Without warning, a tiny screeching object exploded from beneath a grass clump near someone’s feet and hurled itself across the marsh, zigzagging and screaming like a banshee on fire.
Because of a legendary practical joke, many people refuse to believe a creature called a snipe even exists. The snipe-hunting joke involves bringing a gullible—usually inebriated—acquaintance into some remote area at night. Friends convince the neophyte sportsman to hold a sack in the dark forest while making humiliating sounds to call snipe. The perpetrators of the ruse promise to beat the bushes to flush snipe so their victim can snatch the creatures with the sack. Instead, the pranksters drive off, leaving the poor fool stranded and holding the bag.
However, these real swift and erratic fliers can challenge even the best wing-shooters. In fact, the word “sniper,” describing a military marksman, originated with sportsmen hunting these unpredictable fliers. Only the best shooters who could consistently down these birds became known as snipers.
Snipe love soggy, grassy country where they use their extremely long and sensitive bills to probe for invertebrates in soft mud. Look for them in marshes, damp fields, reedy shorelines, and around grassy shorelines of ephemeral upland ponds or soggy hammock edges.
At the southern end of the Atlantic Flyway, Florida contains some of the best snipe habitat in the Eastern United States. The Sunshine State annually winters a large, if largely ignored, snipe population. The best snipe hunting in Florida probably occurs along the St. Johns River and associated waters.
The longest river in Florida begins as a collection of springs near Fellsmere and flows 310 miles into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville. The marshes between Sanford and Fellsmere normally winter good snipe populations.
The Lake Okeechobee area also attracts snipe. Any of the wildlife management areas good for duck hunting probably hold snipe.
The best snipe hunting occurs after duck season ends. Snipe season runs November 1 to February 15, 2024, with a limit of eight per day. That gives marsh hunters opportunities to extend their hunting seasons. After duck season ends, snipe hunters typically find themselves alone in the best marshes.
Unlike waterfowling, snipe hunters don’t need to arrive before dawn or set out hundreds of decoys. Most people walk through the marshes jumping birds as they go all day long. The well-camouflaged buff-colored birds frequently freeze in cover when threatened. They flush only at the last possible minute, bursting from the grass like long-billed firecrackers screeching distinctive yet indescribable harsh, raspy calls.
After flushing, snipe generally fly fast and unpredictably, but not for long. They often fly in a circle and land close to where they originally flushed. Hunters can often mark landing sites and keep jumping birds multiple times.
For hitting these speedsters, use an open choke with No. 71/2 or 8 shot. Bring plenty of ammunition. It’s easy to burn through shells quickly on a good snipe hunt.