Chapter Four. Powder hunting

Powder hare hunting is one of the most exciting and interesting, and also generally accessible, winter hunts. On this hunt, the hunter is without any assistants, dogs, etc. has the opportunity to fully test his powers of observation, develop dexterity, caution and patience, as well as demonstrate knowledge of the habits of the animal and, in general, experience and skill. In addition, hunting hares in powder is also an excellent school, after which every efficient hunter will learn to fluently read a “snow book” full of exciting interest. The knowledge and skills acquired during this process can later be used by the hunter not only on hare hunts, but also on other red animals, much more interesting than the humble hare and hare. Thus, hunting for powder hares is more interesting than many other hunts, if only because its success primarily depends on the knowledge, experience, endurance, patience, observation and perseverance of the hunter himself and - to a much lesser extent - on all sorts of others, including and from reasons and conditions beyond the hunter’s will.

Before talking about the technique of hunting hares using powder, it is necessary to give a brief understanding of the powder itself.

Powder in the hunting sense is snow that fell in the evening or at night and stopped in the morning, as a result of which only fresh - night and morning - traces of animals (and birds) remain on its surface, by which they can be tracked. Good powder is considered to be the one in which the snow released is so deep that the footprints of the animal are clearly visible on it. At the same time, it is important that there are no large spaces bare of snow, which ensures the continuity of the animal’s footprints.

The first powder, of course, is formed by snow falling from above, i.e. snowfall. Subsequent ones can form even without snowfall, as a result of the so-called drifting snow - a strong low wind, carrying dry, loose snow and snow dust and reliably covering up all old tracks, as a result of which it seems possible to easily distinguish old tracks from new ones left after the end of the drifting snow. . Thus, powders are top and bottom(or adventitious). According to their depth, powders are divided by hunters into three categories: shallow, deep and dead. Fine powder is called when the hare's front paws are imprinted on the snow no deeper than its lower joint, deep - when the snow lies in a layer of 8-10 cm and, finally, dead when, at an air temperature above 0°, an even, wet layer, 10-15 cm deep, falls snow. The latter powders are often also called printed ones, since under these conditions each claw of a hare is often clearly imprinted on the snow.

It should be noted that warm powders are not spoiled by the wind (if the snow does not stop melting) and are the longest lasting (sometimes up to two or three days), since on melting snow fresh tracks are easily distinguished from old tracks that spread widely when melting.

Depending on when the snowfall or drifting snow stopped, hunters distinguish between long and short powders. Long powder is the name given to short-lived snow or snow that lasted for a long time, but stopped early in the morning, as a result of which the animal managed to leave a relatively long trail. On the contrary, short powder refers to powder that formed late at night or even early in the morning, as a result of which the animal was able to leave only a very short trail in the snow.

Deep, and especially dead, powders are always short, since during heavy, and especially wet snowfall (or immediately after it), the animal, in particular the hare, avoids walking a lot.

Hunters also distinguish powders by their convenience for approaching an animal while lying down, i.e., by the degree to which they ensure silent movement on the snow. The most convenient in this regard is the so-called soft powder (in warm weather). In loose snow and severe frost (hard powder), approaching the animal is extremely difficult due to the rather strong and inescapable rustling noise produced by the hunter while moving.

It often happens that powders, excellent at dawn, suddenly deteriorate, and sometimes are completely destroyed by snowfall or drifting snow that begins again. In general, it should be noted that during snowfall or drifting snow, tracking an animal becomes extremely difficult and rarely leads to the desired results.

We should also not forget that grassroots (or drifting) powders occur only in open, unprotected places. Therefore, in forest meadows and edges, and even more so in the forest itself, searching for fresh tracks of hares in the bottom powder rarely leads to the desired results. It also often happens that when in places relatively protected from the wind the tracks are clearly visible, in more open places the drifting snow has already managed to completely cover them up.

In open, particularly steppe, places there is rarely no wind. Therefore - unless the weather is warm, in which the wind cannot carry traces - the powders there constantly deteriorate during the day.

The hare, as already mentioned, is a predominantly nocturnal animal. Therefore, he spends the entire day lying down and only goes out to feed at night, so that he can lie down again in the morning. The track that a hare leaves in the snow from the bedding area to the feeding area and from the bedding area to the new bedding area is called a malik among hunters.

The success of powder hunting, i.e., tracking a hare on a bed using the tracks it left in the snow, largely depends on the hunter’s ability to well recognize the very diverse tracks of hares in the snow and quickly understand them. Many hunters call this tracking trailing.

The ability to understand hare tracks is of great importance not only for the success of tracking hares, but also for all other hunts for them along the white trail.

First of all, it is necessary to properly understand the difference between the tracks of a hare and a hare. These traces are sharply different from each other and therefore it is almost impossible to confuse them.

The white hare's paws are comparatively wider and rounder, and the toes are spread quite widely apart. Therefore, the hare’s paws make an almost round imprint in the snow. The hare, on the contrary, has a relatively narrower paw, the fingers are closer together and therefore give a more elongated, oval imprint. Even the toes of a hare are imprinted on relatively dense and wet snow (for example, in printing powder), which makes it even more reliable to determine the direction of the animal’s movement. However, determining this direction under all other conditions usually does not encounter any particular difficulties: you just need to firmly remember that the tracks of a hare’s hind legs are always imprinted on the snow in front (and not behind!) of the tracks of its front paws. In addition, it must be borne in mind that the more elongated, parallel to each other and only slightly ahead of each other prints belong to the hind legs of the hare, and the smaller and round ones, usually following one after another in a line, belong to the front ones. Only in one case do the hind legs of a hare lose their obligatory mutual parallelism. This happens when a hare sits in the snow. In this case, the prints of the hare's front legs are usually located between the prints of the hind legs or only slightly in front of them and often next to each other. In this case, the trail of the hind legs of a sitting hare is always slightly longer than the trail of the same hind legs of a running hare. This happens because a sitting hare has its entire paw imprinted on the snow, up to the hock joint, while a running hare has only its front part imprinted on it.

The track of a hare, especially a fresh one and not covered with drifting snow or snow falling from above, is very characteristic and it is very difficult to confuse it with the tracks of other animals. However, if the tracks are not very fresh or unclear, inexperienced hunters may make such mistakes. In order to avoid them and not to chase a dog, a fox, etc. instead of a hare, you should always remember that, as already indicated, the hare always puts its hind legs parallel(except when he is sitting) and carries them out almost simultaneously, and the front ones in most cases are placed sequentially one after another, meanwhile! like a dog, fox, etc. on large jumps (it is absolutely impossible to confuse the tracks of these animals at a trot with the tracks of a hare) they put their hind legs not parallel, and the front almost simultaneously. Thus, if tracks are noticed in which the larger prints of the hind legs go apart - they clubbing, or the hind leg is much ahead of the other - then this is most likely not a hare track.

Having emerged from its temporary lair at nightfall, the hare heads to the feeding site with the usual gait - short, even jumps, leaving the so-called end traces, the characteristics of which were given above. At the feeding site, the hare moves slowly, in short jumps, leaving so-called fatty tracks that differ from the end ones in that the prints of the hare's hind legs are very close to the prints of the front ones and the individual tracks almost merge. Fat tracks often alternate with tracks of a sitting hare.

Having devoured to its heart's content, the hare leaves the fattening grounds and goes to bed at its usual leisurely pace, leaving the same trailing marks in the snow. But before lying down for the day, the hare, trying to throw off the scent of its many enemies, resorts to various tricks. First of all, he begins to meander, that is, to round off his path, giving a full circle of a more or less regular outline and crossing his old trail. These loops are sometimes quite long, but even an experienced one, what is called a quilted brown hare (the hare loops incomparably more and more confusingly), rarely makes more than two or three loops. Not limiting itself, however, to just loops, the hare usually follows this doubles or even builds(makes a “two” or “three,” as hunters say) his trail, that is, he follows the same trail twice or three times. At the same time, the hare places its paws so neatly in the trail that you need to have a very trained and sharp eye to immediately notice it. The length of the twos is very variable and ranges from five to one and a half hundred steps. The length of a three-piece is usually much shorter.

A deuce in most cases ends discount(or quick-witted) - a huge leap to the side, most often almost at a right angle to the original line of the trail. With a discount, the hare tries to cut off his trail, as it were, and thereby get away with it, misleading his possible pursuers: four-legged predators, dogs and humans. The number of discount jumps is usually no more than four, after which the hare returns to a normal run, leaving trailing marks on the snow.

The hare most often does not limit himself to just one three or two with a subsequent discount, but makes several twos in a row, each time breaking his mark with his wit. In most cases, the hare makes no more than two or three twos in a row, although sometimes the number reaches seven or eight.

As already indicated, after the discount the hare again switches to its usual gait, then a new discount follows, again the end tracks, etc. After the three, the hare almost never folds, but continues to walk (sometimes for a very long time) in the same direction. In general, it should be noted that if loops and twos are a sure sign that the hare is close to lying, then the three is not an indicator in this regard.

So, the picture of the hare malik is approximately this.

Having risen from lying down, the hare goes with its usual gait (end tracks) to the fattening areas. Here, while feeding, it moves slowly (fat tracks), often sits down (traces of a sitting hare), etc. Having eaten, the hare, especially in light , moonlit, quiet and frosty night, I don’t mind frolicking and playing, running back and forth across the fats. In this case, along with the usual end tracks, you can often see typical rutting tracks in the snow, that is, tracks that are characteristic of a hare suddenly driven from its resting place or otherwise deeply frightened, quickly moving away from imminent danger. These tracks are in many ways similar to the discount and end tracks, but differ from them in that the prints of the hare's front legs on the rutting track are closer to the prints of the hind legs of the previous jump.

Having run around to its heart's content, the hare most often starts feeding again and then heads, leaving the same trailing marks, to the resting place. However, the hare does not always behave this way on fats. On the contrary, often during the night it moves from one fatty area to another more than once (sometimes over a considerable distance), leaves the fatty area completely and only returns to it in the morning, etc.

Malik-rusak scheme

Heading to the bed, the hare first walks in a relatively straight direction, but then begins to loop. After one or two (or more) loops, the hare begins to double the trail, throwing off from each double, and then, having walked some more distance with its usual gait, it lies down. It should be noted right away that the hare’s loops often occur not before the deuces, but after them, that the hare does not throw off the deuces, but continues to walk further with its usual gait, etc. Thus, a general, unchangeable for all hares alternation of techniques aimed it is impossible to establish in order to throw off the trail of one’s possible pursuers. We can only give a general diagram of the hare malik, which will be approximately correct for most cases, but, of course, not without many exceptions and deviations.

At the beginning of winter, when the snow is still relatively shallow and loose, hares - both hare and hare - often fatten on winter crops, leaving numerous tracks on and around the greens. Later, when deeper snow falls and digging it out becomes difficult for the hares, the hare feeds mainly in the forest, on the edges, along forest fields covered with shrubs, and the hare feeds in vegetable gardens, orchards, near the humen, etc.

In late winter, powder hunting can, in most cases, be carried out only for one hare, since in deep snow the hare stays exclusively in the forest, where it is extremely difficult to understand its always confused tracks, and to approach a hare for a shot and see it - lying down or while running - through a thicket of undergrowth covered with snow - and it’s completely impossible. It should, however, be immediately noted that in general hunting for white hare by powder is much more difficult than hunting for hare, since the hare's pattern is more regular and constant, and these hares stay, fatten and lie down mainly in comparative proximity to housing and in open places. However, it is worth noting that in some places forest roads covered with hay serve as a place for hare to fatten. But even in these cases, having eaten hay on such a road, the hare almost always leaves the forest and lies down somewhere at its edge, in the bushes, along the boundaries of the field, etc.

Having found a hare, you must first determine the direction in which the hare went, so that in the future you can follow, and not follow, the animal. More precisely, as already indicated, this can be recognized by fingerprints or even the claws of a hare in the snow. However, if the traces are not particularly clear, the direction of the trace must be determined by other signs, mainly by the distance between the prints of individual traces. The drawings of hare tracks at various gaits given in this book, as well as a careful study of the tracks directly in the field, will help the hunter understand this. The hunter's trained eye, based on the indicated signs, in an instant, almost instinctively, will accurately determine the direction of the hare's movement in its tracks.

Having determined where the hare went, you need to follow him, but without trampling the trail, but somewhat to the side. If the malik leads the hunter to the place where the hare is fattened, one should not try, in order to avoid losing valuable time, especially on a short winter day, to understand the usually very tangled and intertwined fat tracks, but go around them, right up to the exit track of the hare with fatty places. In most cases, this trail will lead the hunter either to new fatty places - and then the same technique should be repeated - or to loops and doubles, which definitely indicates that the hare's bed is somewhere nearby.

The loop you encounter should always be turned out, no matter how large it is. Otherwise, the hunter will often change the track of the pursued hare, already close to the bed, with the track of another, which crossed the first and was mistakenly taken for a hare's loop. And here, instead of reaching the goal relatively quickly, that is, reaching the hare’s bed, a replacement trail will lead the hunter again to the fatty places and he will have to start tracking again from the very beginning.

Only when there is no doubt that the crossing track belongs to the same hare as the track the hunter is following, it is necessary, without wasting time turning the loop, to turn with a new track. However, this kind of confidence can only be achieved by a very experienced hunter, and then only on condition that the land is generally very poor in hares. A young hunter, and even more so a beginner, will often make mistakes in such cases and, as a result, wanting to save time and energy, on the contrary, will waste it unproductively.

Usually the first loop is soon followed by the second. This further indicates the proximity of the hare's bed. The second (and subsequent) hare loop should be treated in the same way as the first, i.e., circle it.

Loops are usually followed by hare deuces. In the vast majority of cases, having chipped in after a deuce, the hare lies somewhere very close. Therefore, there is no need to rush here, but, on the contrary, having prepared for the shot, carefully look around, not ignoring a single bush, snow drift, boundary, stone, ditch and other unevenness on the snow cover, near which the hares love to lie down. In the forest, you should pay attention to slightly different places - low fir trees, bushes, snowdrifts and tents at the roots of trees, etc. Often a hare lies down in a hole he has dug in the snow, and here he is sometimes carried in by drifting snow or snowfall. In windy weather, hares lie down in places protected from the wind by a forest, slope or other cover. They always lie down with their faces towards the wind.

Sometimes it is possible to see a hare right on the ground and even shoot him while he is lying down. In relation to the white hare, such cases occur extremely rarely.

Having noticed where the hare is lying (if the lying area is nearby), you must, without wasting time, head towards it and, when it jumps up, shoot. If the bed is far away, you should not go straight towards the hare, but somewhat sideways, and only when you get close to a sure shot, turn straight to the bed. When approaching a hare, you should not look at it all the time, since the hare, as soon as it sees that a person is looking at it, immediately jumps up and runs away.

In the case where it is impossible to more or less accurately determine the place where the hare is lying down, you need to, leaving aside the discount tracks, carefully and quietly walk around, having a gun at the ready and remembering that an excited hare often jumps up from its bed completely unexpectedly. hunter and goes at full speed. In mild weather and deep snow, the hare usually lies very tightly and it is not easy to raise it even when the hunter passes very close to the bed. Therefore, if it was not possible to pick up the hare during the first circle, this does not mean that the hare has gone further, but, of course, only if the circle is not crossed by the hare’s exit trail. Therefore, having made one circle and not picking up the hare and at the same time not finding its exit trail from the circle, you need to go again, but in a circle of a slightly smaller diameter, etc.

You should not be embarrassed if the hare did not lie down immediately after the first deuce and mark. A circular walk around the hare's supposed bedding area will quickly lead to its exit trail, which the hunter must follow until a new deuce and mark, etc.

If a hare lies down in a hole in the snow, the place where he lies can be seen from a distance by the mound of snow that he threw up while digging the hole, or by the dark opening of the hole. It should be borne in mind that some hares are very picky in choosing their bed and, before choosing a place for it and settling down to rest, they rummage in many places.

In shallow snow, hares most often lie down on drifts, as well as among bushes scattered across the field, along weed-overgrown boundaries and ditches, etc. In deep snow, especially when snow drifts appear, hares lie most often near snow drifts along potholes, waterways, hollows, ravines, bushes among fields, near woodpiles, fences, hedges, barns, sheds, etc. In winter, the white hare most often lies down in strong places in the forest and only occasionally - near stacks of forest mowing, and in early winter - in the bushes near winter crops, and also - and mainly - in the forest, but almost never in any open places.

Often the hare's path intersects with well-worn roads. In this case, the hare very rarely directly crosses the road, but, on the contrary, having got out onto it, walks along one side or the other for some time and only then, having made a deuce, throws off to the side and continues on its way. This is done, of course, in order to throw your enemies off the trail, since in most cases it is completely impossible to replace the tracks of a hare on a well-worn road. Therefore, having reached such a road along the malik, the hunter must first of all find out in which direction the hare went along it. To do this, you yourself need to walk along the road three hundred to four hundred paces in one direction, carefully looking around to see if there are any discount or ordinary traces of a hare, and then, in case of failure, in the other. The matter becomes significantly more complicated when the hare comes out near the intersection of two or more roads. Involuntarily, in such cases, you have to spend a lot of time trying to find out where the animal, which cunningly hid its trace, went.

Often a hare, especially a hare, jumps onto the tracks of other hares. To understand this and many other tricks of the hare, which are neither possible nor particularly meaningful to describe in this book, can only be understood by a very experienced hunter-tracker, who has perfectly mastered the habits of these animals and is able to fluently read the snow book that seems unclear and illegible to beginners.

It should be recommended that hunters who are not yet sufficiently experienced in hunting hares in the powder, with a comparative abundance of maliks, should always start tracking hares from fatty areas, since here it is easiest to come across the tracks of a hare heading from fatty areas to a bed, and not vice versa. Having chosen one of them, you need to persistently follow it, without at all moving from small to small, from loop to loop, from discount to discount, at least the lying place of the hare to which the new trail belongs, and it would seem, in all likelihood, to be closer, than the resting place of the initially tracked one. If this rule is followed, in most cases the hunter will not only reach the goal sooner than by nervously throwing from one strip to another (it’s not for nothing that they say: “If you chase two hares, you won’t catch either!”), but will also learn to properly distinguish one stripe from another, he will acquire the necessary endurance, and most importantly, he will be able to study the behavior of the hare by his tracks in the snow and all the tricks of the animal not by chance, but systematically.

Only in the case when the powder was long, the night was light and frosty, and there were a lot of hares in the land, can one deviate from the advice given above, which in all other cases can be followed by not only inexperienced hunters. The fact is that under such conditions there are so many maliks, they are so long and mixed up with each other that there is absolutely no way to navigate this complete confusion. Therefore, in such a situation, it should be recommended not to waste time untangling individual maliks near fatty areas, but, adhering to their general direction away from fats, to go to places where there is the greatest opportunity to find hares lying down. In this case, you need to pay attention only to deuces and discounts, having noticed which, you should follow in the future not in the general direction of the hare's tracks from the fats, but after the hare that made a deuce or chipped in. Good knowledge of the area in this case greatly facilitates the hunt.

If the hunter is well acquainted with the land, the following technique sometimes gives very good results. From early morning, the hunter walks around on foot (and in deep snow, on skis) certain areas of the land where, due to the nature of the terrain and weather conditions, roosting hares can be expected, and by counting tracks entering and exiting the area, determines whether there is a hare lying there or No. If there is no hare, you should move on to another suitable area. If the hare is in a circle, you need to boldly go inside the bypassed area with the firm hope of finding there a loop, a deuce or a discount, and then the hare himself.

The length of the malik depends on the duration of the fall of snow (or drifting snow) and its depth, as well as on the greater or lesser frostiness of the night and its darkness. On moonlit, bright, quiet and frosty nights, the hare likes to run around more, as a result of which it produces a long malik. The earlier the snow (or drifting snow) ended at night, the longer the short distance and vice versa. The longer the trail, the more likely it is to come across it, but on the other hand, you have to spend relatively more time tracking a hare along a long trail. On the contrary, if a hare gave a relatively short track at night, and the snow that fell all night and stopped only in the morning covered all its early night tracks, leaving only the early morning tracks visible, then in search of such a small mark, even if there are a lot of hares in the area, you will have to do a fair amount of searching legs. But after the malik is found - deuces, discounts, etc. The hare's tricks begin immediately and the hare finds himself lying down somewhere very close, and not a kilometer or more away, as usually happens in opposite cases.

In addition to the ability to recognize the tracks of a hare well, and generally understand the mark, that is, to track well, the hunter’s ability to approach a hare while lying down also plays a significant role in the success of powder hunting. A successful approach to lying within the distance of a sure shot in most cases fully depends on the hunter’s skill and dexterity (acquired only by experience) to move on foot or on skis completely silently. Much here, of course, depends on the weather. The approach, even with the greatest caution, becomes completely unthinkable when a crust forms on the snow, breaking and ringing with every touch. But even without this crust, in hard powder, the approach is often extremely difficult, since the hare, thanks to its excellent hearing, does not allow the hunter to even take a long shot. The approach is equally difficult in cases where the hare lies in strong places, and this difficulty depends not only on the state of the weather and snow cover, but also (mainly) on the fact that it is almost impossible to notice a hare that has jumped out even close to the thicket.

In general, it should be recommended that in cases where, due to weather conditions or the characteristics of the land, there is little hope that it will be possible to approach a hare lying down within the distance of a sure shot, to track the hares not ONE (alone), but together, with an assistant, even if he is walking without a gun. In this case, tracking a hare, after a deuce or a discount is discovered, turns into a kind of salary for this animal with its subsequent catching up. This hunting technique will be discussed specifically below.

You should always go out hunting for powder as early as possible, still in the dark, so that you can be there by dawn. Before going hunting, it is very useful to map out your route in advance so that the transitions from one hare place to another are as short as possible and so that during these transitions you do not have to go through areas that have already been traversed twice (or more). This will save both the hunter’s strength (a lot of it is required, especially when hunting in deep snow), and time, which is always valuable, especially on a short winter day.

If there are relatively many hares in the area, there is no point in passing by fatty areas and be sure to follow every little one that comes along the way, regardless of its direction. On the contrary, in these conditions, you should pay attention only to those maliks that lead to fat, since most of them, undoubtedly, will belong to hares that have already fattened up and gone to bed. Maliks that have the opposite direction, i.e. to fats, in the vast majority of cases, compared to the first ones, will be older. These are the tracks of those hares that are heading from their bedding areas to fatty areas.

In general, the freshness of the trail is of great importance when choosing one trail from several, and especially when changing a trail along which the hunter was already walking to another, more recent one. Falling snow at night, dusting the trail with drifting snow, melting of old tracks at a temperature of 0°, etc., help determine the freshness of the track, since older tracks, of course, will be less clear and distinct. However, determining whether a trace is more or less fresh will always be quite accurate only when the hunter has the opportunity to compare a given trace with some other one, obviously old, or obviously fresh. Of course, in this case only the hunter’s experience and observation will tell him the correct solution to this generally difficult task. It should also be remembered that when comparing tracks, you should always take into account their location, weather conditions, etc.

From everything that was said above about hunting hares by powder, it seems to follow that the technique of this hunt, at first glance, is relatively simple and therefore does not require any special qualifications from the hunter. But in reality this is not the case. And in order to really track hares well, a lot, a lot is required from the hunter. That is why this, at first glance, perhaps seemingly so simple and uncomplicated, but in reality very difficult and excitingly exciting hunt, is so valued by many hunters. The attractiveness of this hunt lies in the fact that its success does not depend on good dogs, not on knowledgeable handlers, huntsmen, beaters, etc., but, first of all, on one’s own observation, knowledge, experience, skill, perseverance and endurance.

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