My Snipe hunting Adventure

When I was just a kid my father told me stories about these little birds, that he called Snipe, that ran around at night. He explained how wonderful they tasted, if you wanted to eat them or, he said that they made wonderful pets for kids. He explained how when he was a kid, they would go out at night and fill up the burlap bags they had with Snipe. On good nights,he said they could catch up to as many as 50 to 60 Snipe in one night. He said that there was a lot of money in these birds at that time, and that they would take them into town and sell the little things as pets. Well being the skeptical person that I was I had to ask around and I asked my Uncle. Of course he backed up everything that my father was saying so it all seemed like it was for real.

Well after a while I decided that I wanted to go Snipe hunting. I had to beg my father to take me. He put it off and put it off, until I was in tears begging him to take me Snipe hunting.

So one day at the house he came home with a burlap bag and a flashlight. I got so excited! He explained how we were going up into the woods and he told me where to go stand. He gave me very detailed instructions on how to react when the Snipe came to me. He also gave me a Snipe call and told me how to blow it. He made me practice it until it sounded like, what he said was a Snipe. He explained what to do if I heard them running the wrong way and then told me how to catch them when they got in reach. He explained how he would walk around out away from me and flush the Snipe to me and the rest was up to me. This was going to be fun, man oh man!

I could hardly wait for night time. I walked around the rest of day practicing blowing the Snipe call and pretending that I was catching the Snipe that were running by. I practiced the motions of catching them the way that my father showed me how he used to do it.

When night time came, I was ready, boy-was I ever ready. My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour as we walked up to the woods from the house. I could hardly believe that there were Snipe in these woods because I had been playing in them for years and not seen any. Oh well Dad knew what he was talking about. He was always right.

It had been weeks since this all started and finally the time was here. Dad picked out what he said was a perfect spot to stand. So I took my place and got ready. He said that he was going to go back about a hundred yards and start flushing the Snipe to me and that I was to stand there and be very quiet except for blowing the call. He said not to talk or yell at him or I would scare off the Snipe.

I knew that this was going to be the best time of my life, I had everything down and there was no way that I was leaving the woods with less then 50 Snipe.

My father then left and I could hear him walking back in to the woods away from me. As the sound of his steps faded away, the silence of the woods began to take over. I waited anxiously, straining to hear the sounds of the Snipe running through the woods.

On this warm summer night the stars came out and danced about. It got very quiet, and for the longest time I heard nothing. Soon the crickets began chirping in the night and the anticipation became overwhelming.

I was concentrating so hard that I was sure I could hear hundreds of them running by me but could not see them. I was blowing and blowing the Snipe call trying to get them to stop but it wasn't working. This is terrible what could possibly be wrong????

I could not understand. I knew that I was doing everything to the T, just like my father had taught me. I was so disappointed.

Soon the flashlight was getting dim and I was getting tired of just standing there. I started heading back to the house looking for and calling for my dad to tell him that I was giving up. But I could not find him anywhere. Well he must be lost I thought, but I knew where I was so I went back to the house without him. I was kind of disgusted with him anyway.

When I reached the house I found my father sitting in his chair smiling at me as I came in the door.

Trying to hold back his laughter he asked "Well how many did you catch?"

" None", I replied, "I thought you were going to flush them to me? I thought I could hear them running right by me but they would not stop when I blew the call. I don't understand it!"

The whole family was there and they all started laughing so hard that I thought that they were going to slip a disk in their neck. My dad started turning red and it looked like he was going to blow a blood vessel in his forehead.

This really confused me. "What is going on here?", I demanded to know," What is so funny?"

After a bit of time my father calmed down enough to say " Congratulations son, You have been left holding the bag."

It took some time for me to comprehend just what had happened to me but at least I am able to laugh about it now. I do have to admit that that was the funniest things that ever happened to me and it was FUN!

Click here to return to the Snipe kit page.

Click here to go to the order form.