When it comes to snipe hunting, all you need is a sack and a gullible cousin. And honestly, the sack is optional. 

The idea of snipe hunting is to find someone that has yet to be told about snipes, and convince them that a snipe is an incredibly allusive but valuable bird. Descriptions of the bird vary and ultimately don’t matter all that much. 

All that matters is convincing the cousin that a snipe exists and is known to be in whatever area you are gathered in.

Having long aged out of the practice and run out of uninformed cousins, it’s been quite some time since I’ve been on a snipe hunt, but I imagine the whole convincing part of the hunt has been made increasingly difficult with the advent of the smartphone.

Once you have convinced the cousin of the snipes existence, the next step is to lead them as far back into the woods as their fear of the dark will allow them to go. It’s helpful for the ruse if you can position them in the middle of a game trail, but this is also an optional step.

Having positioned them in the appropriate spot, the rest of the hunting crew goes off into every direction, telling the cousin that they are going to make a large circle around the cousin and slowly push the snipe towards him or her, at which point the cousin is to capture the snipe.

As you have probably deduced by this time, the hunting party will be back at the house having consumed three or four s’mores by the time the cousin pieces together what they have fallen victim to.

On one such trip some years ago, a cousin who had not yet given up on the idea of capturing his prey was certain that he had a snipe coming right towards him. It being dark and he having never seen a snipe, his confusion was understandable.

Thankfully for everyone involved, the skunk he thought was a snipe took a sharp turn before he had the chance to try and jump on him, otherwise the hunt would have ruined everyone’s night, not just his.