Wyoming Jackrabbits

I was told there are a ton of jackrabbits in Wyoming- is this true?

We have a good population right now.

From what I've seen of the great basin states is you can have a great population in one valley go over a little mountain range and with equally good habitat there's nothing, or next to. All depends on the year and at what point a population is at.

Where bouts in Wyo? I'd make a trip over if wasn't too far. Wasn't hardly any north of Farson a year ago.

I'll pm you foxhunter

Don't know about WY but in Mn 70/80's, you could see 100s a day. Now, we gotta look HARD to see ONE.
fun to shoot at.

Been seeing plenty north of Riverton to the base of the Owl Creek mountains and Shoshoni south to Jeffrey City

This is the same area I've been seeing and catching plenty of Jack's.

Jack rabbits are the funnest things to shoot in the world spotlighting at night with .22 caliber ammo and such. My buddy used to clean them and grind them into hamburger meat. It tasted OK.

We shot them when they were white and the snow was gone. It made them easy to spot. I had half a dozen coming into the yard last winter and have not seen a track of one this winter. From what I have seen they peak and disappear.

This is what I see also.

Shot A lot of them in Wyoming as a Kid

MJM, the jackrabbits turn white up there? I never knew that.

In Iowa also

The first hide I tanned was an Iowa jackrabbit the tanning solution was red and I ended up with a pink fur.

HA!
The first hide I ever pinned and salted was a cottontail. Caught him in a #2 longspring on a trail they were using coming from the woods to the garden. I had big plans thinking it would be a coyote. Hung that hide on my bedroom wall. I was proud of my first catch. Blind set.

We have white tailed jack rabbits and hey turn white in the winter. They have black tips on their ears and some tan/brown hair mixed on their backs, but look white at a distance.

Learn something everyday. I never even knew there was a such thing as white-tailed jackrabbits. Cool critters.

My grandma would bone them out grind it, add pork fat, and make sausage. Its pretty good like that

There were a lot of areas in eastern Montana that had more than enough jacks 50 years ago, and now those same areas the folks tell me they haven’t seen any in many years.
These are primarily range and grazing areas, still have bunnies, so I do not think ag spraying or soil disruption is much to blame.
I too miss shooting at them.

Osky

We have some here but I wouldnt consider it to be good or high numbers of them.

That's interesting danny.
My dad told me stories of the big jackrabbit drives they would do when he was a kid.
Grandma would make sausage from the rabbits and pork fat from there hogs they'd butchered.
She came from an anabaptist community north of Salina ks. Ada ks.

We had them in SW Wisconsin in the 1970's, none since.

Thier was a lot along 287 last yr would some everyday driving to work, but the winter kill was awful and hardly seen any this summer when building a transmission land. Seen one Sunday night coming home from ice fishing just north of medicinebow Wy

They yard up around here in Winter, really odd to see hundreds together in one field.
We still have good numbers around Laramie and to our North.
We pick up roadkill or take a few and skin the faces out for trapping bait/lure in cubby sets. Tack them up and let them dry out, add googly eyes and great for catching bobcats in cubby sets.

Great idea wytex!

are the ones that turn white really snowshoe hare?

or do all north American hare turn white if cold enough / day short enough

I shot 2 snowshoe this year in Clark county white on brown leaves I thought the first one was a large puff ball and that it was weird to have those so late early January so I went to look closer then it moved as I got closer and I could see it was a snowshoe hare

A snowshoe hare is only about half the size of a white-tailed jack. We have a few snowshoe hare here too. I don't think their areas overlap much. The snowshoe lives in the trees and brush. The white-tailed jack rabbit lives in the prairie / grasslands. I am pretty sure the antelope and black-tailed jack do not turn white.

thanks
these were bigger than our cotton tail but not huge
definitely in the woods , went looking for grouse and came home with hare

Whitetail Jack = Two feet long, including the three-to four inch "stub" tail. Weight: 6 to 10 pounds. Color: In summer, the jackrabbit is brown gray, with a white belly, feet, and tail. In winter, the fur changes to white, with somewhat darker ears.
Snowshoe hares are somewhat larger than cottontail rabbits. They average around 18 to 20 inches (. 5 m) in total length and weigh 3 to 4 pounds (1.4–1.8 kg).

There were a lot more jack rabbits in western Kansas compared to North-central Wyoming.