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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 4:11 pm  Reply with quote
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Anyone here hunt snipe regularly? If so, what ammo do you use? I would love to find some bogs and give it a go, possibly with my setter. Would also like to use my 16 hammer gun or Lefever damascus gun, but I don't know of anyone that sells small bismuth (7's would be ideal). So, I'll probably have to use my new Charles Daly sxs with steel 7's.

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skeettx
PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 4:17 pm  Reply with quote
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http://thesnipehunter.com

on doublegunshhop PM Snipehunter

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=sendprivate&User=5637

insure you add a subject in the subject line

Mike

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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 8:11 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
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Location: Hudson,Wy

In Wyoming lead is still allowed for snipe and 8 1/2's are great. I have done great with #7 steel when combo hunting for both teal and snipe.

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Gil S
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:19 am  Reply with quote
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Mark, I am able to use lead where I hunt. I've used #8 successfully for these smallest of game birds. Wounded snipe have a fatal flaw when it comes to retrieving them. They will often hop up in the air a few inches and make a sound when one gets close in to them. They are on my short list for the best eating of game birds. While some do, I won't take my dogs with me when I hunt them as the area I usually hunt is a gator and cottonmouth haven and I have known hunters to pay the price with their dogs lives or health hunting snipe. You shouldn't have that problem where you hunt. I use the quick and easy method to pluck them using the waterfowler's age old technique using a molten layer of paraffin (Gulf Wax) floating over a large pot (I use a half filled six gallon crab pot) of water heated up to melt the wax. Cooled in a bucket of cold water and set aside on a cool surface for five to ten minutes, the wax peels off like the skin of a Satsuma Mandarin orange removing feathers from the skin, clean as a whistle, preserving the skin and fat layer underneath. Before dipping, I trim off the head and wings and one leg, rough pluck the bird and dip in the wax. Don't gut the birds until after peeling off the wax and feathers. Grilled rare to medium rare after coating with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, they are hard to beat. Gil
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Last edited by Gil S on Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:18 am; edited 1 time in total
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byrdog
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 4:18 am  Reply with quote
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BIZ # 7 at Rotometals

https://www.rotometals.com/bismuth-shot-7-10-2-5-mm-alloy-for-reloading-shells-10-made-in-usa/

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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:22 am  Reply with quote
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Thanks guys. Thanks for the snipe links Mike. Here in WA I have to use no tox for snipe, since it's a migratory waterfowl. That's odd that you're able to use lead in some areas. I would have thought that no tox would be mandatory nationwide. Apparently not.

Gil, those look amazing!

Thanks for the bismuth #7 link. If I get into them and it looks like I'll be shooting a lot of shells, that would be the way to go.


Last edited by UncleDanFan on Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:47 am; edited 1 time in total

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fn16ga
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:41 am  Reply with quote
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I hunt them as much as possible , they are my favorite bird to hunt . We can use lead also ,I keep it simple and use # 7 1/2 for all my small game birds .

I did shoot some with #7 bismuth last year as I was seeing teal in the same area. Worked fine.
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Byron Whitlock
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:09 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 27 Jan 2016
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Location: Oswego, Kansas

The only snipe hunt i have been on was when I was a youngster in the Boy Scouts and our scoutmaster placed us out at night with gunny sacks to call for snipe! Wink

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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:22 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
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I think that snipe are classified as shorebirds rather than waterfowl and that is how individual states get to choose whether or not the lump them in with waterfowl. It's kind of like the dove situation.

You are right that you will shoot a lot of shells for snipe. I couldn't imagine paying for bismuth if you hunt them often, and they are addictive. My best record for snipe is 8 birds for 12 shells. They zig zag and are tough to hit while marching through mud. Compared to snipe, doves are tethered balloons.

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skeettx
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:16 am  Reply with quote
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Same with doves

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UncleDanFan
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:19 pm  Reply with quote
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WyoChukar wrote:
I think that snipe are classified as shorebirds rather than waterfowl and that is how individual states get to choose whether or not the lump them in with waterfowl. It's kind of like the dove situation.

You are right that you will shoot a lot of shells for snipe. I couldn't imagine paying for bismuth if you hunt them often, and they are addictive. My best record for snipe is 8 birds for 12 shells. They zig zag and are tough to hit while marching through mud. Compared to snipe, doves are tethered balloons.


Do you shoot them with small steel out of your DS Lefever? My Husky 16 hammer gun is ic in the right and briley's in the left. I wondered about reloading small steel for it, because you're right, bismuth is expensive.

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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:12 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
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If I am going just for snipe, it's lead 8 or 8 1/2 shot. If I am doing a combo with ducks, then #7 steel works great. It does surprisingly well on the occasional big duck out to 30 yards or so when one catches me by surprise. Last December I shot a bunch of wood ducks in Kansas with 7's but those were mostly 15-30 yards. One nice thing about reloading the smaller sizes of steel is that shot bridging isn't much issue.

One year long ago, I tried using steel for everything including upland game. That was the year before it became law of the land for waterfowl. I found that #7 was exemplary on doves and snipe. #6 worked, but I had a lot of birds that would get hit by only one pellet and the cripple rate went up.

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