Snowshoe Hare Hunting

[swampsinger]

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

I agree getting out there is most important thing. I'm not much of a photographer, was out sunday, didn't even have the phone with me, let alone running around with a camera strapped to my head. I can't even get a tailgate shot, I have a habit of cleaning game right after its shot. Maybe that's something I can work on in the new Year.

[swampsinger]

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.

I believe the biggest change for the good, from the old days are the "Track and Train" units. For years now I've used a Garmin Alpha unit. One of the most useful features is tone. All the my hounds are tone trained to recall, so if things are going south or its time to go home, signal the collar and whistle/call the hound in. I think its amazing.
I have really noticed a trend on the east coast particularly in NFLD. Rabbit hunting with Beagles has taken off, and Beagles are filling that niche of hunting dog / family pet. I believe part of the upswing in popularity is due to the use of these systems.

[sabmgb]

this whole thread brings back really good memories of bunny hunting with my dad and our beagle. The sound of the beagle listening to it bring a rabbit back on that circle and of course waiting well into the night a couple times for the dog to come back, no trackers in those days, I think the coyotes have pretty much taken care of the bunnies around here. I only see them in town or around the builds on the farm. Haven't seen a track in the bush in years.

[Gilroy]

this whole thread brings back really good memories of bunny hunting with my dad and our beagle. The sound of the beagle listening to it bring a rabbit back on that circle and of course waiting well into the night a couple times for the dog to come back, no trackers in those days, I think the coyotes have pretty much taken care of the bunnies around here. I only see them in town or around the builds on the farm. Haven't seen a track in the bush in years.

I was up at my place this past week for a few days, tried for grouse and snow shoe, very little evidence for either but it had just snowed the night before. There was however lots of tracks of coyotes around.

They are pretty smart buggers because I have spent hundreds of hours in tree stands over the past 25 years and only seen one coyote off a stand and several others while walking. In big bush country they roam a lot and have plenty of cover, if it wasnt for snow you might not think they even existed except for the calls they let out before hunting in the evening.

[Fenelon]

Snowshoe hunting brings back good and bad memories from my young years. Good memories when the beagles were good hounds and ran well. Then lots of bad memories that left me badly scarred - wasting an entire day in the swamp with beagles that wouldn't tongue and ran silent, beagles that would run old tracks again and again, beagles that you couldn't catch when you wanted to move to hunt a different area, beagles that wouldn't run in snow deeper than 4 inches, beagles that wouldn’t leave your side as soon as they smelled coyote sign. The worst was having the coyotes silently killing your hounds when they were running a hare (happened three times to us).

[ninepointer]

For me, getting out with the beagle in Jan/Feb is like a 2nd hunting season!

[punkrockerpj]

For me, getting out with the beagle in Jan/Feb is like a 2nd hunting season!

agree 100%
once new years rolls around its buns and dogs until march, then a lull until april 25th.
but by then, im always busy with farming but it helps beat those winter blahs.

i love getting together with a couple buddies and chase some buns. you dont have to behave like you do with deer hunting. just run and gun and have some fun

[ninepointer]

OK now you guys got me excited. Here's one from a couple years ago.

[swampsinger]

Just trying to post photos.

[swampsinger]

Okay, did not like that. Apparently if you click on the photo it gives anyone access to my flickr account.