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Snowshoes On Snowshoes

by Richard Bishop :: Featured: July, 2003

The snowshoe rabbit is actually a hare that changes its coat twice a year, but for the duration of this article we will refer to them as rabbits. In the fall the brown summer coat is replaced with white tipped hair that lasts until March when the fur starts turning brown again. They prefer to live in alpine forests, swamps, brushy shelters and any other nasty cover that they can find. Rabbits hide from eagles, hawks, wolves, foxes, coyotes, snakes, and humans by building underground burrows called warrens. They like to dine on green plants, but if they can't find a green plant then they will happily munch on twigs and branches.

By day, rabbits prefer to rest in their brushy warrens hoping that their camouflage will keep them hidden from their enemies. Rabbits communicate by rubbing noses or by making a loud noise, called a squeal when they are in danger. They live to be from two to five years and by five months of age they are usually full-grown.

Snowshoe rabbits are skulkers. They prefer to remain hidden in dense cover and let you walk by. Once you have passed their position they silently slip away in the opposite direction. If they think that you have seen them, they get nervous and will bolt from their lair dodging through the bush, giving little opportunity for a shot. However they choose to escape, they are not easy prey. I am sure that they view humans as just another large creature that wants to eat them.

One of their favorite escape tricks is to run across deep snow. The broad hairy back feet of the rabbits keep them from breaking through the crust, allowing them to outrun heavier predators. You can even the odds somewhat by getting a pair of broad feet of your own, called snowshoes. To prevent confusion, the animal snowshoe are referred to as a rabbits and the walking devices will be called snowshoes.

There are two basic types of snowshoes: the traditional style made from steamed bent, wood and rawhide and the modern kind made from light weight metals and neoprene. Both types work equally well to keep you out of the deep stuff but the modern style requires much less maintenance. Traditional snowshoes must be re-varnished every year and when the rawhide webbing breaks it must be repaired. Rawhide doggy treats from the pet store are a good source of replacement rawhide once they have been soaked in water to make them pliable enough to work with. Bindings are made from a variety of materials and range from a simple length of lampwick wrapped around the toes and ankles to elaborate combinations of leather and neoprene

Learning how to use snowshoes takes a little practice. The size of snowshoes you need is determined by your weight. The bigger you are the bigger the snowshoe you need to keep you from breaking through the crust. Look for snowshoes with a turned-up nose because it helps to keep the snowshoe from digging into the snow as you walk. The long tail that is favored in the traditional styles keeps the snow shoe in line with your feet and prevents the snowshoe from twisting when you lift it up. Climbing over obstacles can be tricky until you learn how to do it. Make sure that you stand parallel to the object and lift one snowshoe at a time over the object. One show shoe must always firmly planted before lifting the other one.

If you are hunting by yourself then moving through likely cover with a fast- handling shotgun is an excellent way to see lots of rabbits. Walk quickly towards the cover and stop suddenly. This move makes the rabbit think that they have been spotted often sending them into a panicked dash for the next piece of cover. If you let your guard down that is the time the rabbits will surprise you. You must assume that there is a rabbit in every bit of cover so be prepared to shoot by picking out likely avenues of escape and shooting lanes as you approach the cover.

Moving slowly and looking into every bush with binoculars is another way to hunt rabbits. You are trying to pick out its black eye or ear tips that contrast with the snow not the whole rabbit. If you move slowly enough the rabbit may only go a few yards and stop to look back. This is the time to shoot. Some times an un-alarmed rabbit moves to a nearby piece of cover giving you the opportunity for a stalk. The secret is to move slowly because the only thing that moves quickly in a rabbit’s world is something that is trying to eat him.

By circling back on your own tracks you can find the fresh tracks of the rabbits that escaped after you passed them by. Walk parallel to the line of travel, because you do not want to obliterate the tracks with your snowshoes. Often I have been on a fresh rabbit track only to have them stop. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on. What rabbits do if they think that they are being tracked is to leap off to the side and start off in a new direction making it look as if they have vanished into thin air. If your track comes to a sudden end then circle around the last known prints. Rabbits can leap a surprising long way so if you do not find the new tracks on the first circle then expand the diameter and try again.

If you are hunting in a group then all hunters in the party must wear hunter orange on their hats or vests. Do not fool with this. It is too easy to be caught up in the action of a fleeing rabbit and momentarily forget that there is someone else in the bush. Hunter orange prevents accidents because it grabs your attention.

One trick that I use is for one partner to go ahead 30 to 40 yards and set up an ambush while the other hunter moves in a wide circle around him. The idea is that a rabbit will slip away from the moving hunter and give the stationary hunter a shot. Our favorite tactic is for two hunters to walk parallel to each other 10 yards apart on a rabbit track. One hunter moves up quietly while the other watches for movement. Once the first hunter stops the second moves up past him for about 10 yards. This alternating movement and watching is very effective on rabbits that are holding tight. If you see a rabbit go into a piece of cover two hunters or more can circle in pinchers to trap the rabbit between them.

I grew up hunting rabbits with a beagle named Tex. He was my uncle’s dog and we used to go rabbit hunting on Saturdays. Nothing beats the sound of a beagle on a fresh rabbit track and the hunting is simple. Once the dog puts up a rabbit all you have to do is to find an area where you can get a clear shot. The dog will push the rabbit until it circles back toward you. A shotgun is the best choice here although it can be fun with a semi auto .22 rifle. You always know where the rabbit is by the sound of the baying beagle.

Any shotgun will do for rabbits. If you have a choice then take the gun that you use for ruffed grouse, as both species require fast shots from open chokes. You rarely get a second shot so a single shot is fine and is often lighter to carry than a repeater. You do not need a lot of shot to kill a rabbit. A 7/8 oz load of # 7 ½ shot is plenty and the ¾ oz loads of the 28 gauge are about perfect. Lots of rabbits fall to .410’s every year and this load is okay for potting sitting rabbits but its poor pattern makes it difficult to hit a running rabbit. The twelve and sixteen gauges work just fine of course and if you use them, choose the lightest loads that you can find. One ounce trap or field loads are perfect for rabbit hunting. Open chokes are best for those quick close shots in dense cover. I use an I/C or skeet choke tube in my Remington 870 or sometimes I will use my slug barrel.

The king of rabbit rifles is the .22 rimfire. Just about any .22 round placed in the chest cavity or head of a rabbit is fatal. Most shots are less than 20 yards. Open sights or peep sights are just fine and some prefer them to scopes for running shots. Scopes help to pick out an opening in the bush when the rabbit is holding in dense bush. Any rifle that can hit an orange at 20 yards will do.

My favorite rabbit gun is a .32 flint lock rifle because it adds an extra element of challenge. Small game black powder rifles are available in .36 and .40 caliber as well. The choice of flint or percussion is up to you. There are also several black powder shotguns and trade guns on the market that make excellent rabbit guns .You can use larger caliber black powder rifles with light powder charges but they do chew up the meat if you hit anywhere else but the head.

Any bow over 25 lbs. will kill a rabbit. Some archers use blunts on small game but I always use sharp broadheads on my rabbit arrows. I do not use expensive broadheads or shafts because it is very easy to lose an arrow in the snow. I make up special rabbit hunting arrows from wooden shafts and tip them with three blade bodkins. Rabbits are the ideal target for traditional recurves and long bows. The ranges are short and these bows thrive on wooden arrows. As rabbits like dense cover archers have to do some maneuvering to get a clear shot.

One of my favorite rabbit hunting tools was an old H&R Huntsman black powder 12 gauge. It was light, handy, and its cylinder bore made it an ideal gun for rabbits. At 25 yards it was as effective as any other gun I’ve used. Often rabbits would run 15 – 20 yards then stop to see what I was going to do about it. They made fine stews.