Brown Hare

[FreeShot]

Read some about hunting them in UK - looks like it can be a touchy afair?

We hunt them here regularly - mostly by walked upon. Used to hunt them with hounds - driven (after WWII) when there were significant numbers around - old folks saying they were only shooting them on the way back home. It was before my time - tho I had a very fine hound bitch that was trained to chase hare and/or fox only and I was hunting alone - point was to find and flush a hare, that dog took a chase after, barking loudly. I'd just picked an appropriate spot and wait since hare would make a circle back to the place it was flushed from - depending on weather it took longer on cold/frosty days and much less on humid/rainy days. With good dog that wouldn't loose the trail you could leave it on round one and only shoot it on 2nd round or even 3rd...

Anyway those days are long gone, tho I do a coupe of walks every year and bag one or two a season - got this one some earlier last month. Flushed it and let it run straight away then just when it made a sharp turn to the right, got a smooth swing through at 25m.

 

[ips]

freeshot

were are you from. ?

 

[FreeShot]

Ljubljana - Slovenia.

 

[westley]

A few nice fishing flies in that coat  !    

 

[ips]

loads of hare on the estate I am currently working on. Not sure what the uk law is to be honest.

UK cartridges too ?

 

[Sian]

loads of hare on the estate I am currently working on. Not sure what the uk law is to be honest.

UK cartridges too ?

I don't know either but I know quite a few farmers who don't want the hares touched on their land.

 

[ChrisPackham]

No closed season on Hare, a fully grown Hare can eat 40lbs vegetation per week, no friend to farmers but a beautiful sight. If numbers support in your area a few can be taken each year but they can breed twice in spring and summer so most stick to the pheasant season.  Cooked low and slow with roots veg they can be fabulous, washed down with a winter beer, or take the saddle off and cook like venison. Hare, unlike rabbit should be hung intact, therefore arguably better rifle quarry although .22 from isn't really up to it. Just my 2c..

 

[ehb102]

You can kill brown hare as game or as pest. BASC have a good leaflet on it. Up the North of the County here they were a real pest a few years ago. Of course we had quite a lot of coursing here before 2004.

 

[FreeShot]

We have strict quota set here (10 hares/14800ac) and the season lasts from Oct. the 1st - Dec. the 15th.

.22 l.r is illegal for hare here, stritly shot with shotguns but only alowed when running - shooting them while stationary is considered unsporting and accordingly forbidden.

 

[Brand New]

Please leave the hare alone,I have seen hare shoots where hundreds were shot and many were wounded and got away to suffer before dying. 

 

[chippy]

I go on a hare shoot or two in February we normally shoot  200 to 400 per day. Two teams of 16 guns  one team walks one team stands sometimes the drives are up to two miles long.

 

[Doctor Lecter]

I don't like hare shooting , they squeal like babies if not killed clean , not really testing shot in my experience ,  just my opinion  each to their own .    meat too strong  ( gamey )   I prefer breakfast wrap .         

 

[ChrisPackham]

I have head about this but have been fortunate that the few I have harvested have been clean kills.  The saddle isn't as gamey as you may think, but I guess that's all relative.

 

[ips]

I don't like hare shooting , they squeal like babies if not killed clean , not really testing shot in my experience ,  just my opinion  each to their own .    meat too strong  ( gamey )   I prefer breakfast wrap .         

same reason I don't like shooting rabbit. Shot one in my youth and it jumped four foot high and squeeled. I found it most distressing and apart from a myxie in my garden which I put out of its missery I haven't shot one since.

 

[Darkside]

I don't like hare shooting , they squeal like babies if not killed clean , not really testing shot in my experience ,  just my opinion  each to their own .    meat too strong  ( gamey )   I prefer breakfast wrap .         

My father grew up during WW11 and rationing, my granny would send him out to shoot hares to supliment the family's diet. Hare is an acquired taste, you've got to know how to cook it...cooked properly it is one of the nicest flavoured meat you could ever wish to eat!!! They are not too challenging to shoot, bigger pellets are the key to killing them cleanly, dad shot EVERYTHING with Eley Maximum BB's through a single barrel hammer gun with full choke, he would grudgingly settle on 4's if the shop had no BB's. 4's were kept for Grey partridges and wood pigeons, clays were viewed as a waste of cartridges and missing twice ment handing the gun to his brother to get a shot. 

Being a late baby, dad passing when I was 20,  I didn't get to shoot with him much due to his three collapsed discs in his back and resulting lack of mobility...but, I never seen him miss either with a shotgun or airgun!?!? He'd mount the gun, either fire and kill or not pull the trigger.

"Why didn't you shoot?"

"That shot would have missed."

He taught me how to kill hares, ducks and other food. Show me how to catch hares with a strawberry net (two man job, amazingly simple) to hard bit is listening to them squeal with fear before you dispatch them!!! 

Just be glad you live in a time and place where you can just buy a breakfast wrap.

 

[chippy]

I don't like hare shooting , they squeal like babies if not killed clean , not really testing shot in my experience ,  just my opinion  each to their own .    meat too strong  ( gamey )   I prefer breakfast wrap .         

They only squeal when f*****g idiots normally dressed head to toe in cammo and using a cammo auto and 50g shells think they can shoot them at 60 yards plus. 

 

[balltrap]

They only squeal when f*****g idiots normally dressed head to toe in cammo and using a cammo auto and 50g shells think they can shoot them at 60 yards plus. 

IPS does not use 50g shells ?

 

[ips]

correct I do not although 40up and I shot a 50g through a game gun with English grip....the effect was......interesting. 40up has not been the same ever since.

 

[westley]

correct I do not although 40up and I shot a 50g through a game gun with English grip....the effect was......interesting. 40up has not been the same ever since.

You would NOT want to put 50 grams through any of my game guns !   Trust me.