Hares are probably the most overlooked animal in the game. And for good reasons, too.
Normal animals are Big, Impressive and Easy to hunt, while hares are... exactly the opposite.
Their small size makes them invisible on fields with tall grass and they can hide themselves in bushes, making them teeny tiny ninjas.

They are also not very impressive. They dont have racks on their heads and they arent aggressive like wolves or buffalo. They are... well, rabbits?

However, there is some sort of satisfaction when you manage to get a gold one. Specially if you are after the Fox's Lunch or Friendly Competition Multimounts.
Maybe you want to display that special fox or coyotes in an equally special way, and whats better than gold jackrabbits to go along with them?

Maybe you are trying to complete some missions or you simply find their in-game models adorable and just want to hoard them.
Whatever the case, this guide will help you achieve your goals.
Be mindful that this guide won't make you a pro. This guide will help you to become one. You need to spend time with the hares to trully learn, but this guide will make it easier for you to do so!

First, let's talk equipment.
As of the new scoring sistem, Hares are rated as class1 animals. This means that they can ONLY get the smallest caliber in the shop.
I personally reccomend rifles, as they have a very long range, and if you play your cards right, you will get a ton of hares from the same group.
Hares do not have trophy organs and do not have vital organs. Just one pellet hitting the flesh is enough to kill them.

You can hunt them with shotguns, handguns and rifles. I wouldn't bother with bows and crossbows, but thats personal preference. But if you want to go for it, go ahead, the 300gr arrows should work.
I invite you to experiment with different weapons and strategies see what's best for you.
I personally use the 22LR (Rifle) and the Cacciatore 12G (Shotgun),they have a 10 and a 6 bullet bullet magazine respectively, meaning that you will be shooting a ton bullets in no time and getting somewhere from 1 to maybe 3 or 4 hares in the same "shoot session"!
But since the Cacciatore needs shotgun score to be unlocked, you can still use the Caversham Steward 12G. Altho, it only has 2 shots before you need to reload.

If you go with rifles, the 22LR is the only one you can get that has the right calliber for hares.
(If you own Mississippi Acres, You know by now the new .22 rifles are trash)
You will probably also need the Argus 8x16 sight if you plan on sniping hares at 150+ meters
However, with this rifle, if you are too close, you will probably only be able to hit one hare instead of two, and if you are too close and you miss, the hares will hear you shoot and scatter away.
If you go for rifles, I reccomend shooting from far away, to lessen the chances of other hares hearing the weapon and getting more in one session.

The 22LR is also a little different from other rifles.
With this gun, you will NEED the zero-ing perk. And remember to adjust your zeroing accordingly.
You will need a rangefinder or the upgraded binoculars to accurately determine the distance at wich you need to zero your rifle.
If your target is further away from 200 meters, you will need to adjust your aim.

You will also need scent mask, however, if you are low on funds, you will probably do fine without it, unless the rabbits are inside the wind cone.

Tents are optional, but highly reccomended, not just to hunt hares, but in general gameplay too.

Stands and blinds are very much not really required. If you try to cover behind them, you will probably be wasting time. Rabbits are very very small and don't have callers. You can just stand there, using your binos and not encounter any.
While stands and blinds do work for other animals, i do not reccomend them for hares, unless you find a place where to snipe them reliably.


If you want the .22LR here is the DLC you have to buy to get it.
https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/766870/theHunter_Call_of_the_Wild__Weapon_Pack_1/?curator_clanid=27000850&curator_listid=43505

Hares are different from other animals when it comes to score.

First of: There /IS/ a difference between Jackrabbits and EU and Scrub Hares.
For starters, You'll want to look for MALE Jackrabbits, but you'll want to look for FEMALE Hares.

Male Jackrabbits can range from Bronze to Diamond.
Female EU Hares can range from Bronze to Diamond.
Both Male and Female Scrub hares can range from Bronze to Gold. However, Only FEMALES can get diamond.

Male Eu Rabbits can range from Bronze to Diamond.
Male Antelope Jackrabbits can range from Bronze to Diamond.
Female Cottontails can range from Bronze to Diamond.

To get a /chance/ at gold, you will want to target "2 - Minor" animals. While this is NOT guaranteed you'll get gold on that one, you just might.

Prioritize "3 - Very Easy" animals. These are very much gold guaranteed, with diamond POTENTIAL.

My general strategy for hunting hares is as follows:

1. Locate their need zones on your map. If you have none, just do other missions/walk around and examine all tracks. All and any.
2. Use your binos evereywhere. I mean it. Specially on horizon lines, open fields, shorelines and just ahead of you. Explore the map, go from point A to point B. Use your binos constantly. You will be surprised how many animals are around you.
3. Once you discover their need zone, change the time to where they usually are there. If you have tents, you may want to wait a little while they come, if you do not have the Tent DLC, simply WALK to their need zone. Do NOT run or take the ATV, if you have it.
3.a. If you decide to walk there, keep using your binos everywhere, just in case. Not just for hares, just as in a general tip.
Now that you are in their need zone, or closeby, all you need to do is... walk around and use your binos.
Keep a very keen eye. Examine everywhere around you.
Most times hares won't make any sounds and just not notice you walking around, just like you aren't seeing them being just there next to you, and when you notice them, it is too late and they have bolted away.
You can track them, however, I only reccomend tracking hares when certain conditions are met. More on tracking down bellow.

Some hares might make your life easier by Thumping the ground.
Once you hear the thump, Crouch IMMEDIATELY. Do not wait to crouch. Hares are dumb, but not stupid.
Don't prone, tho. If hares are hard to see, proning will make it literal hell.
Use your binos to look where you heard the thumping / saw the sound visualization.
If you see them, Bingo! If not, you can wait a little bit, see if they come out of hiding or you can sneak towards the sound.


Once you see a hare, sneak towards it, but keep looking around for a little bit. Sometimes hares like to be together, some other times, they prefer to be alone.
You might be missing a higher score one by targeting the one that made the sound.

If you reached the place where you heard the sound came from but still not see any bunnies, I reccomend you to use your binos to look at your surroundings.
If you STILL havent seen any, stop sneaking and walk outside there, wait a little bit and try again.

As I said, hares are pretty dumb. You can sneak to around 25 meters (82 feet) from them and they will remain calm. You do not need to hide in bushes at all, they are pretty shortsighted.
They will not get spooked if they smell you, they will simply trot away from the smell, making seeing them a little bit more difficult. Be mindful of the wind.

Once you are at a comfortable distance from your target (I usually stay from 25 meters to 40. 80 meters if I am confident and is a low level one), use your binos, look around, if you see another hares, remember where they are. You get 2 shots (With the caversham) and 6 shots (with the cacciatore), so you can shoot 2 - 6 times, and hit multiple hares.
Shoot your primary target, quickly switch to your second target and shoot. If you saw many rabbits and you have the Cacciatore, you may shoot blindly, see if you hit any extra ones.
Keep in mind, however, that since we are not hiding on a stand or blind, hunting pressure will increase a LOT. And if you "accidentally" kill 4 rabbits, the need zones around the pressure spot will dissapear. So dont over-hunt if you want to keep the need zones.



Say you want to keep hunting this warren. You can wait all the time you want see if they come back. Chances are they won't. You will need to track them and use your binos.

Need zones are HUGE.
If you are on an extreme of one and you spook the rabbits, they may go to the center and eat or rest there and not come back to where they were. Thats why you may need to track these critters.

If you'll rather use the 22LR, it may be a good thing to have the Argus sight, you will be shooting hares from 150+ meters away.

It is important to keep this distance as the sound of rifle won't spook them and they won't run away.

For this method, I reccomend following the first steps of the shotgun strategy, but instead of getting closer, you will want to keep your distance to 150 meters.
You WILL NEED the zeroing perk and to adjust the zeroing of your rifle to 150 meters. And you will also NEED the spotting knowledge 3 perk.
Its also reccomended you have the sight spotting perk, but it is not needed.

Once you have your target on sight, shoot. Aim for the legs / lower body. If you miss, you will notice the hares arent running away. Now you will have to wait untill they are calm again before you shoot or they will bolt away from the area. This way, you can get 4 hares on a session no problem.

Tracking hares is pretty hard if you dont know what you are doing.
Hares don't usually leave footprints, they leave droppings. And they leave a TON of them.
First off, if you cannot make sense of where the poop trail starts or where it leads to, I do not reccomend following it.
If, on the contrary, the poop trail has a clear direcction, I encourage you to follow it.
They also leave trenches in tall grass, altho they will dissapear rather quickly, it is a good way to see where did your buns go exactly and if your target passes through there recently, but don't rely solely on the trenches.




Once you have spooked your rabbits, the chances of finding them are rather slim. But you may follow a trail of "just now" / "very fresh" poop see where it leads you, remember not to run. Walking is just fine. Use your binos to look ahead of you, you may see the bunny trotting away off in the distance.


You should also look around you in the chance of the hare returning to their previous spot.

If you see the hare, walk towards it, use your binos to identify the mood. (If it becomes "Alerted", stop, crouch and wait for a little bit)
Follow the hare untill it stops and resumes doing whatever it was doing, get closer and shoot.

If you, however, see hare poop while you are walking around. You should follow it, unless it says "Very old"
We need to know the direccion where the hare went, if the poop is "Very Old" no matter wich side we follow the tracks to, it will very probably say "Very Old".
You may be following the tracks backwards and reach the spawn point of the animal instead of a need zone. However, if you do have time and dont mind possibly wasting your time, you can still follow "Very Old" poop for a chance of either the last used Need Zone, the bunnies going towards the new need zone, the current need zone they are using OR nothing.
The game may de-spawn animals to spawn them closer to a need zone if it deems necessary. By following "Very old" poop, chances are that the tracks will dissapear.

If you are following poop tracks and you see they turning older as you progress, turn around and follow them on the other direcction. Thats all.
Use your binos to look ahead of the poop trail. You may see the bunnies going to the next need zone. You will probably want to follow them untill they are there, note their need zone in your map and wait for them to stay still before shooting them.

Keep in mind that the walk speed is a liiittle faster than the bunny walk speed, but sneaking is waaay too slow. You may accidentally step in too close if you are not paying attention while you walk.

Here are the times for the different types of hares.
I reccomend to mostly take advantage of lakes and rivers and walk around bodies of water at the times they are drinking.
Antelope Jackrabbit and Cottontail rabbits do not have a drink zone, making these a little more challenging to hunt.

Whitetail Jackrabbits
Feeding: 5:00 - 11:30 || 16:00 - 22:30
Drinking: 11:00 - 14:30 || 22:00 - 0:30
Resting: 00:00 - 5:30 || 14:00 - 16:30

EU Hares
Feeding: 05:30 - 11:30 || 16:00 - 22:30
Drinking: 11:00 - 14:00 || 22:00 - 00:30
Resting: 01:00 - 05:30 || 14:00 - 16:00

Scrub Hares
Feeding: 4:00 - 9:30 || 15:00 - 20:30
Drinking: 0:00 - 4:30
Resting: 9:00 - 12:30 || 12:00 - 15:30 || 20:00 - 0:30

Antelope Jackrabbit
Feeding: 00:00 - 4:00 || 4:00 - 7:00 || 17:00 - 20:00 || 20:00 - 00:00
Resting: 7:00 - 11:00 || 11:00 - 14:00 || 14:00 - 17:00

Cottontail Rabbit
Feeding: 4:00 - 7:00 || 7:00 - 10:00 || 10:00 - 13:00 || 17:00 - 21:00
Resting: 00:00 - 4:00 || 13:00 - 17:00 || 21:00 - 00:00

Im going to put here a selection of my favourite hare hunting spots for you to try out.
Remember to use your binos while looking for hares.
(Ill re-do this section with more spots for all hares and rabbits, may take a while)

Found everywhere on the map


Found mostly at the southwest corner as well as the ends of the map

Found everywhere on the map

I believe European Rabbits deserve their own section on this guide as they are different from the rest of the lagomorphs in the game.

They are found in Hirschfelden and Te Awaroa and the core of their mechanic resides in the burrows.

The burrows spawn in very specific, dev-set places, however, not all of them appear at a time.
This is most likely to add variation on the places they can spawn.

Once you see a burrow at more than 100-150 meters / 109-164 yards away IF it is between the times they are out of their burrows, you WONT see them.
This distance may be higher or lower depending on your graphic settings.

For them to show up, you just have to get closer, for this reason, I reccomend a shotgun when you are hunting rabbits, as you are gonna get close to them want it or not.

Burrows look like small little mounds with 1 to 3 holes in them and little rocks around them


Once you have located your burrow, and made sure its time they are out, sneak up to it, you should see a bunch of rabbits leaving the burrow and start to wander around them aimlessly, occasionally stopping to graze or scratch their ears.


The thing is, since you are gonna be close to them, tall grass may be a problem, keep your eyes peeled and have patience, make sure you have the best view you can have and shoot.

If you spot a lvl 3 / rare colored rabbit, You may want to consider switching for the .22LR if you have it, as you may get a better, more accurate shot with it.

After that, stand up, run up to them and try to get the straglers that couldnt get inside in time. If you play your cards right, you will get from 1 to even 4 rabbits from a burrow.

What happens if you add too much hunting pressure?
Well, I do have to investigate on that, but for now, act like the rabbits arent bothered by it.

Hirschfelden

Te Awaroa



Since rabbits never go too far away from their burrows, they do not have a drink, eat or rest zone. In exchange, they have times where they are inside their burrows and times when they are outside.
The times when they are outside are as follows

5:00 - 9:00
12:00 - 16:00
18:00 - 22:00

YEAH, THAT MISSION.



Ok so you want to get a DIAMOND Hare?
Huh?
Well then, all you gotta do is follow these simple steps.

1. Put Tents strategically to get to the hotspots of hares.
2. Start your game at 11am.
3. KILL ALL FEMALES.
4. Hope they respawn as diamonds.
5. ?????
6. Profit.

---

Technically, once an animal is killed, the game will try to spawn a new animal of the same sex as the one you killed, with a small chance of it being higher or smaller score. However, it doesn't necesarily mean that the animal will be in the same group you killed. It is important that, during your rabbitcide, you leave out at least 1 male in a "group" and to watch out for hunting pressure.
The trick is to constantly reset the time and kill as many high-leveled females as you can.
Try aiming for 2 - 3 score rating or higher.
Rinse and repeat.
You /should/ see your females starting to "grow" however, sometimes the game just refuses to spawn downed animals or to make them grow.
If you feel you are running out of females, you may want to take a male.
It is important to stay focused and to not hunt anything else on this map. (The odd animal is ok, but don't focus on any other species)
It is all dictated by RNG, you may kill a lot of 4 - 5 scoring females and never see a lvl 3 5 - 7 scoring one. Just keep trying.

Here is a small route system for you to try out.
Hopefully youll have luck with it. It took me.. a long time to get with the damm hare.



I really wish you luck because you probably won't complete this quest in a week.