Wilson Snipe!

[Big Slick]

Not sure if I have ever heard anyone here talk about hunting snipe. One of the most fun hunts I have ever been on. Hard to find a good spot these days, flooded alfalfa fields are a great place for them to hang out. I hear people talk about dove being tough to hit, you may want to try a snipe hunt. They are crazy fliers, more like a fighter jet!

 

[Jorgy]

unsporting with a shotgun. I just use a bunch of kids with grocery sacks and a few beater sticks.

 

[Big Sky]

I've only seen one in my life and I actually did catch it with my hands. It was hiding up under an overhang of grass along a creek. I spotted it, circled around behind, reached over the bank and grabbed it. At the time I didn't know what it was. I was just a kid and was excited that I caught a wild bird with my hands. Anyway I took it home, put it in a box and then got out my bird identification book. Sure enough it was a Wilson Snipe. I remember my first thought was; "Snipe are real???!!!" Anyway kept it over night and let it go back where I found it the next day.

 

[Gr8bawana]

unsporting with a shotgun. I just use a bunch of kids with grocery sacks and a few beater sticks.

Standard equipment for the tenderfoot on thier first camp out when I was in the Boy Scouts.

 

[noharleyyet]

Elusive prey...

 

[glass eye]

Shot him with #2 ...but not real close.

 

[glass eye]

Here's an upland bird I caught by hand @ 2:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8PZDHouUuQ

 

[jrabq]

Shot a bunch in La. when I was growing up, something to do after duck season. Lots of times we found them in what were basically flooded cattle pastures. Very challenging and fun to shot, pretty good to eat. For a few years I had a good snipe field in NM (believe it or not!), shot this limit there. But spot dried up and have only shot a handful since then, mostly when duck hunting.

 

[mtmiller]

Fun to shoot, not so much to eat.

 

[Tradewind]

Shot him with #2 ...but not real close.

Nice A5 :hump:

 

[Jorgy]

Standard equipment for the tenderfoot on thier first camp out when I was in the Boy Scouts.

Yep, 8 years as adult leader (Scoutmaster 4 years). Snipe hunts are fun

 

[jrabq]

Fun to shoot, not so much to eat.

I always thought they tasted fine, not much different from dove. Fried in butter or grilled wrapped in bacon.

Found a more recent pic from 2014, shot every bird with #2 steel, how's this for a size variation

 

[Big Slick]

That is a sweet brace of birds, jrabq! We would shoot at snipe with #2's when the ducks weren't flying. I love to hunt ducks and the snipe are just a bonus.

 

[Festus]

Reminds me of our Timberdoodles.

 

[What Map]

This is a signed and numbered copy of good book on snipe hunting.
I knock down about a dozen each year. They are fun to hunt.