Another Bag Limit on Hares Today!

[hare_assassin]

My goal was to pull it off again, and I am happy to say I was successful!

It was a great day to be out there. The snow is dense enough now that my snowshoes keep me up top, for the most part.

Shot #1 at 10:29am and shot #10 at 2:07pm, so under 3.5 hrs. The last three hares were shot in about an 8 minute time span.

Again, you can tell which ones were at the bottom of the bag.

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_limit_2.jpg

Also, some added carnage. This one did some serious funky chicken when I shot it, despite that fact that its head was erased:

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/spatter.jpg

[xtrail]

Good Shooting, lots of good eats.

[hare_assassin]

Thanks xtrail!

Here is an example of a typical situation. The first pic was taken shortly after I shot a hare. The circle in the pic shows where the hare is in relation to where I am, about 60 yards away. I zoomed, but the photo doesn't do it justice, unfortunately. There really is a dead hare in that circle somewhere. :)

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_example_1.jpg

And here is the dead hare with his neck/throat shot out:

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_example_2.jpg

[islander7mm]

Awesome work. I liked your YouTube video on field dressing your hares. 22 mag does the job.

[snow]

wow that's awesome! and the season is not even over yet, 4 more weekends to go :)

[Surrey Boy]

Congratulations! I like the photos too.

[BiG Boar]

I'm just glad someone is killing something Ha. Here we live in the best place in the world to hunt, and Ha is poised in the off season taking down mad hare. Good for you. Hate to see when you change your name to sheep assassin. Good hare season man. I've yet to even shoot one hare. Are you going bald or something? Why the desire for so much hare?

[BearSupreme]

Thats awesome! Ive never seen a hare during the day, I usually seem them on my drive back from hunting. Wish I had those hunting opportunities id be out a lot more in the winter!

[warnniklz]

Nice shootin. You're on your way to a harey tuxedo there.

[Fella]

You gonna use the pelts to make a goat decoy? Nice shooting!

[russm]

You should make and sell jackalopes.

[Ferenc]

Thats cool ...what type of fire power are you using on the hares...we ate alot of the ones from the farm we raised when we were kids...the ones your getting I bet are tastey!!!!

[seizuresalad]

Pretty jealous of you right now; awesome job. All I have to work with on the south island right now, food-varmint-wise, are eastern cottontails, and the non-urban ones that you can actually hunt, are pretty much inactive during legal shooting hours.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

The lynx must just absolutely hate you!!

Congrats again!!! You've certainly earned your username.

I'm hoping to limit out on Stone's Sheep this yr. A guy can dream..............................:roll:

SSS

[warnniklz]

You gonna use the pelts to make a goat decoy? Nice shooting!

Me? ... you're giving me ideas

[markomoose]

Great work there HARE ASSASIN.Cool pics as well.YOUDAMAN!Wondering what's next??3 FOR 3? You can do it!!

[HarryToolips]

Great work again! How slow are you walking? I find I go pretty slow but my snowshoes are still makin a bit o noise and I rarely rarely see em..

[hare_assassin]

Awesome work. I liked your YouTube video on field dressing your hares. 22 mag does the job.

Thanks! I really want to put a rig together to record the hunting and shooting. I might try out an "iScope" but they are pricey. I love my 22 magnum. Love it!


wow that's awesome! and the season is not even over yet, 4 more weekends to go :)

I couldn't believe that this is the second bag limit in a row, to be honest, but it seems I really do have the little buggers figured out. :)


Congratulations! I like the photos too.

Thank you, sir!


I'm just glad someone is killing something Ha. Here we live in the best place in the world to hunt, and Ha is poised in the off season taking down mad hare. Good for you. Hate to see when you change your name to sheep assassin. Good hare season man. I've yet to even shoot one hare. Are you going bald or something? Why the desire for so much hare?

Hehehee. Well, if I had shot one more deer or lucked into a spike/fork moose, there wouldn't be so much need for hares. We only eat game in this house, and we only have about 12 meals of deer left, so the more hares I put in the freezer, the better. Plus, I just LOVE to get out there and shoot hares. One of my favourite things to hunt. I feel like a real predator out there, and I have the whole place to myself.


Thats awesome! Ive never seen a hare during the day, I usually seem them on my drive back from hunting. Wish I had those hunting opportunities id be out a lot more in the winter!

In the fall I mostly see them at dusk and dawn, along the edges of the FSRs. That's when I hunt them at that time of the year. In winter, I usually find mid-day excellent. I do realize how lucky I am to have access to this much opportunity in the winter. I figure the best way to show that is to take full advantage.


Nice shootin. You're on your way to a harey tuxedo there.

Cheers! I need to learn how to preserv the hide. It is so damed delicate that it would be a finnicky process, I am sure.


You gonna use the pelts to make a goat decoy? Nice shooting!

I haven't used the pelts at all (see above answer), but I do keep the back feet and preserve them. I have dozens and dozens now...


You should make and sell jackalopes.

LOL


Thats cool ...what type of fire power are you using on the hares...we ate alot of the ones from the farm we raised when we were kids...the ones your getting I bet are tastey!!!!

.22WMR. Yes, they are very tastey! We just had my parents over to feast on a bunch of braised thighs.


Pretty jealous of you right now; awesome job. All I have to work with on the south island right now, food-varmint-wise, are eastern cottontails, and the non-urban ones that you can actually hunt, are pretty much inactive during legal shooting hours.

I have never hunted any other lagomorphs, but I do know they each have their distict behaviours and unique challenges. Maybe some Beagles would be the ticket for cottontails.. ?


The lynx must just absolutely hate you!!

Congrats again!!! You've certainly earned your username.

I'm hoping to limit out on Stone's Sheep this yr. A guy can dream..............................:roll:

SSS

Thanks! I have seen lynx tracks in the area the odd time. Something tells me they are just a bit better at killing hares than I am ;) , and with the amount of hares in the area, I don't think the lynx are going to go hungry any time soon. :)


Great work there HARE ASSASIN.Cool pics as well.YOUDAMAN!Wondering what's next??3 FOR 3? You can do it!!

Thank you! I'll give it my best "shot". Hoping to go again next weekend, but I might even try to sneak out of work early this week for an afternoon hunt.


Great work again! How slow are you walking? I find I go pretty slow but my snowshoes are still makin a bit o noise and I rarely rarely see em..

Cheers! I'm moving along fairly slowly. 5 or 6 steps, stop, look around everywhere, 8 or 10 steps, look around more, etc. etc. In 3.5 hours I might only cover 4 or 5 km, total, including the trip back to the truck. I've mapped it out afterwards with my GPS to confirm it. My snowshoes make a lot of noise regardless of how slow I go. The noise must be a factor, and I do see the odd hare as it bolts away at high speed at a distance because it heard me coming. But for every runner there seem to be 2 or 3 that just sit there and wait to be shot. One thing I have learned; if you see one, just shoot it - don't try to get closer.

[835]

You know,, If i was near that kind of shooting id be out all the time!
So your just walking a snowed in FSR?

[hare_assassin]

You know,, If i was near that kind of shooting id be out all the time!
So your just walking a snowed in FSR?

The snowed-in FSR is my main route in and out, and sometimes I nail a few right from the road (as in my example above) but I find many more when I get off the road and into border areas between older growth with big deadfall and 3-4 metre conifer regrowth. If there is some youngish aspen grove and areas of thickets close by, even better. They seem to like areas that have the best of all habitats easily accessible for changing conditions. On some days, they are highly concentrated around aspen groves, other days they huddle down in under the conifer boughs. Areas that have all these micro-habitats will pretty-much always result in a decent harvest. In fact, they seem to move around from one type of habitat to the next even in the same day. For example, on Saturday morning I shot most of them in and around conifer re-growth. Eventually, though, it seemed that they had "disappeared". I went a long time without seeing one. So I switched things up and headed for a young aspen grove with some older dead-fall. Right away there were hares; a few runners. Then bang, bang, bang, bang, I shot the last 4 hares of my daily limit within about 20 minutes.

[835]

lol....
so you must be snow shoeing hey!
great way to spend "The off season" though i think for you its the on season!

[hare_assassin]

lol....
so you must be snow shoeing hey!
great way to spend "The off season" though i think for you its the on season!

Yes, snowshoes are a must. It sure is a great way to spend a day. Exercise, fresh air, great way to keep my marksmanship sharp, and if all goes as planned, food in the freezer!

[adriaticum]

Good job hairy murderer.

[hare_assassin]

Good job hairy murderer.

Thanks :D

[hare_assassin]

A few more "as they lay" photos from Saturday:

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_1.jpg

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_2.jpg

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_3.jpg

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_4.jpg

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_5.jpg

[markomoose]

That one head shot is cool!You don't eat the heads anyway?

[hare_assassin]

That one head shot is cool!You don't eat the heads anyway?

Right, and usually the remains of the head just flies off when you pull their sweaters off. ;)

[leadpillproductions]

My boy just had his last rabbit feast . Hes put the fear into the rabbits around the property.

["No Choke"Lord Walsingham]

Congratulations on yet another limit of Hare Sir!

"Yes, snowshoes are a must. It sure is a great way to spend a day. Exercise, fresh air, great way to keep my marksmanship sharp, and if all goes as planned, food in the freezer!"

Very well said and right on the money! Your advice here is top notch as well. Hare are a very interesting qaurry, to be sure. A great time!

Kudos

[hare_assassin]

My boy just had his last rabbit feast . Hes put the fear into the rabbits around the property.

Is that a human son or canine that you speak of? Why the last feast?

[hare_assassin]

Congratulations on yet another limit of Hare Sir!

"Yes, snowshoes are a must. It sure is a great way to spend a day. Exercise, fresh air, great way to keep my marksmanship sharp, and if all goes as planned, food in the freezer!"

Very well said and right on the money! Your advice here is top notch as well. Hare are a very interesting qaurry, to be sure. A great time!

Kudos

Thanks very much, old chap! ;)

One of the best things about hare hunting is that you can continue after you are successful, again, and again, and again. I love hunting and eating deer, moose, etc. but once you get one on the ground, the "hunting" ends and the work begins. With hares, you throw it in the pack and go look for 9 more of them, and every 24 hrs you can hit the reset button. The only species in the province with a bag limit and season that feels "unlimited".

[betteroffishing]

what gun are you shooting these with ? i heard 22 mag , but that isnt the whole story. is she nice and light weight or a heavy barrelled snipers 22 ? what make is it , what power scope up top ? anyhow , great shootin and keep at it , i wanna see a third bag limit outta you . also , could you post up some simple recipes you use to make these little critters fall off the bone ?

[hare_assassin]

what gun are you shooting these with ? i heard 22 mag , but that isnt the whole story. is she nice and light weight or a heavy barrelled snipers 22 ? what make is it , what power scope up top ?

Rifle is a Savage 93F (plain Jane; synthetic stock, sporter barrel, blued). I got it on CGN for $150. Topped it with a Bushnell Banner Dusk&Dawn 3-9x40 centrefire scope, which I had removed from the Marlin 336 that I sold a while back. It is very light weight and loves pretty-much any ammo I put in it, from the various polymer-tipped 30 grainers, to the bulk CCI "Choot 'em!" 40 grainers.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/savagefiles/firearms/models/full/oeZTa0nT5_roiPj9NOV.png


Anyhow , great shootin and keep at it , i wanna see a third bag limit outta you . also , could you post up some simple recipes you use to make these little critters fall off the bone ?

Thank you. I wanna see a 3rd, 4th, and 5th bag limit outta me before the end of April!

Here are some links to recipes I have used hares. I debone all of them, but these braise recipes will result in "fall-off-the-bone" tenderness.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Braised-Rabbit-with-Grainy-Mustard-Sauce-231501

http://americanfood.about.com/od/gameandothermeats/r/Braised_Rabbit.htm

Beyond that, pretty-much any stew or soup recipe that calls for meat can work well with deboned hare meat. Put it in the slow cooker with some root veggies and let it go all day, then throw in some Japanese curry roux... de-friggin-licious!

This weekend, I might grind some thighs up and make hare burgers for the first time. I also have 10 fresh livers and plan to make some pâté.

["No Choke"Lord Walsingham]

Thanks very much, old chap! ;)

One of the best things about hare hunting is that you can continue after you are successful, again, and again, and again. I love hunting and eating deer, moose, etc. but once you get one on the ground, the "hunting" ends and the work begins. With hares, you throw it in the pack and go look for 9 more of them, and every 24 hrs you can hit the reset button. The only species in the province with a bag limit and season that feels "unlimited".

Indeed Sir!

One species I love to Hunt in B.C. is Squirrel (Grey and Fox) and they actually do have no closed season/bag limit(s) as they are Schdule C... As a plus, I find Squirrel much easier to find than the now likewise scheduled Feral Hog! I truly get your meaning behind that feeling you've mentioned and do get it from many other species, including Waterfowl. As you are surely aware one may harvest so many per day of each species of Bird and even if a limit occurs that day, one may return the next during that season. Then if the possesion limit happens, after those birds are consumed one may return to the blind/field et al.

Fantastic! Thanks again for sharing your story, gun information and some recipes/ideas for having a feast of Hare. Maybe it's just my perception, yet it seems like Small Game is quite under-rated these days... Such a feeling makes a thread such as this all the more appealing.

[hare_assassin]

Well, I was out again on Saturday with a couple of friends. It was a weird day out there. I ended up with 6 hares. One friend got 2 and the other got skunked. I don't know what factors caused the disparity.

I didn't take a photo of all my hares lined up, simply because I didn't want to rub it in my friends' faces, but I did get this shot of a nice double-kill that I landed after lunch:

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/double_kill.jpg

I was slowly creeping along on my snowshoes, approaching the tree marked with an X. I stepped to the right slightly, deciding I would go around to the right, but then there was a hare right there in front of me, sitting on the mound. You can see the red circle where he was sitting, and you can see where he ended up, to the right there.

After I shot him, I noticed another hare, a considerable distance away on the mound of snow marked with the third red circle. I went down to one knee, aimed and nailed him right behind the eye.

One of the hares I got was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, I have ever shot.

[hare_assassin]

Here's another situation; I had received a radio call from the guys talking about heading to the trucks for lunch. I stopped to respond, and after chatting briefly I looked over and there was a hare sitting right there. Bang! Another one in the bag:

http://www.cogitech.ca/photos/hunting/hare_hole.jpg

74 hares and counting...

[quaint bucket]

Nice work!

[hare_assassin]

Thanks! It was another beautiful day to be in the woods. I wait all week to get out there...

[BearStump]

Damn!! that looks like a great time. a great way to spend the day.
I've only ever seen one. but this thing was maybe not the same species IDK. the one I saw was pure white and had to be at least 20 lbs. do snowshoe hares get that big? I didn't shoot it cuz I wasn't sure if it was open or not and all I had was my .300.

[hare_assassin]

20lbs !!! Wow. Arctic Hare ? :confused:

[BearStump]

I dont know? for all I know it was an escaped domestic pet........ But it certainly was big.

[BRvalley]

probably a spike jackalope, those big ears hide the spikes until they hit 4 pts

[sapper]

HA, you've got me thinking I may need to do some research on what area, closest to the lower mainland, I might be able to hit for a walk in the woods and some meat harvesting. I just realized this season, unlike deer season, continues on for way longer.
What pointers can you give WRT finding good areas for them, behaviour, etc.?

[hare_assassin]

HA, you've got me thinking I may need to do some research on what area, closest to the lower mainland, I might be able to hit for a walk in the woods and some meat harvesting. I just realized this season, unlike deer season, continues on for way longer.
What pointers can you give WRT finding good areas for them, behaviour, etc.?

As far as LML goes, I have no idea. According to several people who have been in touch via PM, they are not very easy to find down there.

I have to take some of that with a grain of salt, though, because I know people who rarely see them in the area that I hunt, as well. In fact, even if I am with them, and I see a hare, and then say "look, there's one" they sometimes don't see it till I kill it. I think some people can see them easier than others. Seeing them is the big challenge. Killing them is easy.

You are right about the season. It is only closed for 3 months. Find a good spot and you can harvest a lot of meat. ~74 pounds (boneless) so far for me this season.

[sapper]

Seeing them is the big challenge. Killing them is easy.

You are right about the season. It is only closed for 3 months. Find a good spot and you can harvest a lot of meat. ~74 pounds (boneless) so far for me this season.
And supposedly, according to you easier, than W/T's. I got a W/T my second day hunting. Not another one since, mind you. :-) A number of Mule Deer but not another W/T. I did get my buddy a W/T in his first 20 minutes of hunting too.

It does give me a good excuse to head to the woods before the season ends though. :-)

[Mutt58]

I'm curious about what region you are in.
im in region 6 near Terrace and the populations really fluctuate around here.
Sounds like a great year for you:)
22 mag is my favorite also.
Terry