Holy stinkin crap, what a nightmare. My buddy asked me last week if I wanted to try hunting some snowshoe hare with him when season opens and it sounded awesome. Neither of us have any knowledge on where and how to hunt them here in PA so we decided to hit up the internet to get info. Finding info on how to hunt them was rather easy, but finding where was a challenge. We managed to find an old density map which gave us a starting point of about a 6 county area....now it was time to narrow it down. We found a couple PSU survey that discussed habitat but they wouldn't give specifics. We then hit hunting sites and quickly found that it would be much easier to get info on the location of a B&C buck than one of these jacked up rabbits. People aren't even willing to get you started in the right direction. It is actually comical to read peoples info on these things.We finally formed a game plan based on videos of hare hunts and how the terrain matches areas we know in the 6 county range we found. It's gonna be a crap shoot but we are gonna give it a shot after Christmas when the 5 day season opens.
They.love pines ... we hunted them years ago ... you can use a dog or still hunt them ... it was loads of fun!
Holy crappolla... a 5 day season. Unless you have a sure fire known hot spot... 5 days isn't enough to even get started. Hell, we used to spend that much time looking for lost dogs. LOL When I was a kid hunting snowshoes was a lot of fun and very productive. BUt alas... that era has ended around here anyway. With the massive coyote explosion.... snowshoes have all but disappeared from my immediate area. Oh there are some areas that still hold a few... but not like the old days. Snowshoe hunting used to be as big as deer hunting around here. Using dogs was the only way and everyone had a dog. I remember one time our group got something like 28 one day. We also got blasted in a bar later waiting for a dog to find his way back to a coat we'd left by the roadside for him to hunker down on when he came out. Today around here I wouldn't waste the time trying to find a snowshoe. Now we try to kill a coyote just to be rid of them. We used a variety of dogs... but locally we seemed to lean toward beagles and walkers mixed. Just like hunting cottontails with dogs except the circle was now extended to a range much bigger. Snowshoes will run forever. YUP, look for new growth reforestration pines with lots of willows, alders and that type of brush close by. THey eat the hell out of sappling bark during the winter. Of course if you don't have 5 feet of snow I"m sure it's different. LOL
P.S. Our season is 5 and half months. 6 a day. My nephew still hunts snowshoes with a couple friends and dogs. I think they managed to shoot around 50 last year. They don't hunt every day or anything like that.... but do hunt. They also spend time hunting coyotes with my brother. They shot 117 of them last year. That's where the snowshoes went. The same group killed 110, 110 and 111 coyotes the previous years hunting the same woods over and over and over. My brother, my nephews father, hunts coyotes everyday once deer season ends. My brother replaced rabbit dogs with coyote hounds.
I'm with Tony. Find some evergreens If you can and or brush piles too. We don't have snowshoe's here but cottontails Instead. I'd assume they both like evergreens.
5 days?!? - we have from sep 15 til march....they love aspen clearcuts and prefer a mix with evergreen cover(balsam spruce)...think thickest possible. they also like old overgrown apple orchards that usually contain a lot of tag alder(slang for red or green alder) and spruce around here as well as aspen. they sit tight too...stomp on the brush piles sometimes they come out right between your legs. A good tool to use nowadays is Google earth maps...they are up to date and you can zoom insofar as to determine what kind of cover you are lookin for. Its a Blast esp with good dogs - have fun!
Thanks guys, I appreciate the tips. It's going to be tough, the last figure I saw was around 850 taken in a season. We don't have many here which is why the season is so short and we have a daily limit of 1 and a possession limit of 2. They areas we found to try are edges of swamps where they meet some thickets. We are figuring that if we get lucky to find one it will be a bonus because it is also going to be some good scouting for deer for next year.
I disagree. It's a lot easier to see a 2 day old track in the snow than it is to try and find a white bunny if he's not there.
Shot my first snowshoe last season, one of the most horrible thing I've ever tried to eat! I'll go again but I'll be packing my bow next time. We hunt stands of young jack pines, still a good number up here in the U.P. although the coyote population is quite high. We used dogs, but some buddies have success without dogs just spacing out 30 yards or so and walking hoping to kick them back and forth between one another. Good luck!
What counties do they list? I'm assuming they're up north. I'll be in Cameron county this week, I'll ask around to see anyone has seen any. I spend a lot of time in Centre, Clearfield and Huntingdon and have never heard of one let alone lay eyes on one. Good luck!
