I always thought snipes were fake

[born-to-hunt]

anyone here ever been on a snipe hunt? ha ha well I was checking out hunting regulations the other night and I seen one that said "common (wilsons) snipe" I thought they were just a joke with a whistle a stick and a bag but I looked it up and i have actually seen many snipes before they are all over at my grandmas. that struck me as interesting so I thought I would inform the rest of ya. I cannot wait for snipe hunting season now I think it was sep 1st - sep 28th in Ohio. Also I thought I would tell ya I took my sister and her friend snipe hunting yesterday the joke snipe hunt that is

[McDerry]

Hence the term 'sniper'.   

[bilmac]

Yup, snipes are real life birds. They live in grassy semi marsh, so I presume they would be hard to hunt. Only person I ever know of shooting one was an Alaskan game warden. He and I were hunting some ducks one day and he saw this little bird buzzing around and he blasted it with his #4 duck loads. Wasn't much bigger than a dove, and he only shot one. What do you do with one tiny swamp bird?

[SHOOTALL]

We run across them quail hunting sometimes. The meat is dark and has an earth taste ( nice way of saying musky mud taste ) . My grandfather was a market hunter up until about 1950 or so . He sold rabbits and quail mostly . Well he got sick once and a cousin of mine hunted for him to fill his order ( he had rich people in Richmond who had standing orders , some got him shells during the war when they were hard to come by) anyway this cousin was short a quail but had got a few snipe . SOP was to clean and dress the birds and other than the beak and taste they look alot alike . So cus files down one of the beaks and sends the birds . Next week grand pa sends the order and gets a message back that one of the birds the week before tasted like it lived to close to a swamp and could he not shoot those anymore . 

[bobg]

  I always thought they were fake too.My father use to tell stories of taking people on snipe hunts with there paper bag and whistle. Just foung out recently they are real.

[dukkillr]

Ive hunted them several times.  They fly like a cross between a dove and a pigeon and are slightly larger than a dove with longer legs.  We used to see them early in the Northern Missouri duck season fairly regularly and it wasn't unusual to kill 6 or more while duck hunting.  I've also intentionally hunted them in Kansas where public marshes were flooded early for teal.  They have a strong scent and are good for dog training.

I've always shot them with steel 6s because it was the smallest non-toxic shot I could find.  They can be fun...

[born-to-hunt]

I can't wait to hunt them they cover my grandmas pond where I always fish I see them flying next to the water and all but didn't care much about them not knowing what they were. I think I am going to be able to catch em landing on the smaller trees next to the pond.