Snowshoe Hare Hunting

I'm getting top notch, running and gunning since the regular deer season ended. I'm really spoiled these days, plenty of game and opportunity right here in my own township. Sometimes its a tough decision deciding which field trial champion I'm going to hunt with today. The latest technologies have made all the old worries vanish, no lost hounds, no running off game, no trouble catching hounds, and I pretty much have the woods to myself. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for but I can't believe more people aren't doing this.

Great that you're having a good season, I don't think hunting with hounds is something most people will just pick up on a whim. Maybe there aren't many younger folks in your area that were born or brought into it?

Enjoy the good hunting!

Consider yourself lucky. I grew up with beagles and running field trials. I just love the sound of a hound in the swamp.

Wish you were closer, as I would be bugging you to take me out for a day.

If I remember correctly, you sometimes hunt in the Marlborough forest? I was there yesterday taking down my treestands and I heard some hounds that sounded pretty excited. I thought it was strange because I've always associated hounds in the forest with deer hunting, but nobody would use them during the archery season. I guess they could have been out running hares though.
How many hounds at a time do you use when hunting hares?

About the end of the regular deer season - this year, for the first time I had a camera out in the Marlborough forest. It's crazy how the deer behaviour changes during the gun season there - virtually no daytime movement as of the second or third day of the rifle season. Then once the muzzleloader season ended, I was getting daytime pictures again.

First I'll commend you on your responsible actions of taking down your stands. My opinion is that any hunters using the marlborough forest should be on their best behavior. I'm sure that there are certain factions that would love to ban all hunting there and turn it into a "bird watching, hiking only" area.
As for hound numbers most of the time I only cast one occasionally two. Its a matter of logistics, 90% of the time I'm by myself and its a lot easier to wrangle one good one. I make an effort to avoid deer hunters, I prefer to hunt during the week, but the weather was to nice and after staying home saturday could not resist sunday. I expect deer hunters to be in their stands at first and last light, so sunday was typical for me cast at 9.30 and home by 12.30 with a couple of rabbits in the pot.
I guessing what you might have heard is coyote hunters using hounds, they got us hare hunters outnumbered a hundred to one. However the marlborough itself is not the best place to hunt coyotes with hounds, its to thick, not enough open sight lines. The coyotes are probably smart enough to head there instead of running across cut corn.

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Originally Posted by Muskyhunter

Consider yourself lucky. I grew up with beagles and running field trials. I just love the sound of a hound in the swamp.

Wish you were closer, as I would be bugging you to take me out for a day.

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Sometimes I could use the company {help}, I was out a couple of weeks ago when there was a bit of snow on the ground and according to Garmin, ran approx 4 hrs, FTCH Swampsing'n Shimer covered 15 miles, I covered {hobbled} over 5, saw the Hare 8 times, Fired 3 times and never lifted a hair off its hide. That's all in the area of approx 200/300 hundred acres, sometimes its work trying to cover the whole swamp by yourself.
I did alot of trials myself, I apprenticed with Terry Mcbride, George Steves, Carl Willis, Danny Kane, Coady MacDonald and others.

I agree with you about hunter behaviour in the Marlborough forest. I have to say though, most of the hunters I've met there, especially recently, have been very respectable.

Were you hunting at Marlborough yesterday? I was there between 11-1, a few kilometres in from the E6 entrance on Roger Stevens. I heard a few shots during that time, but the forest was pretty empty. It's really a gem, being so close to the city and so vast, and open to hunting.

I could see that it would be great habitat for hares, but I have not seen that many there. I guess hunting with a dog would help!

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Originally Posted by swampsinger

First I'll commend you on your responsible actions of taking down your stands. My opinion is that any hunters using the marlborough forest should be on their best behavior. I'm sure that there are certain factions that would love to ban all hunting there and turn it into a "bird watching, hiking only" area.
As for hound numbers most of the time I only cast one occasionally two. Its a matter of logistics, 90% of the time I'm by myself and its a lot easier to wrangle one good one. I make an effort to avoid deer hunters, I prefer to hunt during the week, but the weather was to nice and after staying home saturday could not resist sunday. I expect deer hunters to be in their stands at first and last light, so sunday was typical for me cast at 9.30 and home by 12.30 with a couple of rabbits in the pot.
I guessing what you might have heard is coyote hunters using hounds, they got us hare hunters outnumbered a hundred to one. However the marlborough itself is not the best place to hunt coyotes with hounds, its to thick, not enough open sight lines. The coyotes are probably smart enough to head there instead of running across cut corn.

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I was not in the marlborough but not that far off to the west. For the most part, all the areas dominated by cedar, are great snowshoe hare habitat. I have all kinds of anecdotal stories of hare numbers and hunting in there. Due to other activities besides hunting I have a pretty good handle the Hare population in the area. The hare population bottomed out approx. 4 / 5 years ago and numbers are slowly improving. I've seen 4 boom times in my life and we are headed for another one. Yes a beagle makes all the difference if your hunting "on foot" you can walk around in the marlborough for a week and never see a hare. If I cast a beagle, within 5 or ten minutes I've got a race going.

I hunt hares as well and sometimes I wonder why people don’t do this more in the winter. I don’t have a dog so I’m kicking every bush I can, then I realized why not a lot of people do this because it’s hard work walking through deep snow looking for a needle in a Hay stack and let’s face it people are lazy lol but I wouldn’t change one thing about it. Dogs would make it a lot easier I would imagine. Do you have any good pics of your dogs chasing a snowshoe

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Originally Posted by swampsinger

I'm getting top notch, running and gunning since the regular deer season ended. I'm really spoiled these days, plenty of game and opportunity right here in my own township. Sometimes its a tough decision deciding which field trial champion I'm going to hunt with today. The latest technologies have made all the old worries vanish, no lost hounds, no running off game, no trouble catching hounds, and I pretty much have the woods to myself. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for but I can't believe more people aren't doing this.

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I think that people are very busy in their lives and do not have the time to keep a beagle for this type of hunting. I am from the old school where we used beagles and spent a lot of time looking for them when they kept hunting and got lost sometimes overnight. But they are a lot of fun and a great way to burn of those winter days when most other hunting is finished.