Gunning Snipe on the Gulf Coast 1901

[Chris Pope]

Originally Posted by CraigThompson

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 ?

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.

[mobirdhunter]

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.