WHERE ARE ARE THE BEST HARES (OBVIOUSLY PRE BAN)

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

Having hunted all three types of hares in these Islands I have to say that the Brown hare is the fastest and the one with most stamina. The largest hares I've caught have all been Irish doe hares and the whiteys are good for giving confidence and picking up practice to youngsters. Ten or twelve years ago I pulled an Irish hare from the freezer to take across to the lads who were kindly taking us on their permission in Lincolnshire. They hadn't seen one before. We went on the Forley cup land with a team of good friends and killed double figures. Not a single brown hare was as big as the Irish hare I had brought.

But size doesn't indicate quality.

When you take a dog that can kill a short slipped Irish in the same small field where it got up, to the fens and give it the same slip on a brown hare, only to watch it get straight lined for a quarter mile, then it becomes obvious which is the faster. The dog that you hunt with becomes the measuring stick.

The problem with forming opinions based on videos is that on the fens there are very few trees, fence posts, etc. to lend a sense of perspective to the viewer. When you see a hare in Ireland running past such obstacles you can get a sense of speed. On the wide open spaces of fenland however, there is rarely the opportunity to see a hare passing a fixed object. You really need to be there.

There are few spots in Northern Ireland where the brown hares that were introduced in the 19th century still hang on. I've ran these too many years ago and they are not generally great hares but this could well be due to the small gene pool and a century and a hlf of inbreeding. Don't put money down on a match based on what you may have seen of these hares!

Text books tend to lump together the whiteys and the Irish hares as though they are the same thing, but I can tell you that in performance, the Irish is much closer to the brown than the Whitey. The Whitey is not in the same league. They tear up easier in the hands when feeding to the dogs, and I've never seen one more than 3/4 the weight of an average Irish. Most are half way between a rabbit and a hare in weight. Another difference is that my dogs at least, seem to prefer the meat of the whiteys to any other hare.

 

Superb post Bolio,..written with an authority born of genuine experience...

[Guest Frank]

Agree

 

Frank.

[Bryan 1,362]

"When you take a dog that can kill a short slipped Irish in the same small field where it got up, to the fens and give it the same slip on a brown hare, only to watch it get straight lined for a quarter mile, then it becomes obvious which is the faster. The dog that you hunt with becomes the measuring stick"

 

what about the ground you are running on?

what has never been done is taking the Irish hare to the fens,then lets talk.mostly the irish hares can't hit top gear because they are in small fields,trying to get to a gap or back up a field to a gap.why is the self same brown hare only super fast in the fens?could it be the fens have some input?

 

packs of english beagles can hunt down and kill a brown hare inside 40minutes in england.

in Ireland i've seen the same packs struggle to do it in an hour and 40.many packs that'll kill 3 hares in 2 hunting days in england will struggles to catch one over a weeks hunting in Ireland.

wikipedia my arse,sure i can write in that a hare can do 70mph and they'll post that

Bryan

[juckler123 707]

Its been done irish where brought here and browns were taken to ireland the browns dont like the wet and didnt do so well and the irish didnt manage to get a foothold at all this was done as neither side could make up their minds as to what the best hares were.

Statistics are one thing but if the greyhound coursers couldnt tell which was the best or fastest that speaks volumes to me.

Any hare that spends its life in the open with no cover to drop into will have to have speed and stamina on its side moreso than if it has evolved escaping into cover.

Thats what makes fen hares so good especially in areas where theyve been getting some hammer.

Only the fit survive to pass on their greatness ending up with a much better strain.

[harehound 0]

this my last say on the subject its getting boring now

 

feckin long last say mate :whistle:

i always had the problem of not being able to keep my thoughts to myself thats it now swamps topic closed as far as iam concered .. :whistle:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

been coursing hares as long as i can remember you havent coursed the irish hare and i ran two today top coursing saluki cross out today father of which is from the north and destroyed the fen hares this bitch was beat twice on rough boggy ground each course lasting a couple of minutes with a first cross deerhound greyhound beside her both at top fitness great course no kill ...the irish hare uses every trick in the book gates drains wire etc and you say their the same as the blue ,,,,,,,no hope

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

just like to add the brown hare is stronger bigger and faster than the red blue pink green any other fecking coloured hare ... over and out of here

[reddog 2]

Trying this to see if I have attached file correctly. This should be a picture of my son with an Irish hare, judge for yourself the size - which doesn't matter anyway.