November 10, 2025 • 29 mins
How does a prank get carried on for over 100 years? How does a seemingly small piece of the natural world become so embedded in North American culture? That's what we'll be looking into this week when we dive into snipe and snipe hunting. A migratory game bird with an actual small hunting culture built around it, and is very different from the prank/fictionalized version of itself. We're going to learn all about the actual bird, and hear a few stories from folks who have experienced the snipe hunting prank first hand.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife,
wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to
conserving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt for their
support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle. On
this episode, we're going to learn about one of the
most famed hunting pranks that has been getting pulled on
(00:21):
unsuspecting victims from all the way back to the eighteen
hundreds up until this very day, and the actual small
hunting culture built around this animal.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You take someone out and you put them in the
woods in the dark, and you leave them in the woods,
and it's a trick.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And when you hear about it, you thought, well, man,
it sounds like it might be funny. You never but
he's out there. You just kind of like Bigfoot, you.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Know, had no idea that that's an actual migratory gang bird.
It is legal for harvest.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Any of you ever heard of a creature called the snipe.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's time that we do a little snipe, honey. It's
always fascinating and sometimes comical to me when a seemingly
obscure and small piece of the natural world stumbles its
(01:15):
way into becoming a cultural phenomenon and the snipe and
the infamous snipe hunting prank has done exactly that. Today,
we're gonna learn about the actual bird, because it is
indeed a real animal. Some folks don't know that. We're
also gonna learn about how this small critter became the
centerpiece for one of the largest and longest running jokes
(01:38):
in the entire realm of hunting. We're gonna learn a
few other very well known things in mainstream culture that
most folks don't realize we're also derived from the snipe bird.
And lastly, we'll all be entertained by hearing a few
snipe hunting stories from guys that have pulled the snipe
punting prank on some poor unsuspecting victim and some that
(01:58):
have been the poor soul that had the joke pulled
on them. Clay has dear story in Turkey Story episodes.
Brent Well, he tells the story in every episode. He
puts out, well, here at Backwoods University, we have snipe
hunting prank stories, and I think y'all are going to
get a real kick out of them. This first story
was told all the way back in nineteen sixty six
(02:20):
by famous radio personality and storyteller Gene Sheppard.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Not only is this a classic snipe prank.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Tell, but it gives us a little bit of a
glimpse of just how long this has been going on.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Well, let me tell you about the time I went
hunting snipes, and I'm sixteen years old.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I shall never ever forget it. In fact, I never.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Forgave the guy who was responsible for this. Saturday night,
we're going hunting and we go out into the swamp
in Delbert's model A Bumpus is monal A. We drive
way out in the swamp, and we had a swamp
that was like five hundred miles long, and we drive
deep into the swamp. We're out in the darkness and
(03:02):
Beg is talking and whispers.
Speaker 7 (03:03):
He says, you can't talk out loud. The snipe will
hear you. And if they hear you, they'll forget it.
Speaker 8 (03:10):
They're very shy.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
Now, look, we're gonna drop you off here and me
and Gorky and Bell are going into the woods, deeper
in the woods, and we will chase the snipe toward you. Now,
you'll get in the water there and you stand in
the water and hold this burlap bag.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
You hold the bag between your legs, hold an open
seat like that, and the snipe will see the bag
and think that it's a burrow.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
You know when a burrow is tall on the ground. See,
you'll see that, and he'll he'll run into the bag.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
Now you got the whistle, and when you have to
keep whistling. Now the snipe here's the whistling. See, and
thinks that there's another snipe. Now for some reason, honor,
and I don't know why it is, but snipe like
to hear you whistle, Dixie. Do you hot to whistle Dixie?
(04:09):
I say yeah. They say, okay, as soon as we go,
you'll start whistling Dixie, and you'll keep the bag between
the knees and the snipe will come running in. Okay,
good luck, here's the bag.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
Well, I climb out of the car and I got
the bag. It's a burlap sack. And I go down
into the water, which is like five hundred degrees below zero,
and it.
Speaker 8 (04:32):
Is called oh boyson cold.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
The wind is blowing out of the trees. It is
as dark as the inside.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Of your hand.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
And I start going.
Speaker 7 (04:55):
I am hunting snipe, and I'm excited that they go
off into the darkness and they're gone, and I am
suddenly aware all around me us the swamp.
Speaker 8 (05:06):
I'm scared. There's nothing but darkness.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
What's that over there by a tree?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (05:24):
I was scared out of my skull and I am
really scared, and I am still excited. I'm on snipe,
and I got that bag between my knees. I'm whistling Dixie.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Well, I whistled Dixie for five hours up to my
knees in the swamps, and dawn is coming up like
thunder over the gas works far away. When it suddenly
dawned on me, I have been t a k e N.
I have been taken.
Speaker 8 (05:58):
And ever since that.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Now I'm gonna this is why I never have told
this story before, because it's so embarrassing. Ever since that day,
whenever I go back home, guys follow out of poolums
hey shop, how.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
About going off for some snipe.
Speaker 8 (06:13):
There goes that snipe hunter.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
I never ever lift that down.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I enjoyed listening to that story for a whole lot
of reasons. One, you can hear the different era in
time coming through the speakers. Everything about it, the audio quality,
the jargon he used.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
It's classic.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Two, I thought it was important that we share this
prank first because it's the most classic version of it.
You tell an unknowing victim.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
That the snipe is a bird you can only hunt
at night.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You equip this person with some sort of bag and
tell them that they'll be dropped off alone in the woods,
and that the rest of the guys are gonna circle
around and make a drive and push the snipe to
them and then they're supposed to catch it back, when
in reality, all that's really going on is the person
gets left alone in the dark woods with nothing but
a wild imagination and an empty bag, while everyone else
(07:09):
is back of camp laughing about it. However, over the
many years that this has been going on, there have
been several spinoff versions, if you will, of this classic
snipe on it prank, which is what we're gonna hear next.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
But first, like I said, we're also.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Gonna learn some of the other well known parts of
our culture that were derived from the humble snipe. So
here's fun Snipe facts that I bet you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Part one.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Like we've already alluded to, a snipe is an actual bird.
In fact, it's a game bird with an established hunning season,
and it's also a bird with a very wide range,
one that's nearly worldwide to be exact, and it's comprised
of different subspecies. And in the seventeen seventies, when British
soldiers were occupying India, snipe in those areas were known
(07:57):
for being a game bird that presented extra dream challenges
due to its camouflage, feathers, quick and erratic flight, and
its presumed alertness. All of this made being a successful
snipe hunter an exceedingly difficult task. A successful snipe hunter
had to be sneaky as well as being a good
shot while using flintlock equipment.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Might I add.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
As time went on, the term evolved, and there was
some recorded letters from these soldiers referring to a day
of snipe hunting as going sniping, which over time allowed
the term to evolve again to when referring to someone
that was a good snipe hunter, or referring to someone
that was just stealthy and a really good shot as
a sniper. Yep, this whole time, the word sniper can
(08:48):
be traced all the way back to a snipe, the
same bird that gave us a fun prank to play
and has yielded us countless funny stories. And speaking of
funny stories, I think it's time we hear another one.
Our next storyteller is a man that means a whole
lot to me. Mister Gary Simons was a Sunday school
(09:08):
teacher of mine when I was going through high school.
I learned a lot of lessons from this man in
my younger years. He's also a true veteran outdoorsman with
some serious credentials.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
In hunting and fishing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
In my time spent with him as my Sunday school teacher,
I remember a couple times when he would host all
of us up at his family hunting camp and we
would spend the weekend fishing, shooting, archery, and all.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Sorts of fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
This story that you're about to hear, mister Gary teal,
took place on one of those very weekends.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Well, you know, I don't know if you ever went,
but we but we built a little camp up near Thomastown.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Oh yeah, Carthage, yep, I's stayed there.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Okay, all right, Well we were up there at one point.
We had a good group of guys, but they I
had taught in life group at church, you know, through twelve,
so I think this was kind of maybe a ninth
or tenth grade group. But anyway, we were up there
a lot of times. We'd build a bird house, fish hike,
you know, we'd cook, have Bible studies, all this sort
(10:11):
of stuff. But you know, when you get a bunch
of boys together, you start thinking about something you can do,
you know. So anyway, that night we got to talk,
and I had a couple other leaders with him, and uh,
we got to all of a sudden start talking about
snipe hunt. Well, these guys didn't know what snipe hunt was,
and maybe there were one or two that did, but
(10:33):
they wouldn't reveal it to the others. So anyway, there's
a guy named Lewis, and Lewis is, uh, he's deathly
scared of the dark. This guy is spooky and a
good guy, but I tell I wouldn't mess with him
because his daddy was a karate guy and he he
had taken karate. I mean, this guy, I think they
(10:55):
call it a katta of these things that they do. Anyway,
I say, show me a CD of Lewis man. You
could tell this guy he was a karate dude, but
he was scared of the dark man. So anyway, we
de said, we're going to snipe hunt. So I got
this little dinky flash light like one you put on
a little cap light or something. That's all we had.
(11:15):
And so we take this light. We're talking about snipe
and man, these things attack you. You gotta keep your
eyes open, guys a little clothes. Man, these snipes, you
just don't know where they're gonna come from. And so
we were making our way down the logging road behind
the house, and we're steady talking about Man, keep your
eyes open, guys. Man be looking, and all of a
(11:36):
sudden missed, wait, wait, wait did you hear that? Did
you hear it? And everybody standing there looking and listening
to eyes big you know, all right, let's keep going.
So we kept going. All of a sudden there was
there's a patch of woods there. You go through that
you can go over to the power line. So we're
making a way over to the power line and Lewis's man,
(11:59):
he's he's fidgeting. I mean, he's losing it. It's dark,
he said, Miss scared standing over here with the flash light.
I said, all right, come over here by me. You know,
he wants some light Anyway, we get over to the
power line and all of a sudden, you know, we're
still going through the same scenario. Guys, keep your eyes open, man,
(12:19):
and all of a sudden we started houlling. There it
is there, it is, man, we're going crazy. Well, Lewis
finds a limb and this thing is about ten feet
long and it's probably about three inches at the part
he's holding and he picks that limb up and he
looks like the Tasmanian double. He's swinging this thing and
(12:41):
guys are scattering. Lewis has lost it and man, forget
to night. We're scared of Lewis.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Man, he's whipping that stick around it.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I said, oh my gosh, Lewis, stop stop STI It's okay,
It's okay. So anyway, I ain't got Lewis subtled down
to a point. Man, I mean, everybody's hearts beating now.
Louis is gone crazy. Anyway, we all got back to
the house that night. That was my last snipe hunt,
and Louis Lewis ended.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
It swinging that stick around.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He was swinging that stick. Man, I tell you. We
all got back to the house and of course it
was all. It was all funny then, And I don't
know Lewis ever smiled about it. I really don't. I
think he was got back. He was still he was
still in his arm.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
Shook up, he shook come.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But we didn't snipe money anymore. We decided to build
bird houses and fish and something something more calm.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But man, I cannot help but laugh every time I
hear that story, just the imagery of it, those boys
scattering due to that one guy swinging that stick around
in horror that the snipe was about to get him,
and everyone realizing that this isn't a joke anymore.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It's also a.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Perfect example of what I was talking about earlier when
I said that over the years, the snipe prank has
taken a couple of different forms, seeing as this wasn't
your standard drop a guy out in the woods with
an empty sack and leave him out routine. We have
one more snipe prank to hear about, but before we
do that, it's time for you to hear fun snipe
(14:21):
fact that I bet you didn't know. Number two. Like
I said before, a snipe has a nearly worldwide distribution
among their different subspecies. There's the sub Antarctic snipe endemic
to some areas of New Zealand. There's the Great snipe
endemic to northeastern Europe in northwestern Russia. There's also the
North Island snipe, this wind host snipe, the pent tailed snipe,
(14:41):
the Latham snipe, the Pantanal snipe, the solitary snipe, the
African snipe, the snare snipe, the woodsnipe, the Madagascar snipe. Oh,
there's honestly, there's a whole lot more of them, but
y'all get the idea.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
There's a lot. But for the relevance of today's episode.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
We're gonna be talking about the common snipe and the
Wilson snipe because both of them find themselves migrating through
and living in North America. So, in terms of the
common snipe and the Wilson knipe, these would have been
the objects of what eventually turned into the snipe prank.
So how exactly did it evolve into this crazy prank.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
That we're somehow all aware of.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Well, Like we talked about earlier, these snipe don't make
for an easy hunt. With their ability to hide their
erratic flight, they're hard to get in hand, even when
you can find them, throw into the equation that these
birds are migratory, and you're met with.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
An even tougher hunt.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So, as the story goes that as the years went
on and actual snipe hunters were prone to go out
and come back empty handed over and over again, year
after year, the jokes started being made at their expense
that they were hunting something that wasn't even there, that
a snipe didn't even exist. And this, somehow, in a
crazy way, evolved into the well known snipe hunting prank
(15:56):
that is still being carried out to this very day.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
Wow Hunt.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And speaking of snipe pranks, we've got one more story
left to tell, and it's a good. Our final storyteller
is someone that I am sure.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
That you already know.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
His name is Clay Nukele, and he's the reason that
this whole podcast feat exist and he's also the reason
that I wound up on it. So if you don't
like me, blame it on Clay. It's his fault anyway.
Clay is no stranger to tell in a good story.
I'll let him take it from here.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I grew up in Mina, Arkansas, in the Washtaw
Mountains of western Arkansas, just a rural community. And when
we were about sophomores in high school, me and several
other friends started this club. And the club was really
a joke, but we called it the Timber Scouts. And
what we did with the Timber Scouts is that it
(16:48):
was an invitation only club and we went camping. Now
I was a hunter, but some of these other guys
didn't hunt. They just liked to camp, and so it
was it was actually a joke like that we had
a club that we had to go camping. This club, though,
mind you, was like we didn't drink, we didn't smoke,
We just went out and had a good time camping. Well,
(17:08):
the lore of the Timber Scouts grew to some degree
and a lot of people wanted to come camp with us. Well,
when I was a senior, we probably had the biggest
Timber Scout outing of all time. We probably had twelve
to fifteen guys camping with us out at a place
called Wolfpen Gap. And there was a fella that will
(17:32):
remain nameless, who was an incredible guy, like a star
athlete and just a guy that was known to have
a lot of character but wasn't skilled in the outdoors.
Wasn't a hunter, didn't grow up in a family that
hunted a lot, And perhaps the boy was a little
naive at the time. And we knew and it always
(17:52):
heard about snipe punting. And I can honestly tell you
I don't know that we ever tricked anybody, because everybody
knew about snipe hunting. Like snipe hunting is when you
take someone out and you put them in the woods
in the dark. You tell them that you're hunting this
elusive nocturnal bird and you leave them in the woods,
(18:14):
and it's a trick in the snipe hunter is the
one who've organized the snipe hunt then go back and
do whatever while this person stays in the woods waiting
for a snipe to be driven past them, almost like
it was a deer drive.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
And so this particular.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Night we plotted together, I mean a bunch of us,
all of us except for this guy, knew what was
going on. And I set it up and I'm like,
all right, boys, we're going snipe hunting. And I mean,
we just made this elaborate plan. I mean, I was
like saying, Billy, Johnny and Joey y'are gonna go south
and right where that finger comes down off the mountain.
(18:51):
You're gonna be right there, and Jimmy, you're gonna go here,
and Billy da da da da dah. I mean, it
was like a real organized hunt and the only person
that wasn't in on it was this guy. So we
go out and we put this guy out by himself,
and sure enough, you know, after we put him out
and every it appeared as if everybody had gone all
(19:13):
their separate directions to go on their stands. We all
come back to camp, set around the fire, laugh that
our buddy is out in the woods by himself, waiting
on a snipe. Well, we let him stay out there
for at least forty five minutes, and someone goes and
picks him up, brings him back to camp. Everybody tells
(19:35):
their story of what happened, and it's this this big ruse,
you know, and so this guy just feels like he
was just a player in this huge hunt that had
just taken place that was unsuccessful. Well, the only thing
that's better than one snipe hunt is two. So we
just kind of roll into it and say, well it's
it's time to go back. We got to try another spot,
(19:58):
and so we do the whole again, but this next time,
we leave this guy out in the woods for at
least an hour, and if you've ever sat in the
woods for an hour in the dark by yourself, you're
not a hunters. It was pretty it was abusive, It
was slightly abusive. We drop him off, we come back
(20:20):
to camp, and this time, the only thing better than
the only thing funnier then the first snipe hunt is
the second snipe hunt, and oh man, we just sat
around and just had the time of our lives while
our buddy was just sitting out in the woods waiting
for us to organize a drive to push an elusive
(20:40):
nocturnal bird passed him that never came. Eventually, I remember
feeling pity for him, and we finally go pick him up,
bring him back, and he's dead serious about wanting to
get a snipe, and we eventually leaked to him that
(21:01):
the last three hours, you know, since we started, this
was all a ruse and he was the only one
not in on the fun and it was pretty painful.
I felt pretty bad about it. So that's my best
and my worst snipe hunting story.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That was a good story, Clay, and a perfect way
to round off this snipe hunting story section of this episode. However,
I do have to say that leaving that poor boy
out in the woods for hours like that was pretty
cold hearted. All right, Well, we've heard three really good
tales of snipe punting pranks. We've learned some interesting facts
about the actual snipes, such as their crazy worldwide distribution,
(21:41):
the long list of subspecies, the fact that they are
the origin of the word sniper, and the lore around
how they turned into the subject piece of a running.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Joke that we all know so well today.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But what we don't know a lot about yet is
their actual biology and the hunting culture around them. That's right,
There is a small group of folks that get out
there and hunt snite like for real, hunt snipe, and
I just happen to know someone who does it.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Houston Haven's is the waterfole biologist for the state of Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
He's also a genuine snipe clunter, the real counts, not
the print counting.
Speaker 6 (22:15):
Because of Houston's.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Biologist status, he'll be able to cover both snight biology
and snipe hunting for us.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
Here's Houston.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
So snipe are shore birds migratory? Of course, we typically
in Mississippi start to see snipe. Early November or so
is typically when we start to get first reports and
just fuel start to trickle in. Use really shallow water
or mudflats with a little bit of vegetation in them.
They're extremely camouflaged and so they blend in with pretty
(22:47):
much any vegetation at all, so really hard to see.
They hold really tight compared to most shorebirds, things like
sandpipers and all get up you know, pretty far out,
but snipe because they are so camouflages the whole really
tight in that vegetation that they're in. And what they're
doing is using their their bills, their probe shaped bills,
you know, stick them down the mud finding things like invertebrates, worms,
(23:11):
you know, mostly bugs and vertebrates that they're even for
their diet. Yeah, numbers continue to build throughout the winter.
Let's say most people in Mississippi when they're hunting sniper
getting after them. After the duck season usually ends, you know,
water starting to come off of areas that've been flooded
all winter, so we've got a lot of that showy
mud flat and edges of the water that snipe like
to be in anyway, and so.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Are they pretty much countrywide?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
They are, you know, looking at the distribution, they kind
of kind of react with the waterfowl as far as
breeding areas, so prairie Poe whole region, way up into
the Arctic birds that are coming to Mississippi. I can't
really say, not a lot of sniper bandits. We don't
have very good band return date on them at all,
none that I know of. Yeah, pretty wide breeding range,
(23:55):
you know, migratory birds going to be you know, pushed
by time of year and weather, just like most Yeah,
it's it seems like it's kind of building in popularity.
Snipe five hunters.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Yeah, really, we.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Hear more people asking about it, at least as the
years have gone on, am I I guess eighteen years
now working seems like I get more more calls about
it now. Whether or not those people are actually going
and pursuing them or they're just kind of curious about them.
I don't really know for sure they're.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Do you know anybody that actually goes and does it?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I do it myself, Yeah, and you do. Yeah, have
some friends here in the department, will you know. It's
kind of one of those things, you know, deer season
is ending, you know, end of January duck seasons in it,
and it's kind of like, okay, what do we do now?
So okay, you know this is something that's still open
and we can get out there and you know, get
some dog work or what have you. And so it's
just kind of feels that gap in between I guess
(24:45):
you know those other hunt seasons in Turkey season in
the spring. But yeah, I mean it's a super fun
you know, kind of not as much like duck dove
hunting because you're kind of walking birds up and it's
not not sitting around, but you can you can kind
of pick good spots well you know, flush some birds
up and kind of wait for them to come back
as well.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So, huh, if you were going to get a game
plan together, like all right, we're gonna go snipe hunt,
and I'm not asking you to tell me where you're
going hunting, but like, is it like a one person
sport or is it better if you have three or
four people, like well, like lay out a game plan
if you're going action on snipe hunt.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
So it kind of depends on the area just how
much you know edge kind of and really that is
what I look for is that edge of water that
has some mud flat and maybe a little bit of vegetation.
You're not gonna kind of cruise around and just see
a bunch of snipe. If you do, you know, it's
relatively rare that there's gonna be out in the out
in the wide open, so it's kind of just covering
(25:42):
ground and kicking them up a little bit and seeing, Okay,
here's what they're keying inn on. Because if you find one,
it's not that they'll be in really big groups or anything,
but if you find one, you kind of get a
visual image of what that bird was doing and uh
and kind of go from there. But uh, yeah, it
can be a multiple person type of sport. I guess
maybe a little bit kind of like pheasant hunting. If
(26:02):
you're walking out, you know, kind of spacing out and
so you can cover area and kind of fine with
the birds or because they're really specific about what they're
going to be keying in on, both with water levels
and with vegetation.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Are they're pretty fast? Aren't think because they're small birds.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yes, they're small birds, very fast, and they don't fly
straight for very long. You know, like I said, you're
not going to see them very often before they flush,
so you're just kind of kind of staying on the
ready and walking them up and trying to get a
shot off when they get up.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Now you are y'all running pointers or on them, or
y'all just got retrievers and.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Just retrievers yup, just to you know what I've And
it depends on the dog. But what I've come across
is I just need my dog to heal until i'm
you know, fortunate enough to make to make a shot
on one, and then retrieving the bird for me because
walking mud flats and all, it's a lot of slogging around.
So the more steps that the dog can save me
just retrieving a bird is good. But yeah, I don't
(26:54):
know how well pointing dogs would do on them, you know,
the whole tight relative for a person. But if dogs
just you know, running around working, maybe bumping birds up.
But there may be people out there who are using.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Plints, I don't know, man, I have so many questions. Yeah,
you know, because like I said, the real side, the
real hunting culture of it. I know, I probably know
less about the real hunting culture of it than I
do about the joke side of it. Have you ever
or do you know anyone in the department that has
ever gotten a call or anything and someone has confused
(27:26):
the snipe season with the snipe hunting prank we have.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Yeah, people will see it in our outdoor digest when
they're flipping through and just seeing what their typical season
dates are for the year, and you know, maybe they'll
read through the migratory game bird section and come across,
you know, snipe. You know, I thought this was some
mythical creature, you know, And so they'll call us sometimes
and ask about it, you know, and you know, had
no idea that that's an actual migratory game bird that
(27:51):
is legal for harvest. And so we do get those
every once in a while. But if yeah, for the
most part, it's just people that are looking to add
something different that they haven't hunted before.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, a man, because honestly, I mean I was young.
That's probably like in middle school, early high school. But
I remember back before, I mean you can still get them,
but it was for the internet was as prevalent as
it was now, and you'd still just have like the
print outs of the season and stuff. I remember the
first time I saw I noticed snipes in the migratory
third hunting season. I was like, wait a minute, because
(28:22):
I'd had I had had the joke pulled on me
when I was like in sixth grade, you know, so
I remember looking at that and being like that the
I thought sniperunting was a joke.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yep, it's a It's a real thing. And you know,
when you really find them and find what they're looking for,
we can you know, can they can be plentiful, you
know on public areas that have shallow water, you know,
waterfowl areas that water's coming off of after the duck season.
Probably not gonna have a whole lot of competition for
for sniping out there. It's not something that we have
(28:53):
a ton of people that are you know, pursuing, but
uh yeah, it can be some really good opportunities out there.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
What do you know, Not only is there an actual
honting culture and game bird and a snipe that's worth pursuing,
but honestly, it sounds pretty fun. I may have to
give it a try later this winter, you know what,
maybe that's what all.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
Of you should do.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Round up some buddies this fall and give snipe hunting
a try. You know, the real kind, not the prank kind.
I want to sincerely thank all of you for listening
to Backwoods University as well as bear Grease in this
country life. This community is sure fun to be a
(29:33):
part of. If you like this episode, share it with
someone you know that has been duped by the snipe
prank before. Maybe they'll get a kick out of it
and stick around because there's a whole lot more on
the way. We'll see y'all next time.
Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife,
wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to
conserving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt for their
support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle. On
this episode, we're going to learn about one of the
most famed hunting pranks that has been getting pulled on
(00:21):
unsuspecting victims from all the way back to the eighteen
hundreds up until this very day, and the actual small
hunting culture built around this animal.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You take someone out and you put them in the
woods in the dark, and you leave them in the woods,
and it's a trick.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
And when you hear about it, you thought, well, man,
it sounds like it might be funny. You never but
he's out there. You just kind of like Bigfoot, you.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Know, had no idea that that's an actual migratory gang bird.
It is legal for harvest.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Any of you ever heard of a creature called the snipe.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's time that we do a little snipe, honey. It's
always fascinating and sometimes comical to me when a seemingly
obscure and small piece of the natural world stumbles its
(01:15):
way into becoming a cultural phenomenon and the snipe and
the infamous snipe hunting prank has done exactly that. Today,
we're gonna learn about the actual bird, because it is
indeed a real animal. Some folks don't know that. We're
also gonna learn about how this small critter became the
centerpiece for one of the largest and longest running jokes
(01:38):
in the entire realm of hunting. We're gonna learn a
few other very well known things in mainstream culture that
most folks don't realize we're also derived from the snipe bird.
And lastly, we'll all be entertained by hearing a few
snipe hunting stories from guys that have pulled the snipe
punting prank on some poor unsuspecting victim and some that
(01:58):
have been the poor soul that had the joke pulled
on them. Clay has dear story in Turkey Story episodes.
Brent Well, he tells the story in every episode. He
puts out, well, here at Backwoods University, we have snipe
hunting prank stories, and I think y'all are going to
get a real kick out of them. This first story
was told all the way back in nineteen sixty six
(02:20):
by famous radio personality and storyteller Gene Sheppard.
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Not only is this a classic snipe prank.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Tell, but it gives us a little bit of a
glimpse of just how long this has been going on.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Well, let me tell you about the time I went
hunting snipes, and I'm sixteen years old.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I shall never ever forget it. In fact, I never.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Forgave the guy who was responsible for this. Saturday night,
we're going hunting and we go out into the swamp
in Delbert's model A Bumpus is monal A. We drive
way out in the swamp, and we had a swamp
that was like five hundred miles long, and we drive
deep into the swamp. We're out in the darkness and
(03:02):
Beg is talking and whispers.
Speaker 7 (03:03):
He says, you can't talk out loud. The snipe will
hear you. And if they hear you, they'll forget it.
Speaker 8 (03:10):
They're very shy.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
Now, look, we're gonna drop you off here and me
and Gorky and Bell are going into the woods, deeper
in the woods, and we will chase the snipe toward you. Now,
you'll get in the water there and you stand in
the water and hold this burlap bag.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
You hold the bag between your legs, hold an open
seat like that, and the snipe will see the bag
and think that it's a burrow.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
You know when a burrow is tall on the ground. See,
you'll see that, and he'll he'll run into the bag.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
Now you got the whistle, and when you have to
keep whistling. Now the snipe here's the whistling. See, and
thinks that there's another snipe. Now for some reason, honor,
and I don't know why it is, but snipe like
to hear you whistle, Dixie. Do you hot to whistle Dixie?
(04:09):
I say yeah. They say, okay, as soon as we go,
you'll start whistling Dixie, and you'll keep the bag between
the knees and the snipe will come running in. Okay,
good luck, here's the bag.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
Well, I climb out of the car and I got
the bag. It's a burlap sack. And I go down
into the water, which is like five hundred degrees below zero,
and it.
Speaker 8 (04:32):
Is called oh boyson cold.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
The wind is blowing out of the trees. It is
as dark as the inside.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Of your hand.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
And I start going.
Speaker 7 (04:55):
I am hunting snipe, and I'm excited that they go
off into the darkness and they're gone, and I am
suddenly aware all around me us the swamp.
Speaker 8 (05:06):
I'm scared. There's nothing but darkness.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
What's that over there by a tree?
Speaker 5 (05:23):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (05:24):
I was scared out of my skull and I am
really scared, and I am still excited. I'm on snipe,
and I got that bag between my knees. I'm whistling Dixie.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
Well, I whistled Dixie for five hours up to my
knees in the swamps, and dawn is coming up like
thunder over the gas works far away. When it suddenly
dawned on me, I have been t a k e N.
I have been taken.
Speaker 8 (05:58):
And ever since that.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Now I'm gonna this is why I never have told
this story before, because it's so embarrassing. Ever since that day,
whenever I go back home, guys follow out of poolums
hey shop, how.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
About going off for some snipe.
Speaker 8 (06:13):
There goes that snipe hunter.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
I never ever lift that down.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I enjoyed listening to that story for a whole lot
of reasons. One, you can hear the different era in
time coming through the speakers. Everything about it, the audio quality,
the jargon he used.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
It's classic.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Two, I thought it was important that we share this
prank first because it's the most classic version of it.
You tell an unknowing victim.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
That the snipe is a bird you can only hunt
at night.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
You equip this person with some sort of bag and
tell them that they'll be dropped off alone in the woods,
and that the rest of the guys are gonna circle
around and make a drive and push the snipe to
them and then they're supposed to catch it back, when
in reality, all that's really going on is the person
gets left alone in the dark woods with nothing but
a wild imagination and an empty bag, while everyone else
(07:09):
is back of camp laughing about it. However, over the
many years that this has been going on, there have
been several spinoff versions, if you will, of this classic
snipe on it prank, which is what we're gonna hear next.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
But first, like I said, we're also.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Gonna learn some of the other well known parts of
our culture that were derived from the humble snipe. So
here's fun Snipe facts that I bet you didn't know.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Part one.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Like we've already alluded to, a snipe is an actual bird.
In fact, it's a game bird with an established hunning season,
and it's also a bird with a very wide range,
one that's nearly worldwide to be exact, and it's comprised
of different subspecies. And in the seventeen seventies, when British
soldiers were occupying India, snipe in those areas were known
(07:57):
for being a game bird that presented extra dream challenges
due to its camouflage, feathers, quick and erratic flight, and
its presumed alertness. All of this made being a successful
snipe hunter an exceedingly difficult task. A successful snipe hunter
had to be sneaky as well as being a good
shot while using flintlock equipment.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Might I add.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
As time went on, the term evolved, and there was
some recorded letters from these soldiers referring to a day
of snipe hunting as going sniping, which over time allowed
the term to evolve again to when referring to someone
that was a good snipe hunter, or referring to someone
that was just stealthy and a really good shot as
a sniper. Yep, this whole time, the word sniper can
(08:48):
be traced all the way back to a snipe, the
same bird that gave us a fun prank to play
and has yielded us countless funny stories. And speaking of
funny stories, I think it's time we hear another one.
Our next storyteller is a man that means a whole
lot to me. Mister Gary Simons was a Sunday school
(09:08):
teacher of mine when I was going through high school.
I learned a lot of lessons from this man in
my younger years. He's also a true veteran outdoorsman with
some serious credentials.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
In hunting and fishing.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
In my time spent with him as my Sunday school teacher,
I remember a couple times when he would host all
of us up at his family hunting camp and we
would spend the weekend fishing, shooting, archery, and all.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Sorts of fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
This story that you're about to hear, mister Gary teal,
took place on one of those very weekends.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Well, you know, I don't know if you ever went,
but we but we built a little camp up near Thomastown.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
Oh yeah, Carthage, yep, I's stayed there.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Okay, all right, Well we were up there at one point.
We had a good group of guys, but they I
had taught in life group at church, you know, through twelve,
so I think this was kind of maybe a ninth
or tenth grade group. But anyway, we were up there
a lot of times. We'd build a bird house, fish hike,
you know, we'd cook, have Bible studies, all this sort
(10:11):
of stuff. But you know, when you get a bunch
of boys together, you start thinking about something you can do,
you know. So anyway, that night we got to talk,
and I had a couple other leaders with him, and uh,
we got to all of a sudden start talking about
snipe hunt. Well, these guys didn't know what snipe hunt was,
and maybe there were one or two that did, but
(10:33):
they wouldn't reveal it to the others. So anyway, there's
a guy named Lewis, and Lewis is, uh, he's deathly
scared of the dark. This guy is spooky and a
good guy, but I tell I wouldn't mess with him
because his daddy was a karate guy and he he
had taken karate. I mean, this guy, I think they
(10:55):
call it a katta of these things that they do. Anyway,
I say, show me a CD of Lewis man. You
could tell this guy he was a karate dude, but
he was scared of the dark man. So anyway, we
de said, we're going to snipe hunt. So I got
this little dinky flash light like one you put on
a little cap light or something. That's all we had.
(11:15):
And so we take this light. We're talking about snipe
and man, these things attack you. You gotta keep your
eyes open, guys a little clothes. Man, these snipes, you
just don't know where they're gonna come from. And so
we were making our way down the logging road behind
the house, and we're steady talking about Man, keep your
eyes open, guys. Man be looking, and all of a
(11:36):
sudden missed, wait, wait, wait did you hear that? Did
you hear it? And everybody standing there looking and listening
to eyes big you know, all right, let's keep going.
So we kept going. All of a sudden there was
there's a patch of woods there. You go through that
you can go over to the power line. So we're
making a way over to the power line and Lewis's man,
(11:59):
he's he's fidgeting. I mean, he's losing it. It's dark,
he said, Miss scared standing over here with the flash light.
I said, all right, come over here by me. You know,
he wants some light Anyway, we get over to the
power line and all of a sudden, you know, we're
still going through the same scenario. Guys, keep your eyes open, man,
(12:19):
and all of a sudden we started houlling. There it
is there, it is, man, we're going crazy. Well, Lewis
finds a limb and this thing is about ten feet
long and it's probably about three inches at the part
he's holding and he picks that limb up and he
looks like the Tasmanian double. He's swinging this thing and
(12:41):
guys are scattering. Lewis has lost it and man, forget
to night. We're scared of Lewis.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Man, he's whipping that stick around it.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
I said, oh my gosh, Lewis, stop stop STI It's okay,
It's okay. So anyway, I ain't got Lewis subtled down
to a point. Man, I mean, everybody's hearts beating now.
Louis is gone crazy. Anyway, we all got back to
the house that night. That was my last snipe hunt,
and Louis Lewis ended.
Speaker 6 (13:13):
It swinging that stick around.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He was swinging that stick. Man, I tell you. We
all got back to the house and of course it
was all. It was all funny then, And I don't
know Lewis ever smiled about it. I really don't. I
think he was got back. He was still he was
still in his arm.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
Shook up, he shook come.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But we didn't snipe money anymore. We decided to build
bird houses and fish and something something more calm.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But man, I cannot help but laugh every time I
hear that story, just the imagery of it, those boys
scattering due to that one guy swinging that stick around
in horror that the snipe was about to get him,
and everyone realizing that this isn't a joke anymore.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
It's also a.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Perfect example of what I was talking about earlier when
I said that over the years, the snipe prank has
taken a couple of different forms, seeing as this wasn't
your standard drop a guy out in the woods with
an empty sack and leave him out routine. We have
one more snipe prank to hear about, but before we
do that, it's time for you to hear fun snipe
(14:21):
fact that I bet you didn't know. Number two. Like
I said before, a snipe has a nearly worldwide distribution
among their different subspecies. There's the sub Antarctic snipe endemic
to some areas of New Zealand. There's the Great snipe
endemic to northeastern Europe in northwestern Russia. There's also the
North Island snipe, this wind host snipe, the pent tailed snipe,
(14:41):
the Latham snipe, the Pantanal snipe, the solitary snipe, the
African snipe, the snare snipe, the woodsnipe, the Madagascar snipe. Oh,
there's honestly, there's a whole lot more of them, but
y'all get the idea.
Speaker 6 (14:54):
There's a lot. But for the relevance of today's episode.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
We're gonna be talking about the common snipe and the
Wilson snipe because both of them find themselves migrating through
and living in North America. So, in terms of the
common snipe and the Wilson knipe, these would have been
the objects of what eventually turned into the snipe prank.
So how exactly did it evolve into this crazy prank.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
That we're somehow all aware of.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Well, Like we talked about earlier, these snipe don't make
for an easy hunt. With their ability to hide their
erratic flight, they're hard to get in hand, even when
you can find them, throw into the equation that these
birds are migratory, and you're met with.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
An even tougher hunt.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So, as the story goes that as the years went
on and actual snipe hunters were prone to go out
and come back empty handed over and over again, year
after year, the jokes started being made at their expense
that they were hunting something that wasn't even there, that
a snipe didn't even exist. And this, somehow, in a
crazy way, evolved into the well known snipe hunting prank
(15:56):
that is still being carried out to this very day.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
Wow Hunt.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
And speaking of snipe pranks, we've got one more story
left to tell, and it's a good. Our final storyteller
is someone that I am sure.
Speaker 6 (16:09):
That you already know.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
His name is Clay Nukele, and he's the reason that
this whole podcast feat exist and he's also the reason
that I wound up on it. So if you don't
like me, blame it on Clay. It's his fault anyway.
Clay is no stranger to tell in a good story.
I'll let him take it from here.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I grew up in Mina, Arkansas, in the Washtaw
Mountains of western Arkansas, just a rural community. And when
we were about sophomores in high school, me and several
other friends started this club. And the club was really
a joke, but we called it the Timber Scouts. And
what we did with the Timber Scouts is that it
(16:48):
was an invitation only club and we went camping. Now
I was a hunter, but some of these other guys
didn't hunt. They just liked to camp, and so it
was it was actually a joke like that we had
a club that we had to go camping. This club, though,
mind you, was like we didn't drink, we didn't smoke,
We just went out and had a good time camping. Well,
(17:08):
the lore of the Timber Scouts grew to some degree
and a lot of people wanted to come camp with us. Well,
when I was a senior, we probably had the biggest
Timber Scout outing of all time. We probably had twelve
to fifteen guys camping with us out at a place
called Wolfpen Gap. And there was a fella that will
(17:32):
remain nameless, who was an incredible guy, like a star
athlete and just a guy that was known to have
a lot of character but wasn't skilled in the outdoors.
Wasn't a hunter, didn't grow up in a family that
hunted a lot, And perhaps the boy was a little
naive at the time. And we knew and it always
(17:52):
heard about snipe punting. And I can honestly tell you
I don't know that we ever tricked anybody, because everybody
knew about snipe hunting. Like snipe hunting is when you
take someone out and you put them in the woods
in the dark. You tell them that you're hunting this
elusive nocturnal bird and you leave them in the woods,
(18:14):
and it's a trick in the snipe hunter is the
one who've organized the snipe hunt then go back and
do whatever while this person stays in the woods waiting
for a snipe to be driven past them, almost like
it was a deer drive.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
And so this particular.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Night we plotted together, I mean a bunch of us,
all of us except for this guy, knew what was
going on. And I set it up and I'm like,
all right, boys, we're going snipe hunting. And I mean,
we just made this elaborate plan. I mean, I was
like saying, Billy, Johnny and Joey y'are gonna go south
and right where that finger comes down off the mountain.
(18:51):
You're gonna be right there, and Jimmy, you're gonna go here,
and Billy da da da da dah. I mean, it
was like a real organized hunt and the only person
that wasn't in on it was this guy. So we
go out and we put this guy out by himself,
and sure enough, you know, after we put him out
and every it appeared as if everybody had gone all
(19:13):
their separate directions to go on their stands. We all
come back to camp, set around the fire, laugh that
our buddy is out in the woods by himself, waiting
on a snipe. Well, we let him stay out there
for at least forty five minutes, and someone goes and
picks him up, brings him back to camp. Everybody tells
(19:35):
their story of what happened, and it's this this big ruse,
you know, and so this guy just feels like he
was just a player in this huge hunt that had
just taken place that was unsuccessful. Well, the only thing
that's better than one snipe hunt is two. So we
just kind of roll into it and say, well it's
it's time to go back. We got to try another spot,
(19:58):
and so we do the whole again, but this next time,
we leave this guy out in the woods for at
least an hour, and if you've ever sat in the
woods for an hour in the dark by yourself, you're
not a hunters. It was pretty it was abusive, It
was slightly abusive. We drop him off, we come back
(20:20):
to camp, and this time, the only thing better than
the only thing funnier then the first snipe hunt is
the second snipe hunt, and oh man, we just sat
around and just had the time of our lives while
our buddy was just sitting out in the woods waiting
for us to organize a drive to push an elusive
(20:40):
nocturnal bird passed him that never came. Eventually, I remember
feeling pity for him, and we finally go pick him up,
bring him back, and he's dead serious about wanting to
get a snipe, and we eventually leaked to him that
(21:01):
the last three hours, you know, since we started, this
was all a ruse and he was the only one
not in on the fun and it was pretty painful.
I felt pretty bad about it. So that's my best
and my worst snipe hunting story.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That was a good story, Clay, and a perfect way
to round off this snipe hunting story section of this episode. However,
I do have to say that leaving that poor boy
out in the woods for hours like that was pretty
cold hearted. All right, Well, we've heard three really good
tales of snipe punting pranks. We've learned some interesting facts
about the actual snipes, such as their crazy worldwide distribution,
(21:41):
the long list of subspecies, the fact that they are
the origin of the word sniper, and the lore around
how they turned into the subject piece of a running.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
Joke that we all know so well today.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
But what we don't know a lot about yet is
their actual biology and the hunting culture around them. That's right,
There is a small group of folks that get out
there and hunt snite like for real, hunt snipe, and
I just happen to know someone who does it.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Houston Haven's is the waterfole biologist for the state of Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
He's also a genuine snipe clunter, the real counts, not
the print counting.
Speaker 6 (22:15):
Because of Houston's.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Biologist status, he'll be able to cover both snight biology
and snipe hunting for us.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
Here's Houston.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
So snipe are shore birds migratory? Of course, we typically
in Mississippi start to see snipe. Early November or so
is typically when we start to get first reports and
just fuel start to trickle in. Use really shallow water
or mudflats with a little bit of vegetation in them.
They're extremely camouflaged and so they blend in with pretty
(22:47):
much any vegetation at all, so really hard to see.
They hold really tight compared to most shorebirds, things like
sandpipers and all get up you know, pretty far out,
but snipe because they are so camouflages the whole really
tight in that vegetation that they're in. And what they're
doing is using their their bills, their probe shaped bills,
you know, stick them down the mud finding things like invertebrates, worms,
(23:11):
you know, mostly bugs and vertebrates that they're even for
their diet. Yeah, numbers continue to build throughout the winter.
Let's say most people in Mississippi when they're hunting sniper
getting after them. After the duck season usually ends, you know,
water starting to come off of areas that've been flooded
all winter, so we've got a lot of that showy
mud flat and edges of the water that snipe like
to be in anyway, and so.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Are they pretty much countrywide?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
They are, you know, looking at the distribution, they kind
of kind of react with the waterfowl as far as
breeding areas, so prairie Poe whole region, way up into
the Arctic birds that are coming to Mississippi. I can't
really say, not a lot of sniper bandits. We don't
have very good band return date on them at all,
none that I know of. Yeah, pretty wide breeding range,
(23:55):
you know, migratory birds going to be you know, pushed
by time of year and weather, just like most Yeah,
it's it seems like it's kind of building in popularity.
Snipe five hunters.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Yeah, really, we.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Hear more people asking about it, at least as the
years have gone on, am I I guess eighteen years
now working seems like I get more more calls about
it now. Whether or not those people are actually going
and pursuing them or they're just kind of curious about them.
I don't really know for sure they're.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Do you know anybody that actually goes and does it?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I do it myself, Yeah, and you do. Yeah, have
some friends here in the department, will you know. It's
kind of one of those things, you know, deer season
is ending, you know, end of January duck seasons in it,
and it's kind of like, okay, what do we do now?
So okay, you know this is something that's still open
and we can get out there and you know, get
some dog work or what have you. And so it's
just kind of feels that gap in between I guess
(24:45):
you know those other hunt seasons in Turkey season in
the spring. But yeah, I mean it's a super fun
you know, kind of not as much like duck dove
hunting because you're kind of walking birds up and it's
not not sitting around, but you can you can kind
of pick good spots well you know, flush some birds
up and kind of wait for them to come back
as well.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So, huh, if you were going to get a game
plan together, like all right, we're gonna go snipe hunt,
and I'm not asking you to tell me where you're
going hunting, but like, is it like a one person
sport or is it better if you have three or
four people, like well, like lay out a game plan
if you're going action on snipe hunt.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
So it kind of depends on the area just how
much you know edge kind of and really that is
what I look for is that edge of water that
has some mud flat and maybe a little bit of vegetation.
You're not gonna kind of cruise around and just see
a bunch of snipe. If you do, you know, it's
relatively rare that there's gonna be out in the out
in the wide open, so it's kind of just covering
(25:42):
ground and kicking them up a little bit and seeing, Okay,
here's what they're keying inn on. Because if you find one,
it's not that they'll be in really big groups or anything,
but if you find one, you kind of get a
visual image of what that bird was doing and uh
and kind of go from there. But uh, yeah, it
can be a multiple person type of sport. I guess
maybe a little bit kind of like pheasant hunting. If
(26:02):
you're walking out, you know, kind of spacing out and
so you can cover area and kind of fine with
the birds or because they're really specific about what they're
going to be keying in on, both with water levels
and with vegetation.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Are they're pretty fast? Aren't think because they're small birds.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yes, they're small birds, very fast, and they don't fly
straight for very long. You know, like I said, you're
not going to see them very often before they flush,
so you're just kind of kind of staying on the
ready and walking them up and trying to get a
shot off when they get up.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Now you are y'all running pointers or on them, or
y'all just got retrievers and.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Just retrievers yup, just to you know what I've And
it depends on the dog. But what I've come across
is I just need my dog to heal until i'm
you know, fortunate enough to make to make a shot
on one, and then retrieving the bird for me because
walking mud flats and all, it's a lot of slogging around.
So the more steps that the dog can save me
just retrieving a bird is good. But yeah, I don't
(26:54):
know how well pointing dogs would do on them, you know,
the whole tight relative for a person. But if dogs
just you know, running around working, maybe bumping birds up.
But there may be people out there who are using.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Plints, I don't know, man, I have so many questions. Yeah,
you know, because like I said, the real side, the
real hunting culture of it. I know, I probably know
less about the real hunting culture of it than I
do about the joke side of it. Have you ever
or do you know anyone in the department that has
ever gotten a call or anything and someone has confused
(27:26):
the snipe season with the snipe hunting prank we have.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Yeah, people will see it in our outdoor digest when
they're flipping through and just seeing what their typical season
dates are for the year, and you know, maybe they'll
read through the migratory game bird section and come across,
you know, snipe. You know, I thought this was some
mythical creature, you know, And so they'll call us sometimes
and ask about it, you know, and you know, had
no idea that that's an actual migratory game bird that
(27:51):
is legal for harvest. And so we do get those
every once in a while. But if yeah, for the
most part, it's just people that are looking to add
something different that they haven't hunted before.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, a man, because honestly, I mean I was young.
That's probably like in middle school, early high school. But
I remember back before, I mean you can still get them,
but it was for the internet was as prevalent as
it was now, and you'd still just have like the
print outs of the season and stuff. I remember the
first time I saw I noticed snipes in the migratory
third hunting season. I was like, wait a minute, because
(28:22):
I'd had I had had the joke pulled on me
when I was like in sixth grade, you know, so
I remember looking at that and being like that the
I thought sniperunting was a joke.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Yep, it's a It's a real thing. And you know,
when you really find them and find what they're looking for,
we can you know, can they can be plentiful, you
know on public areas that have shallow water, you know,
waterfowl areas that water's coming off of after the duck season.
Probably not gonna have a whole lot of competition for
for sniping out there. It's not something that we have
(28:53):
a ton of people that are you know, pursuing, but
uh yeah, it can be some really good opportunities out there.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
What do you know, Not only is there an actual
honting culture and game bird and a snipe that's worth pursuing,
but honestly, it sounds pretty fun. I may have to
give it a try later this winter, you know what,
maybe that's what all.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
Of you should do.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Round up some buddies this fall and give snipe hunting
a try. You know, the real kind, not the prank kind.
I want to sincerely thank all of you for listening
to Backwoods University as well as bear Grease in this
country life. This community is sure fun to be a
(29:33):
part of. If you like this episode, share it with
someone you know that has been duped by the snipe
prank before. Maybe they'll get a kick out of it
and stick around because there's a whole lot more on
the way. We'll see y'all next time.
Host
Clay Newcomb
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