Does anyone have any thoughts on the best chokes for walking up snipe?

Snipe often flushed close when I was shooting them. When they'd come back by (as they often do) they were out there. I used IC/M.

Truthfully, snipe were usually a surprise bonus on a duck or quail hunt, so I used whatever I was carrying...Geo

For the last ten years Snipe have been my main obsession. If you are hunting with retrievers I would say skeet and lt-modified might be best. I hunt without a dog and taking two birds will almost always result in a lost bird. In that condition, I prefer IC/Full.

The reasoning is founded but it is a long winded topic.

John

Rich: are you anticipating global warming turning Manhattan into a swamp?

Is this gentleman out for snipe, rail, or another shorebird?

Charles DeFeo, also used on a Ballistite calendar

Drew, I've seen woodcock in Manhattan, but no snipe! I am heading to Louisiana in December and hear rumors that there may be some snipe hanging out around duck impoundments. Just wondering if the same open choked gun I use on woodcock makes sense.

In a pump, Mod is a good choice. Snipe can get up a little far out for IC and Mod is a good compromise for those situations. Gil

Drew, neat poster depicting shorebird decoys and hunter. I've never had much luck decoying Wilson's Snipe, however.
M37 16 Ga. 28” Mod

M37 20 Ga. 28” M


MF Robust 226 16 Ga. 27.75” M/F

Friend and former neighbor Gordon Allen’s etching:

My Snipe hunting area is a wide river bottom, often with areas of a little standing water. It's planted with Smartweed. The flushes always seem to be close. Since it's a management area for waterfowl, steel shot is required. If I could use lead, a vintage gun with shortened barrels/no chokes would be my choice. As it is, I'm limited to a 20ga Mossberg bolt action that has screw-on chokes, so I leave off the choke and shoot cylinder.

Thanks very much for the responses.

That's something I'm really trying to find help hunting in my area

My best luck locally has been the odd wet winter when low lying cow pastures flood. The lakes here are so thick with vegetation and gators along the shore, snipe are safe from me...Geo

Here's one reason I don't use my dogs snipe hunting. This photo was taken while snipe hunting in February, 2012. Pretty big ricefield lizard.

Skeet and Mod has downed many Snipe for me.
Brushy/weedy fields with a sheet water understory provide close shots.

Open field snipe hunting is a full/full endeavor.
Wet pastures are prime areas during migration, but they get up long, and are small, so fxf there. They will circle back over you after the initial climb.

Best day ever was 8 for 25 with #6 steel.

I met a guy last year who hunts nothing but snipe with a sub-5-pound H&H Royal single shot in 20 choked IC. I'll be going out for them this season using an MF Ideal 16 choked R .003" and L .015".

Fortunately we're still north of the alligator line in most of Tennessee, so my working cocker Gilley will be coming along.

Any reports on eating them? Fun to shot for sure and I have dropped a few in my younger days for the fun of it but confess to never having taken one home. Not proud of that.

I've heard accounts of three hunting dogs in this area nabbed by gators, but not in the winter while hunting snipe. I don't know if gators actively feed in the winter but I don't want any of my dogs to prove a point one way or the other. The bigger threats where I hunt snipe are water moccasins. I know of one dog, a Brittany, killed and a Lab seriously injured by snakes while hunting snipe in the same area. The Lab that was not killed was later cut up pretty bad by a wild hog. Hogs, snakes, gators...pick your poison.
As far as table quality, I consider snipe to be my favorite table bird as far as taste goes, cooked rare to medium rare, especially ones drawn and plucked which leaves a tasty fat layer between skin and meat. No, Geo, they don't taste like liver on a stick. Here's a limit of snipe cleaned by using the melted paraffin method more commonly used on ducks:

You do me an injustice! In fact I also love snipe, especially picked rather than skinned. I cook'em like doves...Geo

Good to know. I always skin woodcock, because the woodcock fat under the skin has a bad flavor. Glad to hear that snipe are different.

I suppose taste is the taste buds of the beholder as I prefer plucked woodcock as well. Gil

The universal small birdie choke combo is 1/4-1/2 aka skeet/IC and Modified. With respect to large reptiles they have found 14+ft American Crocodile in the Everglades. That is well into man devouring category so actually your situation could be a whole lot worse. I'm not sure how aggressive such beast is in comparison to saltie or African Nile ones, but I sure as hell would not want to find myself bird hunting or fishing near one.

I asked the fella training my spaniel about using flushers on snipe, and he had a macabre tale. An acquaintance used to hunt them out of a canoe, sending his springer swimming to flush the little longbeaks from high spots in some swamp or other--I think somewhere in southern Mississippi. I guess it was good while it lasted but brought to a tragic end when a gator caught pup in midstream. Winter or no, I'll likely confine snipe shooting with dog to north of the gator line.

Breasted out, they're not that different from dove or quail. If I get any this year I plan to keep them whole and pluck them. Well almost whole--not quite ready to spread snipe or woodcock innards on my toast.
https://books.google.com/books?id=hYp1CA...nes&f=false

Jag, I'm familiar with the big American Croc in the Everglades National Park. He hangs out at the opening into Broad River Bay on the boat trail from Big Lostmans Bay. Every time I go by him I get the feeling he is wondering "how do I get the tasty food out of that big fiberglass container?"...Geo

Dats a big one ! Choot'ém Jacob !!
O.M

I generally find snipe in very open shallow water sloughs around here. I have shot them with everything from full choke 12 ga to skeet choke 20 ga guns, but would probably choose IC and Mod with an ounce of steel 7's as about ideal.

I'd hate to be required to shoot steel where I hunt. My preferred snipe load is #8 lead regardless of gauge. Gil