Hunting Hares with Hounds: Techniques for Tracking Brown and Mountain Hare

Hunting hare with hounds: the basics and preparation

Hunting hare with hounds is a pursuit-based method in which scent hounds track and drive the hare while the hunter waits at a likely crossing point for a shot. Hunters look forward eagerly to the opening of the hare hunting season. When hunting hare with hounds, all species of hare behave in broadly the same way. Fleeing pursuit by the hound, the hare runs in circles.

The core idea is simple: the hare will not run in a straight line away from a hound but loops back over familiar ground, giving a patient shooter a predictable point of interception. Success depends far more on reading the animal's habits and choosing the right ambush spot than on speed or stamina. Because the hare almost always returns near where it was flushed, the hunter's job is to identify that spot and stay silent and still.

The opening of the hare hunting season

The season for hunting hare with hounds traditionally opens in autumn and runs through winter, once crops have been harvested and the ground is clear. Timing is shaped by agricultural considerations — hunts wait until fields are cleared so the terrain is open and the hare's circling routes are visible. In many regions the season aligns with the first frosts, when scenting conditions improve and hounds can work a trail more reliably. Before setting out, always check the local weather forecast, because scent, wind, and ground moisture strongly affect how well hounds hold a line.

The brown hare and the mountain hare: what sets them apart

The two hares most often pursued differ in both range and running style: the brown hare (the Brown Hare of open farmland) covers vast circular routes, while the mountain, or "white," hare keeps to dense cover and much tighter loops. Both are true hares — not rabbits — and their contrasting tactics change how a hunter reads the chase. Understanding which species is being hunted is the first practical decision a hound handler makes.

How hares differ from rabbits

Hares differ from rabbits in size, biology, and behavior, which is why hunting methods are not interchangeable. Hares are larger, have longer ears and hind legs, are born fully furred and open-eyed, and live above ground in shallow forms rather than in burrows. Rabbits bolt for underground warrens when threatened; a hare instead relies on speed, endurance, and elaborate deception across open country. That above-ground reliance on cunning is precisely what makes hunting hare with hounds a game of anticipation rather than digging out a burrow.

How the hare behaves when pursued by a hound

Under pursuit, a hare runs in closed loops of irregular shape rather than fleeing straight. Each hare has its own path — familiar stretches of ground where it runs easily and can hope to shake off the hound. In making its loops, the hare crosses from one patch of cover into another and back again. The hunter's essential task is to work out where the hare was first put up, because that spot is its most reliable crossing point.

Why the hare runs in circles

Having completed its first loop, the hare returns to the starting point to double back on its own scent, confusing the trail — and there it may come within range of a shot. If the hare does not come back to its form after the first circle, it will almost always return after running a few more. This looping instinct is the single most exploitable trait in the whole pursuit, and it is why waiting beats chasing.

The flush point and reading the crossing

The place where the hare is put up — the flush point — is the crossing worth watching, because the animal treats it as the anchor of its circular route. Reading the crossing means recognizing that a hare which has passed a given spot twice or three times is likely to return there once more to close its loop, making it worth the wait. Marking that point precisely at the moment of the flush pays off through the rest of the drive.

The hare's tricks for tangling the trail

To throw hounds off, hares run through shallow water — flooded meadows, marshes, and fields — step onto travelled roads, or pass among grazing livestock so their scent is trampled and lost. Listing every ruse is impossible, yet a good hound eventually untangles it all and carries on the chase. These deceptions are why a hare that has been hunted repeatedly grows steadily harder to take.

The running style of the brown hare

The brown hare, or russak, makes the widest circles of all, sometimes running several kilometres ahead so the hound's voice can no longer even be heard. If it can travel along a wood's edge or the margin of a thicket, the brown hare will always take that route rather than plunge through dense cover.

The brown hare never runs through the thick of a copse; at most it makes a jink into it to throw the hound off the scent there. After that it either settles in a fairly open spot or moves on again, keeping to clear ground.

The running style of the mountain hare

The mountain, or white, hare behaves quite differently: it makes circles of far smaller diameter and rarely breaks into open parts of the wood, instead trying to hide in scrub, overgrown bog, or forest with dense undergrowth. It especially loves to twist and loop through thick young spruce.

The white hare often burrows into brush piles or stacked firewood, or even leaps up onto woodpiles stacked in the forest. Hiding there, it watches the hounds that have lost the line cast about at the point of the fault, trying in vain to find it.

Choosing the crossing and the ambush spot

Choose your position by combining the character of the ground with the hare's known habits, then wait where the animal is most likely to break from cover. Guided by the running styles described above and by each hare's preference for particular kinds of ground, you select the place where you can most likely intercept the animal as it comes off the drive. On broken or open terrain the brown hare favors edges and margins; in dense cover the mountain hare favors thickets, so the same principle produces two very different stands.

How to choose a crossing in unfamiliar country

In unfamiliar country, pick a crossing by reading the terrain against the hare's habits rather than relying on local knowledge. If a hare has passed a given point twice or three times, there is a strong chance it will return once more to complete its circle, so it makes sense to wait there. Junctions of forest tracks and rides, necks of land between patches of thicket, wood edges, and the lips of ditches are all natural funnels worth reading in new ground.

The hare's favorite crossings

When the flush point cannot be established, an experienced hunter who knows the ground well always knows the favored crossings a hare uses to escape the dogs. These may be a crossroads of forest tracks or rides, a bridge of cover between two thickets, the edge of a wood, or the raised edge of a ditch. Memorizing these habitual funnels in familiar country lets a hunter take a stand even before the hare is put up.

How the hunter should behave at the crossing

Once positioned where the hare is expected to pass and where conditions allow you to see and shoot it in time, the task is simply to wait. You must stay motionless and, above all, silent, because the hare hears superbly and, catching a suspicious noise ahead, will certainly turn aside.

Although a hare sees a motionless hunter poorly and may run almost right up to one, it readily notices and is frightened by any human movement, and can veer off its chosen line as a result.

Keeping still and silent

Silence and stillness are the hunter's two decisive assets at the crossing, because the hare's hearing is far keener than its eyesight. A hare will pass close to a person who does not move, yet the smallest gesture — shifting weight, raising a gun too quickly — sends it off its intended route. Disciplined patience at the stand accounts for more hares than any amount of clever ground-reading.

Common mistakes of inexperienced hunters

Inexperienced hunters often make the mistake of moving about constantly, trying to keep up with the hounds instead of holding their chosen crossing — and this almost guarantees failure. The hare runs well ahead of the dogs and clearly hears a person approaching, so it will slip away unexpectedly to one side to avoid meeting the hunter. Other frequent errors include choosing a stand downwind, standing against an open skyline, and swinging up the gun too soon; each of them spooks the hare before a shot is possible. The remedy in every case is the same: pick the crossing carefully, then stay put and stay quiet.

The gun-shy, much-hunted hare

Where hares are heavily hunted with hounds, their usual habits often change radically. A hare that has been chased many times and shot at more than once seems to learn where and what danger awaits it, and instead of clear circles and runs along its typical routes it starts doing something that makes no sense.

Such a "professor" leaves the flush point without any circle, heading straight for miles to a place it knows from experience where it can shake off the dogs or avoid the hunter. Fenced ranges, shooting grounds, and similar sites have become plentiful lately and are a real refuge for hares. Slipping through some gap it knows under a fence, the hare reaches safety; even a dog that follows — which is not always possible — leaves the animal beyond the hunter's reach.

The brown hare will suddenly, against every rule, push into the thick of a pine plantation and circle there on a tiny patch, unseen and impossible to shoot. Or, conversely, it will go straight off without a circle and drag the hound so far away that neither is found again soon. The white hare, too, will either bury itself in cover so dense you cannot see it at five paces, or start crossing clearings, fields, and open ground where nobody would think to wait for it.

Taking such an experienced, worldly-wise hare is a real problem. What helps here is either a lucky break or the knowledge — earned over many unsuccessful days — of each animal's individual habits. Having learned that a hare put up in a more or less fixed patch always escapes to some awkward spot by the same route, you can set the hound on and, without waiting for it to flush the animal, go straight to where the hare should appear, or wait where it should pass. There are many disappointments in this, but the pleasure of finally outwitting the crafty animal is great.

Working an adult hare

The chase is always better on a fully grown or well-matured hare: such animals are easier to put up, run more, and squat less. True, they are also craftier and harder to kill, so the improved run is balanced by a tougher shot.

The late-litter leveret

An adult hare is far preferable to the case where a hound puts up an under-grown leveret from a late litter. Such a young hare makes no large, clearly defined circles but starts turning within an area of one or two hectares, constantly squatting and sitting tight in thick cover. The hound keeps overrunning the crouching animal, checks, and endlessly fusses and gives tongue in almost the same place — now baying on the view, now falling silent, now driving thinly and uncertainly with yaps and yelps. If you can spot such a late leveret, it is best to call off or catch the dog and lead it away to look for another, worthier quarry.

Shooting a hare smaller than a cat will hardly please anyone; it should be allowed only when hunting with a very tenacious hound that cannot be caught or called off. Such are the features of hunting hare with hounds. When choosing a hare's crossing, remember one particular trait — the hare dislikes running downhill. This is probably because, with short front legs and long hind legs, descending a slope is awkward, while climbing is easy and nimble. Either way, a hare very rarely goes from high ground down into a hollow, but very often the other way. This article does not cover the tolai and Manchurian hares, since hunting them with hounds is little developed; the general rules for them differ in no way from the methods used for the brown and white hare.

Which hound breeds are used for hunting hare

The breeds used to hunt hare are scent hounds and sight hounds chosen for nose, voice, stamina, and speed rather than power. Registration bodies formalise which packs pursue hare: in England and Wales, beagle and harrier packs were historically registered through the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles, basset packs through the Masters of Basset Hounds Association, and mounted foxhound packs through the Masters of Foxhounds Association. Educational institutions have long kept packs too — Eton College and the Royal College of Agriculture each maintained beagle packs, and named private packs such as the Bolebroke Beagles are part of the same tradition. Sight hounds — the Greyhound, the Whippet, and the lurcher — belong to coursing rather than scent-hunting, and the number of active hare hound packs has declined markedly following legal change.

The Beagle: characteristics and abilities

The Beagle is a small, compact scent hound prized for hunting hare on foot, combining an exceptional nose with a musical voice and remarkable stamina for its size. Beagles work close to the ground, giving tongue steadily on a line so the following hunters can track the drive by ear. Their moderate speed suits foot followers, and their persistence unravels the doubling and jinking a hare uses to break scent. It is these qualities — nose, voice, and dogged endurance rather than raw pace — that made Beagles the classic hare hound of the packs.

The Basset Hound: scent and line-work

The Basset Hound is a long-bodied, short-legged scent hound whose low stance places its powerful nose right on the trail, making it an outstanding tracker of hare. Basset Hounds are slower than Beagles but hold a cold line tenaciously, which suits methodical hunting over difficult ground where a hare has laid a tangled scent. Their deep, carrying voice lets on-foot followers keep contact with the pack across cover. Because Basset Hounds excel at the patient unravelling of a trail rather than fast pursuit, they became the specialist scent-tracking breed among registered hare packs.

Modern technology: GPS tracking of hounds

GPS tracking now lets handlers follow every hound in real time, which is transformative for packs and for anyone working dogs across large or wooded ground. Modern pet-tracking systems combine a collar-mounted GPS unit with a handheld or vehicle display, showing each dog's live location, distance, and direction. This multi-device ecosystem connectivity means a handler can monitor several dogs at once, recover a hound that has followed a hare beyond earshot, and review the route afterwards. Off-road and outdoor tracking of this kind is exactly the scenario in which a hare — which can draw a dog several kilometres away — makes reliable location technology so valuable.

Using Garmin to track hounds

Garmin is the best-known maker of GPS dog-tracking gear, pairing rugged tracking collars with handheld units and in-car navigation displays for real-time pet location tracking. Garmin's in-vehicle products, such as the DriveTrack™ 72, integrate GPS navigation for vehicles with an in-car display that shows tracked dogs on the same screen as the road map, so a driver can follow the pack while navigating field to field. The system supports connected pet products and multi-device pairing, letting a handler watch a dog's position, speed, and whether it is on point or treed. For hound work over open country, this vehicle-integrated navigation and live monitoring closes the gap that a fast-running hare and a distant hound would otherwise open.

Hunting hare with a bow

Bow hunting for hare is a demanding, close-range method that rewards stealth and precise shot placement far more than the reach of firearm methods. Because a hare offers a small, fast target, bow hunters typically stalk carefully or wait at a known crossing, taking a shot only at a stationary or slowly moving animal within a short range. It contrasts with shotgun and rifle hunting for hare, where a shotgun suits the fast, jinking running shot behind hounds and a rimfire rifle suits a still animal at distance. Whichever weapon is used, the same reading of the hare's circling and crossings decides where the hunter should be.

Legal and ethical aspects of hunting hare

The legality of hunting hare depends entirely on jurisdiction, and in the United Kingdom it is tightly governed by statute. The Hunting Act 2004 banned hunting wild mammals — including hares — with dogs in England and Wales, so lawful hare hunting with hounds in the traditional sense effectively ended there. A layered framework of older statutes also applies: the Game Act 1831, the Night Poaching Act 1828, the Ground Game Act 1880, the Hare Preservation Act 1892, and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 together regulate close seasons, poaching, and protections, while the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 strengthened penalties against illegal coursing. Elsewhere the picture differs sharply: hunting hare remains lawful and regionally organised in Russia, and hares are hunted in countries as varied as Morocco, Tanzania, South Africa (including the Scrub Hare of the Eastern Cape), New Zealand, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the United States, where the Maine Snowshoe Hare is a well-known quarry in Maine. Outfitters and booking platforms such as BookYourHunt.com list package hunting trips that include hare alongside species like Roe deer, Rusa deer, and other game, with prices varying widely by region and by whether the hunt is guided or driven.

Hunting with hounds versus hare coursing

Hunting hare with scent hounds is not the same as hare coursing, and the distinction is central to both the law and the ethics. Hare coursing pits sight hounds — the Greyhound, the Whippet, the lurcher — against a hare in a contest of speed, often with betting on the outcome, whereas scent-hunting uses Beagles, Bassets, or Harriers to trail and drive rather than to race. The Waterloo Cup was the historic showpiece of organised coursing before it was outlawed, and coursing shares roots with greyhound racing. Illegal coursing today is closely associated with trespass, criminal damage, intimidation, and gambling, and is targeted by police through Operation Galileo. The phrase "running with the hare and hunting with the hounds" — trying to support both sides of a dispute at once — even entered English as an idiom drawn directly from this pursuit.

Animal welfare concerns

Welfare concerns centre on the prolonged stress, exhaustion, and injury a hare suffers during an extended pursuit, and these arguments drove the campaign that led to the Hunting Act 2004. The League Against Cruel Sports (the League For the Prohibition of Cruel Sports) was founded to end hunting for sport and documents wildlife-cruelty cases, while monitor and saboteur groups such as the East and West Kent Hunt Sabs and publications like Wildlife Guardian record and report suspected illegal hunts. Anyone who witnesses suspected illegal hare hunting or coursing should report it to the police, noting locations, vehicles, and dogs, and can support advocacy organisations working for legal accountability. Views remain divided: supporters frame regulated hunting as tradition, pest control, and wildlife management, while opponents regard the chase itself as unjustifiable cruelty — a genuine dual-sided debate rather than a settled question.