Snipe - I didn’t know that..

[Cootmeurer]

A couple of years ago I went out to a “teal hole” (a shallow marshy area) to get the young black dog a bit of practice.

Unfortunately with the drought - it was mostly a very large series of mud flats and not a teal about. However- it was rife with snipe. So, put away the 12, pulled out the 20 (mostly because it was the only gun I steel 7s for) and our teal hunt turned to a snipe hunt. Stopped at 2 once the pup had the game figured out.

 

[Foxyboy43]

 

[Ratel]

As a teenager I had a 60acre marshy field with a stream to myself for shooting. It always had a covey of Greys and a good many Snipe. In the Spring I used to lie on a dry bit and watch and listen to the Snipe "Drumming". Come late September a walk for a brace of Partridge and a couple of Snipe was my delight, once, maybe twice dependant on covey size. I once shot a left and right at Woodcock on this ground, got the badge but not the bottle. In my mid forties I used to get invites to shoot on some terrific ground adjacent to Birmingham. A fantastic small pheasant shoot with flight ponds which on rough nights drew all the duck from two large reservoirs. One afternoon I got a call to go over as Snipe were pouring in to a field "poached" by cattle.
Three of us were out and shooting Snipe dropping in with the lights of a large council estate as a backstop half a mile away. We shot too many as literally hundreds poured in. I have never shot a Snipe since and never will again. The same applies to woodcock, although I never refuse one to eat if it is offered.

 

[jammygunner]

Love snipe fantastic birds, used to walk them up in my early teens, I don’t shoot them now. Woodcock also a fascinating creature, do like eating them.

 

[Gmm243]

Where I live we have good numbers of woodcock and snipe most winters. If we didn't have them to hunt our rough shooting opportunities would be slim as there are very very few pheasants and a lot of the farmers who own the land I shoot on like to see them about so we don't shoot them in a lot of places.
Last Sat we did the morning at woodcock before going stalking and flushed over 30, shot 7. I have often seen over 50 in a day but they can be strange animals- here today and away tomorrow. I find both frost and heavy rain affect them though the first day or two of a frost can produce good shooting.
Shot my first right and left when I was 17 and I would imagine I get the opportunity around once every year though it doesn't always ( more often than not) work out. Two weeks ago I put a pair up , one nipped though a bush and the other flew head height at one of my sons so there wasn't a shot fired.
I have no issue in shooting either snipe and woodcock within sensible numbers.
Hares I leave strictly alone. Tried them twice and found them awfully strong plus I can't be bothered to carry them. We don't have them in sufficient numbers to be considered a pest.

 

[bobt]

out today, lad next to me shot woodcock and a snipe,
my 2yr old spaniel picked them both,
the rule is on our shoot, only shoot it if you want to eat it,

 

[Foxyboy43]

Seen it all now…

 

[finbar]

Amazing