Sheldon Marion

Getting Rid of Cabin Fever: Snaring Snowshoe Hare

Winter in the North is inevitable. Its one of the most loved or hated times of year. It gets dark early, daylight later, can be cloudy and gloomy and of course the cold weather gets to the best of us. With the darkness also comes the light. The beautiful scenery of snow-covered mountains, dark red rose bulbs barely hanging on to the branch and the hoar frost sticking to the willows. With the right gear and a little knowledge, you can go out and start to enjoy the long winters we face in the North. One of the many ways to do this is by snaring snowshoe hare. Its easy to do, you don’t need a bunch of expensive equipment, its family friendly and you can make an excellent meal out of your harvest.

Snares

The definition of a snare is a trap for catching birds or animals, typically one having a noose of wire or cord. When set properly with the proper size wire, a snare is an excellent tool. The size of wire is very important because if the wire is to thick, it will not get placed properly behind the rabbits’ ears and under the jaw. If the wire is to thin, the wire can cut into the rabbit or the rabbit can break off the wire with the snare still around its neck. If you get the proper size of wire, set the snare the proper height off the ground and have the proper size of loop, the rabbit will get caught and will be dispatched within minutes. The way a snare works is when the rabbit’s head goes into the snare, the bottom of the snare will touch the rabbit’s chest and start to ride up to where it will stop under the chin. The rabbit will continue to walk and tighten the snare to where the wire will be under its jaw, behind the ears and it will tighten against the carotid arteries in the neck. Once as the snare is tightened all the way by the power of the rabbit walking, it will block blood flow to the brain which will make the rabbit lose consciousness within a few seconds and will die a very painless death.

Getting Started

Getting started snaring snowshoe hare is very simple and inexpensive. You need a pair of pliers and some snare wire. Almost every retail store carries snare wire in 20 or 22 gauge. I personally use 22 gauge for the ease of making snares and it catches the rabbit (snowshoe hare) in the perfect spot a little easier than the 20 gauge. The pliers are mainly used for cutting the thin wire and can also be used for cutting small guide sticks that help guide the rabbits into the snare.

Finding the rabbits

Finding the habitat that the rabbits live in is very easy as well. They like thick brush with lots of cover from predators, usually in willow or alder thickets. If you have a favorite chicken hunting spot, the chances of rabbits being in the same area are very high. Their tracks are very easy to identify with two long back footprints and two small front footprints usually between the back feet and just a little forward. They typically travel the same paths creating almost like a rabbit highway.

Setting a snare

To set a snare you have to find a willow that’s close to their path and cut a piece of wire that’s long enough to wrap around the willow two or three times and have enough wire left to reach the path and to make the loop in which the rabbit will walk through.

Step 1:

Cut your wire to the proper length. Make a very small loop on the end that’s just big enough to be able to pass the snare wire through it. Once as you pass the tail end of the wire through the small loop, you essentially have made a snare.

Step 2:

With the snare started you can now wrap the tail end of your wire around a willow two or three times leaving a small amount of wire to wrap around the wire going back towards the snare in order to tie it off.

Step 3:

The loop of the snare should be around four inches wide and four inches tall, roughly the size of your fist. Once as you have your snare sized, place the loop in the middle of the rabbits’ path. It should be set three inches from the ground. Rabbits tend to walk with their heads fairly low to the ground and with the loop being four inches tall, you have some leeway on the height of the snare. Cut small willow branches and place them on each side of the snare to direct the rabbit into the snare. If there are big openings on either side of their path you will want to block them off with bigger willow branches or spruce boughs in order to stop them from going around the snare. One of the last things you want to do is to try to cover up the snare wire going towards the snare with willow branches or grasses and make their path look as natural as possible. Before leaving your snare site you should mark it with something that you can see, such as flagging tape, so you don’t accidentally leave a snare set or accidentally forget where you set it.

Checking snares

After setting your snares you should be checking them as much as possible. A snare is a killing trap so you could go a week without checking them, however, almost every predator in the bush will eat rabbits so you run the risk of losing your catch to predators. I like to check my snares at least once every two days. When you get a rabbit in a snare the easiest way to get them out is to unwrap the whole snare from the willow that you anchored it to and make another snare to replace the old one. You can then take the whole rabbit home and once its thawed you can remove the snare from the rabbit and discard it. Once as I remove the snare and rabbit, I will set another snare on the same path. I’ve set on the same path multiple times and haven’t had an issue with set refusals from the rabbits.

Cleaning and Butchering Your Catch

After you have been successful and have caught a rabbit you need to clean it properly. The easiest way is to make a small cut through the hide of the rabbit in its back width ways. Once as you make the small cut you can grab each side of the hide and evenly pull one side towards the head and the other side towards the back feet. The hide should come off like a sock. When the hide gets to the feet and the head you can easily separate the head and feet, taking the hide off with it. To remove the guts, make a cut from the base of the neck, cutting through the ribs and all the way down to between the legs, being careful not to puncture the guts. Reach inside with your hand and grab the guts and pull them out. Once as the guts are removed you can now quarter the rabbit. To remove the front quarters, cut in the arm pit of the front leg and go towards the back till the leg comes off. For the back quarters you want to cut along the hip bone to where the legs connect to the hip and you’ll have to cut between the ball joint and hip to separate in. Once as you have separated all four quarters you will be left with five pieces of meat, two front quarters, two hind quarters and the back, also called the saddle. You can eat them right away but the best way is to put them in a bowl of water and place them in the fridge over night. The next day you will be able to remove the thin membrane on the rabbit’s meat. Its not necessary to do this but it makes the meat much better to eat not having to chew through the thin sinew like membrane.

Cooking Your Catch

A very simple and delicious way to cook a rabbit is by making pulled rabbit sandwiches. If you follow these easy steps, you can also enjoy a delicious dish from the wild.