Gunning Snipe on the Gulf Coast 1901
 

Was sorting some of the litter in my computer room this morning and came up with this from Sporting Life, March 16, 1901 --

Attachment 88326

This is a decade or so earlier then what I think of as the first heyday of the 3-inch 20-gauge.

That is very interesting! You don't see much on early snipe shooting, outside of J J Pringle's book.

Pringle's book is indeed fascinating and on of the few singular treatises on snipe other than Worth Matthewson's 'Reflections on Snipe.

One of these days I want to get a first edition. Not for $7500 though

I really like the paintings by A.B. Frost of snipe shooting in the marsh from boats poled by guides. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of those fellows caught some bird shot from time to time.





.

I love A. B. Frost. Also Thomas Eakins' "Pushing for Rail" is one of my favorites.

Both A.B. Frost and Thomas Eakins depicted shooting railbirds (not snipe) from rail skiffs poled across the marsh. (Snipe can be walked up in flooded fields or slackwater adjacent to marshes, but you can only very rarely wade for any rail I know of except maybe Clapper or King rail due to the texture of the marsh. I became obsessed with Sora rail hunting in the early 1990s and hunted them on the Maurice ("Morris") River in NJ and the upper Patuxent River below Lower Marlboro MD, both rail shooting strongholds from the 1880s.

I once drove all the way to Philadelphia (around 3 hrs. from my home) in subzero cold just to see Thomas Eakins' original painting that Mills mentioned (below). It depicts rail shooting on the Delaware River below Port Penn just southeast of Philadelphia. It was one of an exhibit of 113 of Eakins' original works, all assembled from private donors for a special exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was more than worth the drive.

The second picture depicts the modern version: brother Tom goes to the ready as he and pusher Jack Smith enter a rice 'meadow' on the Maurice River near Port Elizabeth, NJ. And for those who just 'have to know', Tom's gun is a 28" VH 28 gauge Parker!).

I’m curious how one is able to find downed birds in such marsh tangles?





.

[QUOTE=Dean Romig;312300]I’m curious how one is able to find downed birds in such marsh tangles?


Dean, attached is a shot of some typical styles of markers and a tiny dip net used to retrieve downed birds. The markers are thrown as close to the downed birds as possible then the skiff is poled to the site and the search begins. As many as 4 or 5 birds may jump within the length of the boat, so bright visible markers are a must in locating dead birds. Some guides simply use bright yellow or chartreuse tennis balls - not very nostalgic but very effective!

Thanks very much Kevin - that makes perfect sense.





.

Papa said it was most fun on a high tide with a full moon. I suppose spring tides made the pushing easy as well as spotting the downed birds.

I couldn't resist bringing this Sept rail hunting story back to the top. A good chuckle for sure.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthr...t=merrymeeting

Georgia Snipe
 

Stumbled across this thread and loved every minute of it...here are a few pics from this past season.

Commonly considered a fool’s errand and snipe hunting a great practical joke but I can assure you it’s real and anything but a joke! Miles through coastal marshes and sporty shooting is required to scratch out a few of these dainty migratory beauties.

“I won’t require a lullaby to be put to sleep.”

I love to chase snipe!

Awesome bird that is severely underrated

Attachment 96877

Attachment 96878

Sure do miss hunting them, and burning for them.

Don't Look Autoloader! Lol
 

Love Snipe!

Thanks for not banning me!

Will

Whoa. What a squareback, Will. Tell us about it.

Remington Autoloading Shotgun
 

Thanks Bill,

It is a circa 1910 production Remington Autoloading Shotgun Grade No.5 (Expert).

Two barrels 28" SR Cylinder with Twin Ivories and a later Remington Factory added 30" VR Full.

Came out of upper Indiana in a Red Head 2 barrel leather case.

It has good dimensions and just the right amount of wear to be steady in the field.

Will

At a gun show about ten years ago I saw a Browning A-5 with about ther same amount of engraving coverage - beautiful old gun with some honest wear that somebody had cut the barrel to 22" and mounted rifle sights on it to make it a deer gun... what a horrible shame.





.

I like the final comment that misses were the fault of the gunner not the gun. How true that is.

There is a chapter on rail gunning skiffs in the book THE SEA BRIGHT SKIFF AND OTHER SHORE BOATS, by Peter J. Guthorn, Rutgers University, 1971; updated in 1982.

Quote:

“The rail does not fly high or fast so the range is less than twenty yards. Even so, the rail can be an elusive target. Guns range from 410 to 12 gauge, usually cylinder bored doubles. The more proficient gunners favor the smaller bore pieces. As gunning is limited to about two hours at each flood, downed birds are not immediately retrieved, but their location is marked.”

Guthorn references Thomas Eakins and his 1874 painting, THE ARTIST AND HIS FATHER HUNTING REED BIRDS (copied below), saying “Thomas is shown in the stern poling while Benjamin, his father, stands forward with gun ready.”

Here is another, and more chromatic, rail gunning painting that Guthorn references in his book, by this top-tier American artist: WILL SCHUSTER AND BLACK MAN GOING SHOOTING, Thomas Eakins; 1876.

Pringle's book is an amazing account of twenty years of snipe shooting. The numbers he took during the late 1800s in Louisiana are staggering. A few times he topped 300 birds per day.

Snipe returned this year again but not in the numbers as last year.Still good numbers.
Last Sunday we had a good shoot with a few limits in a morning.

Snipe
 

This guy came into a corn field during a winter dove hunt, what a surprise.

Wonder what he was thinking, where he was going?

Snipe
 

I wondered that also, the field is next to a River so I guess he was following the River. He was pretty high and I originally thought it was a woodcock until it hit the ground.

I’ve never to my knowledge seen a live snipe , fired at one etc . I’m curiouse how are they as table fare and what kind of flavor do they have if cooked to taste the natural flavor ?

Dollar is that a Cashmore?

Will

I forget that's a clients gun I'll have to ask.I know it was his mothers and he is well into his 70's.
As for taste I like them when cooked rare.Breats is dark and legs are white meat.Similar to woodcock.

A few of us old guys like to hunt snipe in NH. The season opens the 15th of Sept and we view it as the equivalent of MLB's "spring training" prior to the opening of woodcock and grouse on Oct 1st.. It's a perfect time to let the dogs and the hunters get back into the routine of real field work only the covert allows full view of the dog and the birds when we put them up.
As for taste, I find them to be very different than woodcock. They have a much lighter flavor but still tasty none the less.
Absolutely love snipe hunting and can't believe other upland hunters don't partake. I think there's hardly a state in the US without them.

The history of snipe hunting in the US is interesting. Once a common, and much sought after, game bird, their numbers plummeted from market gunning (along with other shore birds). Our management practice back then was to shut down all hunting (instead of the current practice of altering season length and bag limits). In the interim, the country lost a generation of potential snipe hunters, and the interest in snipe never caught on again to the degree it once enjoyed.

The bag limits and seasons are now generous. I usually try to find some here in Missouri a day or two every season, but I don't really have much in the way of good migration habitat to hunt in my area. I know they come through, getting up some from wet, harvested cornfields while quail hunting. Duck hunters in the area often report them, too.

I went to a marshy spot the day before our firearms deer season this year specifically looking for snipe. I found none, and when I arrived back at the parking area, I met some out-of-state deer hunters talking with a Conservation Dept. employee. When I told them I was snipe hunting, I got some might suspicious looks.

Such is snipe hunting in Missouri.:)

Hope I'm not violating the "getting off subject" protocol but a quick snipe story... I had the opportunity to volunteer for a weekend at a NAVHDA test in SW Montana a few years ago. The judges were running a test where dogs were working a field for planted birds and being judged on ability to find, point and be steady to flush, shot, and fall of the bird. A young GSP was working well in front of his handler and came all the way to the end of this very big field and went on point about 40 yards from where we bird planters were hiding. A fellow volunteer commented that the dog clearly was pointing something he shouldn't be because we hadn't planted any birds there.
I remarked quite the contrary, the pup had pointed a snipe that I saw fly in there a half hour earlier. Poor dog got called off the point by an exasperated handler. My fellow test volunteer, a native Montanan, wasn't aware they even had snipe there...

A few years back they had record flooding in central SD. Duck were everywhere and so were the snipe. Every field we walked held them and if you have ever been to SD, the wind never stops. Talk about a challenging target I can't even describe their flight path. What a blast.

Only snipe hunt I was ever on was 70 years ago at summer camp at night with a pillow case

Thing about snipe is generally they want to flush into the wind.Walking with the wind can be challenging.Birds will flush straight away and you'll really get to see the erratic flight path.Walking with the wind the birds will generally flush left or right trying to catch the wind for lift.Snipe wings are swept not like a woodcock or quail so they want wind for lift.
Either way they still are great game birds.

Heres another one of his works I saw recently about rail hunting.

I have always loved that one Milton. But then I love anything painted by Eakins.





.

Im heavily interested in hunting from the 1870s-1910s. A bit off topic but are/were there any books from back then about hunting the methods or practices used. I love the aesthetics as well of that time period before gaudy camo.