Snipe huntin'

[Horsesense]

Back when I was a kid, my neighbor, up the holler, had his cozen from Ohio in for a visit.

This kid was a purebred city slicker and he was full of smart remarks about us hillbilly's. He was so scrawny that I would have got in trouble if I had "whooped em" so to get even we (my little brother and five or six other boys) asked him if he would take some snipes back to Ohio and sell them to the pet stores for $15 bucks each and send us the money. Although he was suspicious, the promise of making some money and the smoothness of our story got him going. He started out by offering to send us half the money and then he talked us into letting him be the one with the net and letting him keep everything he caught.

We walked him down an old road about a mile and left him with a sane draped over a culvert and no light, as we headed back up the holler, to begin our drive.

We went home and watched the Duke Boys on TV and had a good laugh. After a while, the grown ups found out what we had done and they got a good laugh out of it but told us we had better go get him. On the way to get him, I had an inspiration and got a little white chick from under a hen and we spread out and made a big racket, like we were driving snip into the trap. When I got up to the other end of the culvert I tossed the chick in and he began hollering I GOT ONE I GOT ONE!

We all acted impressed at the fact that this was the first albino snipe we had ever seen and that it must be worth 50 bucks! He wanted us to go off and do it again but we all said that we had to go home. His mom played along and made him give us the snipe because they were going to visit another relative the next morning, and it would probably die before they headed back home.

The last we heard he had begged his kinfolk in Manchester KY to take him snipe hunting!

 

[Art Eatman]

That white-chick trick is classic!

At Boy Scout camp one summer, I was the then-13-year-old victim of the ancient snipe hunt game. The location of the setup was near a slough, and the mosquitoes were ferocious! As I crouched with the candle in front of the mouth of the gunny sack, I could hear the chuckles of the evil dastards fading away as they left me to the tender mercy of the Murderous Mad Marauders.

Unfortunately for the perps, I had already read B.A. Botkin's "Treasury of American Folklore", wherein is described the snipe hunt.

So, blowing out the candle and racing back to camp, I "salted" the appropriate sleeping bags with the red ants I'd gathered during the afternoon. Boy Scout motto, right? Be prepared?

I took my bedding and headed for the brush. When "Taps" was played for lights out, I noticed quite a bit of laughter changed to loud howls of anguish. Apparently, ants do not like to share sleeping bags. Shame.

I envy Horsesense for having had the potential for a second shot at the same turkey.

, Art

 

[Sisco]

We just about had a guy talked into it one time, even showed him pictures of a Wilsons Snipe in the Fish & Game dept. handbook.
Someone must have clued him in though because he backed out and didn't seem real happy with us. Oh well, he never bought beer anyway.

 

[Mark Tyson]

Where exactly do snipe live?

 

[Art Eatman]

My bird book sez Northern North America; winters in Brazil. A long-billed, bog-wading critter. Flies in a zig-zag style, which makes them hard to hit.

Bogs got skeeters and sich.

Art

 

[Bruz]

Hmmm, I feel like such a fool now...in high school and college I would take dates to the beach at night Snipe hunting...thank goodness I never caught anything. Never saw a Snipe either...

 

[Horsesense]

Interesting fact; snipers got the name because they were goon enough shots to hit a snip.