’t essentially a numbers recreation. Earlier than the leaves are gone and snow has gathered, snowshoe hares have quite a lot of cowl to work with. Even in the event you’re not seeing hares, that doesn’t imply they’re not round. Searching extremely camouflaged animals in thick cowl is difficult, and while you don’t see a lot, it may possibly grind a hunter down. To keep at bay emotions of inadequacy, I usually hunt snowshoes, ruffed grouse, and woodcock concurrently. 

Whenever you flush a hare whereas chicken looking, mark the spot in your GPS. Odds are that the hare ran in an enormous arc and ultimately returned to the place it flushed from. Work that spot once more in your means again, however plan out your method this time. Put the chances of including a hare to the bag in your favor. In the event you’ve acquired a looking companion or a canine that’s hare savvy, all the higher. 

Early season snowshoes will also be a fantastic alternative to witness versatility in your looking canine. Mike Finlay, host of The City Outdoorsman Podcast, found this throughout a very gradual grouse day. Mike and his Irish Water Spaniel, Murdoch, joined me on an upland hunt that didn’t flip up a lot in the way in which of birds. Nonetheless, a number of snowshoe hares flushed, permitting us to maintain our weapons working scorching. After two or three hares had been shot, Murdoch shortly realized that flushing hares and retrieving them would earn him nice reward. He was joyful to oblige. By the tip of the day, Murdoch was pointing birds and snowshoe hares. 

When looking in snowshoe hare habitat this fall, don’t cross on the chance so as to add one to your bag. The early season is arguably probably the most troublesome time of the yr to pursue these hinterland lagomorphs. Problem your self to a rewarding hunt that can take a look at not solely your abilities as a shotgunner but in addition your versatility. It’s a enjoyable and stimulating method to make absolutely the most of a day afield.

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