Snowshoe Hare without a dog - advice wanted!

[swampsinger]

Okay, I just gotta say it. Hunt rabbits and wear out your boots, Hunt rabbits with Beagles and wear out your shotgun.

[Fox]

Sit, find an area with lots of track and sit the first light in the morning and the last light in the evening. The issue is that in most cases you cannot see them and they know it. I have shot snowshoes hares but all of them has been before they turned white.

I am planning to hunt them once the snow melts, but we have a season that goes until the end or March here.

May not be as sporting but they are still hard to find.

[jaycee]

In most cases, hunters hunting snowshoe rabbits "walk to fast " and don't use their eyes .

[G.S.]

Walk slowly through the thickest & youngest evergreens you find closest to wet/swampy areas. Look around (360) very carefully, and then look some more. You will be able to spot eyes, an unusual shape, or some movement. And if you spook one, wait for 15 min. without moving; they always circle back! (got a few this way, learned this trick after I stopped & had a smoke after one took-off from my feet). Be ready, but do not rush the shot.

Most importantly, have patience. Do this and your chances to connect will increase.

[alfoldivandor]

Just before dark they start moving around We watched the links hunting them .

Well, my first snowshoe season has come to an end. My hunting buddy and I hunt without a dog. We went out maybe 10 times to forests that hold snowshoe for sure. Lots of hare tracts and droppings. I got one snowshoe that he flushed, it was still in November when there was no snow and the hare was white. Subsequently we went many times to a place that holds lots of them, but we only had one sighting, no shots. But there are lots of hare tracts and droppings in that forest. I'm wondering what we were doing wrong? Do you guys think that we fail to spot them sitting in the snow forms, or do they hear us before we can see them, and run? Which is it? Anything we can do to improve the odds? We even tried this: one would sit in one place, and the other would circle around him trying to flush a hare, still nothing.
Thanks for any advice.