Snipe Hunting

[Wheezy50]

I'm 28 now and I can vividly remember this gag being pulled on me and 4-5 friends when we were about 9-10 years old. I've been laughing out loud reading the responses, i'm glad i wasn't the only gulliable one!!!!

We actually got out an enclopedia and looked it up since we thought he might be yankin our chain, but there it was in black and white. Book said they like low-lying marshy areas and just so happened thats what the field behind their house was.

My friends dad told us about the snipe, said he'd seen lots of them in their back field. That evening they quietly marched us around the edge so as not to disturb them, and got us posted about 10 yds apart on the far end away from the house. He gave us each a brown paper bag, said to hold it on the ground, open, and the snipe would think it's a hole/hiding spot and run in!! Seemed logical to me at the time.

The dad's were supposed to go back around the field and start walking towards us, they would flush the birds right to us they said. LOL, needless to say we stood there with our paper bags for about an hour before we realized we'd been had........

Good Times!!

 

[samrothstein01]

Ah...the good ol' snipe hunting. My brothers and I have manufactured quite the events off of snipe hunting lore, leading a lot of very gullible people into the wooded areas around the crick. (No, it is not a creek, it is a crick). It was (and still is) an entire production for us. And what helps is that anytime it is done, we all can play along, and share the same story, which helps others believe in it. After all, if someone can walk into the middle of a conversation, and nearly repeat what was told without having been in the room, doesn't that seem more convincing?

We have always insisted that they look kind of like mini racoons, but act like wolverines, and are mean and fiesty with sharp teeth and claws. We give those "playing along" a burlap sack (yes, we keep these on hand just for such an occasion), and explain the process of catching them very carefully. We also teach them how to "call" the snipe towards the sack, and have their partner corral them into it. We even practice before heading out to the woods, because if they mess up, they will definately need stitches! I even have a scar on my hand from a young snipe hunting accident. Didn't get the dang thing into the sack quite right.

After sitting on the bank of the crick and listening to crazy sounds coming from afar and laughing hysterically....we take a nice walk back to the camp or the house to open another beer and relax....assuming eventually they will find their way home.

And believe it or not, I have had some come back dissapointed and wanting to go back out to try again!

 

[USMC_0311]

The Indiana hunting guide even mentions snipe hunting

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-hg_generalinfo.pdf

"All hunters in Indiana, including those
exempt from purchasing a license, must
register with the Migratory Bird Harvest
Information Program (HIP) before hunting
coots, doves, ducks, mergansers, gallinules,
geese, snipe, sora rails or woodcock."​

 

[eldirector]

How did I miss this thread?!? I've done this a bunch over the years. Took my younger sister and a couple of her college friends (hubba hubba) snipe hunting in the local park years ago. Got there about 10PM armed with cheapy flashlights, and wondered around until the batteries died (maybe an hour, tops), all the while describing snipes, proper hunting techniques, and the dangers on handling said snipe (they bite!).

About that time, one of the local birds started up with their calls, and completely freaked them out. So here we are, one 20-something guy with screaming 3 eighteen-year-old girls, running around in the woods. I lost 2 of them for about 20 minutes, and finally got us all back to the car. I don't think they stopped giggling for another hour. I ended up crashed out on the sofa while they had their little pajama party (hubba, hubba again, thank you very much). Good times....

Took my wife snipe hunting as well. She caught on about 30 minutes into it. She still thinks snipes are real, just that I was pulling her leg about actually catching one!

 

[ws6guy]

Wow snipe hunting those were the days. Wheezy your experience is dead on to mine.

There's times were I wish I could go back to those days.

 

[tuckdog]

40 years old and still haven't found one!!! HA HA

 

[Sasquatchhunter]

I had heard about the lies before I was had. A buddy of mine had been duped and warned us all of the trick. When I was older, about 14 or 15, we took one of our friends out for some "sniping", but found some coyotes bedded down in an old dried up pond instead! YIKES!!!!!

 

[.fourfive]

is it not true thata snipe is a bush dwelling bird in africa that is very easy to startle, So one had to take a shot from very far away. the begining of the sniper....or is this all just hollywood romance bull****? and the real birth of the sniper was that crazy native american in vietnam,the one that had 73 confirmed? I was taken at 10 by my brother and I can't wait to take my son some day.