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.
