Snowshoe Hare with bow?

[Moof]

Has anyone tried going after snowshoe hare with a bow? Kind of itching to try it in Northern Wisconsin this upcoming winter. Aside from shooting "junk" arrows, any other tips on avoiding losing too many into the snow? Thinking Lumenoks and judo points might work as long as the snow doesn't have a hard crust.

 

[waspocrew]

Judo points for sure, or you could use a blunt tip.

 

[CJ_BG]

I used to rabbit hunt (cottontails) with a 34lb recurve a lot in broken farm county, especially if I killed one or two that week with the shotgun. BRIGHT flu flus with a good amount of helical are slow and visible enough to easily keep track of. I lost a fair number of arrows before figuring this out (bouncing off a buried car hood into a hay field with little black feathers on the back of a camo easton aluminum arrow is a vivid one). Honestly as far as points go I've used a lot of the small game heads, and can't really say one worked better than another. rabbits aren't exactly hard to kill.

Other than that have fun. If you're hunting with a compound you'll probably hit more than I did lol. Remember this too, you can't make a spectacular shot unless you take a spectacular shot. Rabbits might be the number one (only?) animal to keep this motto with, as even poor shots with good heads result in quick deaths, and they often don't sit around waiting for arrows to come their way. 28yds on one running at speed up a fence row after my buddy kicked him out is probably the best archery shot I'll ever do.

 

[Blockcaver]

We bowhunted snowshoes in the willow/creek bottoms and high country willow swamps above 10,000' in CO. Also cottontail rabbits in the desert/sagebrush. We always shot wood shaft arrows, or bent and re-straightened aluminum shafts, considering them all a one and done affair unless you were lucky to find it and it was unbroken.

I would buy wood Port Orford 23/64" shafts in the 80-90# spine range for 10 cents a shaft many years ago. Fletch with whatever was cheapest. Grind the 5* nock taper on the table saw. For points I'd use .38 Special fired cases with a few .177 pellets swaged into the case to bring the weight up to 100 gr or so. After a press fit on the shaft I'd drill two snall holes perpendicular to the shaft through the .38 case at 90* angles to one another. Then drive a 1-1/4" finish nail through the holes to create a rigid Judo point type head. I'd trim off the nails to equal length with side-cutters.

We shot lots and lots of rabbits with them...some of us with compounds, others using longbows and recurves. The above combo was good for cottontails and snowshoes, but you needed broadheads for jacks. The .38 cases with nails didn't reliably kill jacks unless you shot them in head.

Lots of winter fun to rabbit hunt with the bow!

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I've shot a few in my yard with a long bow. Once they stop running they aren't hard to hit.

 

[MDR]

Bring a small shovel with you. If you miss your shot, go to where it went into the snow and scoop every foot until you find it, they don't usually go far or deflect once in snow.