Hunting Slang

[Ben_BlueOx]

I grew up in England and in the south east of London there is a high use of Cockney rhyming slang.

for example: “wanna go out for a ruby?” Ruby Ruby Murray (1950’s Irish Singer) Curry (Murray rhymes with Curry) so translates to “Would you like to go out for a Curry?”

are there any outside the box slang hunting terms you have heard over the years? And slang you and friends use out in the field?

 

[Pucky Freak]

Whitetail deer usually run away with their tail flared out, erect, and moving side to side. Hunters often say, “He high-tailed it out of there.” Meaning the deer escaped/ran off.

 

[NMGuy]

My dad always referred to shooting quail on the ground as "shady grady". I'm not sure where that one comes from, and a quick google search didn't shed any light on it.

 

[Ben_BlueOx]

Whitetail deer usually run away with their tail flared out, erect, and moving side to side. Hunters often say, “He high-tailed it out of there.” Meaning the deer escaped/ran off.

I have definitely heard this reference before, and probably used it myself, but never really put it together on why we would use the word “high-tailed”

 

[Ben_BlueOx]

My dad always referred to shooting quail on the ground as "shady grady". I'm not sure where that one comes from, and a quick google search didn't shed any light on it.

Nice. Is it something just you and your dad knows what it is? or do others understand the term or use it?

 

[NMGuy]

I've never heard anyone else use it, but to be honest I don't generally hunt with others.

 

[morley.tyler]

We’ve always referred to shooting a grouse, not on the wing, as “Sluicing”. It can be a Ground Sluice, or just a Sluice depending on where the bird is located.

 

[Ben_BlueOx]

We’ve always referred to shooting a grouse, not on the wing, as “Sluicing”. It can be a Ground Sluice, or just a Sluice depending on where the bird is located.

Any reason why? Putting gold in the box?

 

[Sawtooth]

This is an interesting thread. Thanks for getting it started Ben_BlueOx. Here is what I found for Ground Sluice according to the Dictionary of American Regional English.

GROUND-SLUICE​

ground-sluice v phr, hence vbl n ground-sluicing Also ground-sloosh; by folk-etym, ~-sleuth [Appar a humorous transf from the Western mining term ground-sluice to excavate a bank of auriferous gravel with a stream of water] chiefly West Cf sluice v 2, swat v
To shoot (a sitting bird); hence nouns ground-sluicer one who does this, ground-sluice an instance of doing this. Note: Prob restricted in ref by some users to birds on the ground (as implied by the corresponding term water-sluice at sluice v 2), but note that the latter is first attested much later, and many of the quots below refer to birds on the water.
1885 Forest & Stream 25.306 CA, That they [=valley quail] can be shot in vast numbers by the “ground-sluicing” process is true . . ; but our valley bird really lies well to the dog when found where the brush or timber is not too dense. 1899 Pall Mall Mag. 17.116 sCA, Often a stranger would join us, generally a pot-hunter, a ground-sluicer, whom we held in contempt and derision. 1906 Twin Falls News (ID) 26 Oct 4/1, The quail season does not open until November 1, nevertheless the birds have been “ground sluiced” with persistent regularity for weeks. 1929 Billings Gaz. (MT) 8 Oct 11/1, This particular nimrod had the choice of “ground sluicing” several ducks in the water . . or of following the safer and sportier method of inducing the game birds to “flush.” 1953 Reno Eve. Gaz. (NV) 21 Apr 6/2, Usually, the illegal hunter is pictured as ground-sluicing birds with a punt gun like a 37-mm cannon. 1968 DARE FW Addit swNV, Ground-sleuthing—shooting a game bird while it is on the ground or on water. Considered very poor sportsmanship and hated by people who consider themselves real hunters. . . A person who ground-sleuths is a ground-sleuther or, more commonly, a ground-sleuthing son-of-a-bitch. One ground-sleuths and one never talks of a ground sleuth. 1980 Field & Stream Aug 96, One suggestion is that you put a decoy out at 50 yards, so as to tell if ducks are in range. Whoever said that must have been ground-sluicing swimming birds. 2002 DARE File—Internet CA, I don’t think you would call it a ground Sluice when using a Pistol for Blue and Ruffed Grouse! 2004 Ibid nwMN, Try to keep your kids away from snagging if you can. And ground sluicing coots. 2006 DARE File OR, All my adult life I knew the meaning of the verb to ground sluice. It means to shoot (especially a duck), or any other flying fowl, while it is on the water or on the ground. I have never really pondered whether shooting an emu or a turkey on the hoof rated the contempt that attached to ground sluicing a duck. 2011 DARE File—Internet cAR, On quail it’s called ground slooshing!

My guess is that since the mining term dealt with sending a focused stream of water over a specific target of gold rich soil, the term of shooting a standing bird with a focused stream of shot was not much of a stretch.

 

[WestKyHunt]

Me and my buddy started calling egrets "Larry's", as they sound like a goose with laryngitis lol.
Just something silly to get a couple laughs out of

 

[morley.tyler]

Any reason why? Putting gold in the box?

No reason at all. Just what he and all the old timers referred to it as. I’ve kept it up.
At least I would have, hypothetically, if I’d have ever shot a grouse on the ground...

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Might be a common term in SE US, but I never heard it.
My brother was saying he gets to the boat ramp on weekends to avoid the "Googans"

 

[N2TRKYS]

I’ve heard of high tailing it out of there, but never heard it in reference of deer.

 

[shb]

My dad always referred to shooting quail on the ground as "shady grady". I'm not sure where that one comes from, and a quick google search didn't shed any light on it.

The mentors i came up with called it:


"Arkansasing" them.


As in "you can't can't Arkansas them boy, you got to let them fly first".

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

Montana is full of great slang. Mulies, whiteys, lopers, yotes, huns, dumpster chickens....you would be hard pressed to find an animal we don't have a colloquial name for.

 

[Big Bore]

How about the ole ‘Texas heart shot’...shooting an animal as it faces away from you, right up the keister.

 

[MITCHMO]

Da yoopers here in Michigan always Said “you gotta shoot em right between the lookers when the spot light is on em.” That one always made me chuckle.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

How about the old standby, That's a Dandy!

 

[Lone Elk]

Montana is full of great slang. Mulies, whiteys, lopers, yotes, huns, dumpster chickens....you would be hard pressed to find an animal we don't have a colloquial name for.

I've hunted Montana many times for Big Game , not much for feathered friends, what and the Heck is a 'dumpster chicken' I just gotta know........lol

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

Not a game bird, so I'm not sure it counts, but that's what we call magpies.