Bear Grease - Ep. 387: Backwoods University - Snipe Hunters

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

How does a prank get carried on for over 100 years? How does a seemingly small piece of the natural world become so embedded in North American culture? That's what we'll be looking into this week when we dive into snipe and snipe hunting. A migratory game bird with an actual small hunting culture built around it, and is very different from the prank/fictionalized version of itself. We're going to learn all about the actual bird, and hear a few stories from folks who have experienced the snipe hunting prank first hand. Connect with Lake Pickle and MeatEater Lake Pickle on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTubeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, wild places, and the people who dedicate their lives to conserving both. Big shout out to Onyx Hunt for their support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle. On this episode, we're going to learn about one of the most famed hunting pranks that has been getting pulled on unsuspecting victims from all the way back to the 1800s, up until this very day. And the actual small hunting culture built around this animal. You take someone out and you put them in the woods in the dark and you leave them in the woods. And it's a trick. And when you hear about it, you think, well, man, it sounds like it might be fun.

You never, but he's out there. You just kind of like Bigfoot. You know, had no idea that that's an actual migratory gangbird. It is legal for harvest. Have any of you ever heard of a creature called the snipe? It's time that we do a little snipe hunting. It's always fascinating and sometimes comical to me when a seemingly obscure and small piece of the natural world stumbles its way into becoming a cultural phenomenon.

And the snipe and the infamous snipe hunting prank has done exactly that. Today, we're going to learn about the actual bird, because it is indeed a real animal. Some folks don't know that. We're also going to learn about how this small critter became the centerpiece for one of the largest and longest running jokes. in the entire realm of hunting. We're going to learn a few other very well-known things in mainstream culture that most folks don't realize were also derived from the snipe bird. And lastly, we'll all be entertained by hearing a few snipe hunting stories

from guys that have pulled the snipe hunting prank on some poor unsuspecting victim and some that have been the poor souls that had the joke pulled on them. Clay has deer story and turkey story episodes. Brent, well, he tells a story in every episode. he puts out. Well, here at Backwoods University, we have snipe hunting prank stories, and I think y'all are going to get a real kick out of them. This first story was told all the way back in 1966 by famous radio personality and storyteller, Gene Shepard. Not only is this a classic snipe prank tale, but it gives us a little bit of a glimpse of just how long this has been

going on. Well, let me tell you about the time I went hunting snipes, and I'm 16 years old. I shall never ever forget it. In fact, I never forgave the guy who was responsible for this. Saturday night we're going hunting. And we go out into the swamp in Delbert's Model A. Bumpus' model A. We drive way out in the swamp. Now, we had a swamp that was like 500 miles long, and we drive deep into swamp. And now we're out in the darkness. And B.G. is talking and whispers. He says, just snipe will hear you and if they hear you they'll forget it they're very shy bump you off here and me and growing into the woods deeper in the woods and we will chase the snipe and you stand in the water and hold this burlap bag you hold the bag

between your legs hold it open see like that and the snipe will see the bag and think that it's a burrow or it's a hole in the ground see you'll see that and he'll you'll run into the bag. Now, you got the whistle. And you have to keep whistling. Now, the snipe hears the whistling, see, and thinks that there's another snipe. Now, for some reason, honor, and I don't know why it is, but snipe, like to hear you whistle Dixie. Do you know how to whistle Dixie? I say, yeah. They say, okay, as soon as we go, you start whistling Dixie, and you'll keep the between the knees and the snipe will come running in okay good luck here's the bag well I climb out of the car and I got the bag it's a burlap sack and I go down into

the water which is like 500 degrees below zero and it is cold oh boy is it cold the wind is blowing out of the trees it is as dark as the inside of your hand and I start going I am hunting snipe and I'm excited and they go off into the darkest and they're gone and I am such a aware there's nothing of darkness like a treat was scared out of my skull I am really scared and I am still excited I'm hunting snipe and I got that bag between my knees not whistling dixie while I whistled dixie for five hours up to my knees in the swamps and dawn is coming up like thunder over the gas works far away when it suddenly dawned on me I have been

T-A-K-E-N. I have been taken. Ever since that day. Now, I'm going to... This is why I never have told this story before, because it's so embarrassing. Ever since that day, whenever I go back home, guys, follow out of pool rooms. Hey, chef, how about going out for some snipe? There goes to snipe hunter.

I never, ever live that down. I enjoy listening to that story for a whole lot of reasons. One, you can hear the different era in time coming through the speakers. Everything about it, the audio quality, the jargon he used, it's classic. Two, I thought it was important that we share this prank first because it's the most classic version of it. You tell an unknowing victim that the snipe is a bird you can only hunt at night. You equip this person with some sort of bag and tell them that they'll be dropped off alone in the woods

and that the rest of the guys are going to circle around and make a drive and push the snipe to them. and then they're supposed to catch it in the bag, when in reality, all that's really going on is the person gets left alone in the dark woods with nothing but a wild imagination in an empty bag while everyone else is back at camp laughing about it. However, over the many years that this has been going on, there have been several spin-off versions, if you will,

of this classic snipe hunting prank, which is what we're going to hear next. But first, like I said, we're also going to learn some of the other well-known parts of our culture that were derived from the humble snipe. So, here's fun snipe facts that I bet you didn't know, part one. Like we've already alluded to, a snipe is an actual bird. In fact, it's a game bird with an established hunting season.

And it's also a bird with a very wide range, one that's nearly worldwide, to be exact, and it's comprised of different subspecies. And in the 1770s, when British soldiers were occupying India, snipe in those areas were known for being a game bird that presented extreme challenges due to its camouflage feathers, quick and erratic flight, and its presumed alertness. All of this made being a successful snipe hunter an exceedingly difficult task. A successful sniper had to be sneaky, as well as being a good shot, while using flintlock equipment, might I add. As time went on, the term evolved, and there was some recorded letters from these soldiers. referring to a day of snipe hunting as going sniping, which over time allowed the term to

evolve again to when referring to someone that was a good sniper or referring to someone that was just stealthy and a really good shot as a sniper. Yep, this whole time the word sniper can be traced all the way back to a snipe. The same bird that gave us a fun prank to play and has yielded us countless funny stories. And speaking of funny stories, and speaking of funny stories. I think it's time we hear another one. Our next storyteller is a man that means a whole lot to me. Mr. Gary Simons was a Sunday school teacher of mine when I was going through high school. I learned a lot of lessons from this man in my younger years. He's also a true veteran outdoorsman with some serious credentials in hunting and fishing. In my time spent with him as my Sunday school

teacher, I remember a couple times when he would host all of us up at his family hunting camp and we would spend the weekend fishing, shooting archery, and all sorts of fun stuff. This story that you're about to hear Mr. Gary Tell took place on one of those very weekends. Well, you know, I don't know if you ever went, but we built a little camp up near Thomastown out of Carthage. Yep, I stayed there. Okay, all right, well, we were up there at one point. We had a good group of guys, but I had taught in life group at church, you know, 9 through 12. So I think this was kind of maybe a ninth or tenth grade group.

But anyway, we were up for a lot of times we'd build a birdhouse, fish, hike. You know, we'd cook, have Bible studies, all the sort of stuff. But you know, when you get a bunch of boys together, you start thinking about something you can do, you know. So anyway, that night we got to talk and I had a couple of other leaders with me. And we got to all of a sudden start talking about snipe hunting. Well, these guys didn't know what a snipe hunt was. And maybe there were one or two that did, but they wouldn't reveal it to the others. So anyway, there's a guy named Lewis.

And Lewis is, he's deathly scared of the dark. This guy is spooky. And a good guy, but I tell you, I wouldn't mess with you because his daddy was a karate guy. And he had taken karate. I mean, this guy, I think they call it a cata of these things that they do. Anyway, I say, show me a cada, Lewis. and man, you could tell this guy he was a karate dude, but he was scared of the dark.

So anyway, we decided we're going to snipe hunt. So I got this little dinky flashlight, like one you put on a little cap light or something. That's all we had. And so we take this light. We're talking about snipe, and, man, these things attack you. You've got to keep your eyes open, guys. Look close, man. These snipes, you just don't know where they're going to come from.

And so we were making our way down the logging road behind us. the house and we're steady talking about, man, you keep your eyes open, guys. Man, be looking and all of a sudden, wait, wait, wait, did you hear that? Did you hear it? And everybody's standing there looking and listening to eyes big, you know, all right, let's keep going. So we kept going. All of a sudden there's a patch of woods there you go through that you can go over to

the power line. So we're making a way over to the power line. and Lewis is, man, he's fidgeting. I mean, he's losing it. It's dark. He said, Mr. Gary, stand over here with a flashlight. I said, all right, come over here by me. You know, he wants some light.

Anyway, we get over to the power line, and all of a sudden, you know, we're still going through the same scenario. Guys, keep your eyes open, man. And all of a sudden, we start hollering. There it is. There it is. Man, we're going crazy.

Well, Lewis finds a long. limb and this thing's about 10 feet long and it's probably about three inches at the part he's holding and he picks that limb up and he looks like the Tasmanian devil he's swinging his thing and guys are scattering. Louis has lost it and man forget to snide we're scared of Lewis now man he's whipping that stick around and man I said oh my gosh Lewis stop stop stop it's so It's okay. So anyway, we finally got Lewis settled down to a point, man. I mean, everybody's heart's beating down.

Lewis has gone crazy. Anyway, we all got back to the house at night. That was my last snipe hunt, and Lewis ended it. Swinging that stick around? He was swinging that stick, man. I tell you, we all got back to the house. And, of course, it was all funny then. I don't know what Lewis ever smiled about it.

I really don't. He was, he was still, he was still in his own. Shook up. He shook up. But we didn't snipe hunting anymore. We decided to build bird houses and fish and something more common. That's not what. Man, I cannot help but laugh every time I hear that story.

Just the imagery of it. Those boys scattering due to that one guy swinging that stick around in horror that the snipe was about to get him. And everyone realizing that this isn't a joke anymore. It's also a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier when I said that over the years, the snipe prank has taken a couple of different forms, seeing as this wasn't your standard, drop a guy out in the woods with an empty sack and leave him out routine. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts.

Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut.

I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Felps. Game Calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises

and getting action. We have one more snipe prank to hear about, but before we do that, it's time for you to hear fun snipe fact that I bet you didn't know number two. Like I said before, a snipe has a nearly worldwide distribution among their different subspecies.

There's the sub-anarctic snipe endemic to some areas in New Zealand. There's the Great Snipe, endemic to northeastern Europe and northwestern Russia. There's also the North Island snipe, the Swinho snipe, the Pintailed Snipe, the Latham Snipe, the Pantham Snipe, the Panthaneal snipe, the Solitary Snipe, the Wattanoxar Snipe. There's honestly, there's a whole lot more of them, but y'all get the idea. There's a lot. But for the relevance of today's episode, we're going to be talking about. the common snipe and the Wilson snipe, because both of them find themselves migrating through and living in North America. So in terms of the common snipe and the Wilson snipe, these would have been

the objects of what eventually turned into the snipe prank. So how exactly did it evolve into this crazy prank that we're somehow all aware of? Well, like we talked about earlier, these snip don't make for an easy hunt. With their ability to hide, their erratic flight, they're hard to get in hand even when you can find them. Throw into the equation that these birds are migratory and you're met with an even tougher hunt. So as the story goes, that as the years went on and actual snipe hunters were prone to go out and come back empty-handed over and over again year after year, the joke started being made at their expense that they were hunting something that wasn't even there, that a snipe didn't even exist. And this

somehow, in a crazy way, evolved into the well-known snipe hunting prank that is still being carried out to this very day. Wild, huh? And speaking of snipe pranks, we've got one more story left to tell, and it's a good one. Our final storyteller is someone that I am sure that you already know. His name is Clay Newcomb, and he's the reason that this whole podcast feed exists, and he's also the reason that I wound up on him, so if you don't like me, blame it on Clay. It's his fault. Anyway, Clay is no stranger to tell him a good story. I'll let him take it from here. So I grew up in Mina, Arkansas in the Washington, in the Washington Mountains of western Arkansas,

just a rural community. And when we were about sophomores in high school, me and several other friends started this club. And the club was really a joke. But we called it the Timber Scouts. And what we did with the Timber Scouts

is that it was an invitation-only club, and we went camping. Now, I was a hunter, but some of these other guys didn't hunt. They just liked to camp. And so it was actually, a joke like that we had a club that we had to go camping. This club, though, mind you, was like we didn't drink, we didn't smoke, we just went out and had a good time camping. Well, the lore of the Timber Scouts grew to some degree and a lot of people wanted to come camp with us. Well, when I was a

senior, we probably had the biggest Timber Scout outing of all time. We probably had 12 to 15 guys camping with us out at a place called Wolfpin Gap. And there was a fella that will remain nameless who was an incredible guy, like a star athlete, and just a guy that was known to have a lot of character, but wasn't skilled in the outdoors, wasn't a hunter, didn't grow up in a family that hunted a lot. And perhaps the boy was a little naive at the time. And we knew and had always heard about snipe hunting. And I can honestly tell you, I don't know that we ever tricked anybody because everybody knew about snipe hunting. Like, snipe hunting is when you take someone out and you put them in the woods in the dark, you tell them that you're hunting this elusive, nocturnal bird,

and you leave them in the woods. And it's a trick. And the snipe hunters, the one who've organized the snipe hunt, then go back and do whatever while this person stays in the woods, waiting for a snipe to be driven past them, almost like it was a deer drive. And so this particular night, we plotted together. I mean, a bunch of us, all of us, except for this guy, knew what was going on. And I set it up, and I'm like, all right, boys, we're going snipe hunting. And, I mean, we just made this elaborate plan. I mean, I was like saying, Billy, Johnny, and Joey, y'all are going to go south.

And right where that finger comes down off the mountain, you're going to be right there. And Jimmy, you're going to go here, and Billy, da-da-da-da-da. I mean, it was like a real organized hunt. And the only person that wasn't in on it was this guy. So we go out and we put this guy out by himself. And sure enough, you know, after we put him out and it appeared as if everybody had gone all their separate directions to go on their stands, we all come back to camp, sit around the fire, laugh that our buddy is out in the wild. woods by himself waiting on a snipe. Well, we let him stay out there for at least 45 minutes,

and someone goes and picks him up, brings him back to camp. Everybody tells their story of what happened, and it's this big ruse, you know, and so this guy just feels like he was just a player in this huge hunt that had just taken place that was unsuccessful. Well, the only thing that's better than one snipe hunt is two. So we just, kind of roll into it and say, well, it's time to go back. We got to try another spot. And so we do the whole thing again. But this next time, we leave this guy out in the woods for at least an hour. And if you've ever sat in the woods for an hour in the dark by yourself, you're not a hunter, it was pretty, it was abusive. It was slightly abusive. We drop him off. We come back to camp.

And this time, the only thing better than, the only thing funnier than the first snipe hunt is the second snipe hunt. And, oh, man, we just sat around and just had the time of our lives while our buddy was just sitting out in the woods waiting for us to organize a drive to push an elusive nocturnal bird past him that never came. eventually I remember feeling pity for him and we finally go pick him up, bring him back, and he's dead serious about wanting to get a snipe. And we eventually leaked to him that the last three hours, you know, since we started this, was all a ruse. And he was the only one not in on the fun. And it was pretty painful.

I felt pretty bad about it. So that's my best and my worst snipe hunting story. That was a good story, Clay, and a perfect way to round off this snipe hunting story section of this episode. However, I do have to say that leaving that poor boy out in the woods for hours like that was pretty cold-hearted. All right. Well, we've heard three really good tales of snipe hunting pranks. We've learned some interesting facts about the actual snipes, such as their crazy worldwide distribution, the long list of subspecies, the fact that they are the origin of the word sniper

and the lore around how they turned into the subject piece of a running joke that we all know so well today. But what we don't know a lot about yet is their actual biology and the hunting culture around them. That's right, there is a small group of folks that get out there and hunt snipe, like for real hunt snipe. And I just happen to know someone who does it.

Houston Havens is the waterfile biologist for the state of Mississippi. He's also a genuine snipe learner. the real kinds, not the prank kind. Because of Houston's biologist status, he'll be able to cover both Snype biology and snipe hunting for us. Here's Houston. So snipe are shorebirds, migratory, of course.

We typically in Mississippi start to see snipe early November or so. It's typically when we start to get first reports and just fuel start to chuckle in. But use really shallow water or mudflats with a little bit of vegetation in them. They're extremely camouflaged, and so they blend in with pretty much any vegetation at all,

so really hard to see. They hold really tight compared to most shorebirds, things like sandpipers and all get up pretty far out, but snipe, because they're so camouflaged, they'll hold really tight in that vegetation that they're in. And what they're doing is using their bills, their probe-shaped bills, you know, stick them down the mud,

finding things like invertebrates. worms, you know, mostly bugs, invertebrates that are even for their diet. Yeah, numbers continue to build throughout the winter. Let's say most people in Mississippi, when they're hunting snipe, are getting after them after the duck season usually ends. You know, water's starting to come off of areas that have been flooded all winter. So we've got a lot of that showy mudflat and edges of the water that snip like to be in anyway. And so are they pretty much countrywide?

They are. You know, looking at the distribution that kind of very relate with waterfowl as far as breeding areas. So prairie pothole region way up into the Arctic. Birds that are coming to Mississippi, I can't really say. Not a lot of sniper bandits. We don't have very good band return date on them at all, none that I know of. Yeah, pretty wide breeding range. You know, migratory birds are going to be pushed by time of year and weather just like most.

Yeah, it seems like it's kind of building in popularity. Snipe hunting. Yeah. Really? We hear more people asking about it at least as the years have gone on. in my, I guess, 18 years now of working, it seems like I get more calls about it. Now, whether or not those people are actually going and pursuing them

or they're just kind of curious about them, I don't really know for sure there. Do you know anybody that actually goes and does it? I do it myself, yeah. You do? Yeah, have some friends here in the department. We'll, you know, it's kind of one of those things. You know, deer season is ending, you know,

end of January, duck season is ending, and it's kind of like, okay, what do we do now? So, okay, you know, this is something that's still open and we can get out there and, you know, get some dog work or what have you. And so it just kind of fills that gap in between. I guess, you know, those other hunt seasons and turkey season in the spring. But yeah, I mean, it's super fun, you know, kind of not as much like dove hunting because

you're kind of walking birds up and it's not sitting around. But you can kind of pick good spots as well, you know, flush some birds up and kind of wait for them to come back as well. So if you were going to get a game plan together, like, all right, we're going to go sniper hunting. I'm not asking you to tell me where you're going hunting, but like, is it like a one-person sport, or is it better if you have three or four people? Like, lay out a game plan if you're going actually going snipe hunting. So it kind of depends on the area, just how much, you know, edge kind of, and really that is what I look for is that edge of water that has some mudflat and maybe

a little bit of vegetation. You're not going to kind of cruise around and just see a bunch of snipe if you do you know it's relatively rare that they're just going to be out in the out in the wide open so it's kind of just covering ground and kicking them up a little bit and seeing okay here's what they're keying in on because if you find one it's not that they'll be in really big groups or anything but if you find one you kind of get a visual image of what that bird was doing and uh and kind of go from there but uh yeah it can be a multiple person uh type of sport i guess maybe a little bit kind of like pheasant hunting if you're walking out you know um kind of spacing out and so you can cover area and kind of find what the birds are

because they're really specific about what they're going to be keying in on both with water levels and with vegetation. They're pretty fast, aren't they? Because they're small birds. Yes, they're small birds very fast and they don't fly straight for very long. You know, like I said, you're not going to see them very often before they flush, so you're just kind of staying on the ready and walking them up and trying to get a shot off when they get up.

Now, are you, are y'all running pointers there on them, or are y'all just got retrievers Just retrievers, yep, just to, you know, what I've, and it depends on the dog, but what I've come across is I just need my dog to heal until I'm, you know, fortunate enough to make a shot on one and then retrieving the bird for me. Because walking mudflats and all, it's a lot of slogging around, so the more steps that that the dog can save me, just retrieving a bird is good. But, yeah, I don't know how well-appointing dogs would do on them. You know, they'll hold tight relative for a person, but if a dog's just, you know,

running around working, they may be, maybe bumping birds up. but there might be people out there who are using. I don't know. I mean, I have so many questions. Yeah, you know, because like I said, the real side, the real hunting culture of it, I know, I probably know less about the real hunting culture of it than I do about the joke side of it. Have you ever, or have you know anyone in the department that has ever gotten a call or anything, and someone has confused the snipe hunting prank?

We have, yeah. People will see it in our outdoor digest when they're flipping through. and just seeing what their typical season dates are for the year. And, you know, maybe they'll read through the migratory game bird section and come across, you know, snipe. You know, I thought this was some mythical creature, you know. And so they'll call us sometimes and ask about it, you know, and, you know, had no idea that's an actual migratory game bird

that is legal for harvest. So we do get those every once in a while. But, yeah, for the most part, it's just people that are looking to add something different that they haven't hunted before. Yeah. A man, because honestly, I mean, I was young. That's probably like in middle school or early high school. But I remember back before, I mean, you could still get them,

but it was before the internet was as prevalent as it was now. And you'd still just have like the printouts of the season and stuff. I remember the first time I saw, I noticed Snipes in the migratory bird hunting season. I was like, wait a minute. Because I had had the joke pulled on me when I was like in sixth grade, you know. So I remember looking at that and being like, isn't that the, I thought snipe hunting was a joke. Yep. No, it's a real thing.

And, you know, when you really find them and find what they're looking for, they can be plentiful. You know, on public areas that have shallow water or, you know, waterfall areas that water's coming off of after the duck season, probably not going to have a whole lot of competition for snipe hunting out there. It's not something that we have a ton of people that are, you know, pursuing. But, yeah, it can be some really good opportunities out of it. Well, what do you know?

Not only is there an actual hunting, culture and game bird in a snipe that's worth pursuing, but honestly, sounds pretty fun. I may have to give it a try later this winter. You know what? Maybe that's what all of you should do. Round up some buddies this fall and give snipe hunting a try. You know, the real kind, not the prank kind. I want to sincerely thank all of you for listening to Backwoods University, as well as bear grease and this country life. This community is sure fun to be a part of. If you like this episode, share it with someone you know that has been duped by the snipe prank before. Maybe they'll get a kick

out of it. And stick around because there's a whole lot more on the way. We'll see y'all next time. First Lights Fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings

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