Christmas Snipe Hunting

Christmas time often conjures the thoughts of relaxing by a warm fire, and drinking a big mug of hot chocolate. My last Christmas Eve was spent slightly differently. After a fantastic duck hunt with my seemingly long lost brother, and a big breakfast, the next undertaking on that day was a quest for Wilson’s Snipe with my recently acquired 20ga over/under. My dad and brother chose to relax inside and hold with the traditional Christmas Eve responsibilities as opposed to trudging through ankle deep muck on an unproven mission for a flighty quarry. With the recent rain, a nearby field with a small standing corn crop, next to a wide open mud flat had now accumulated a couple inches of water, making it ideal for snipe. That is where I set out with my lab, my new gun, and a box of #7 steel.

Having low expectations, I simply put the shells in various pockets of my waxed cotton overalls, not thinking even thinking of where I would put the snipe if I actually killed any. As we approached the field edge, we quickly jumped a couple snipe sitting on the mud flat 40 yards from us, and well out of range by the time I could shoulder my gun. It was a good sign though. Taking the first steps into water bordering the corn, I was greeted by a handful of snipe getting up out of the corn. I missed the first shot, but dropped one with the top barrel. My lab was on it immediately, so I crouched back down anticipating the inevitable circling of the group I had flushed. As expected they passed right overhead, resulting in another bird down. Having no place to put the birds, I simply held them between my fingers in my left hand. Quickly however, I had 5 birds down, and more shells burned than I care to admit. This left one of my pockets open to fit 4 of the birds surprisingly. My dog and I continued walking the muddy edge with the same tactic of flushing and then crouching. Perhaps the only thing a snipe does that makes them a viable bird to hunt is their willingness to circle back over their original point where they were flushed. Counting on being able to shoot more than a couple birds in a hunt off simply off their initial flush, would be unreliable at best.

Limits of snipe are rare most of the time in a vast majority of Mississippi. Weather changes seem to bring migration influxes of birds, just like with ducks. These are the times when it makes a snipe hunt worth all the effort. In other times, you may be lucky to jump a half dozen. On that particular morning, that small field with about 1 acre of water on it, held a couple hundred snipe. In less than 45 minutes, I had my limit of 8 snipe, and had one heck of a workout making my way though that thick, sticky mud.