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Hunting the mysterious snipe Photos from AP Outdoor writer John Shewey cozies up to his birddog, Jake, near Eugene. Outdoor writer shares his widom The Associated Press EUGENE -- Have you heard about the snipe hunter who wrote a bird hunting guidebook? It's no joke. His name is John Shewey, and he's the author of the "Wingshooter's Guide to Oregon," a straight-shooting primer on hunting everything from band-tailed pigeon to valley quail. The 371-page soft-cover came out in August, just in time for the 1999-2000 bird hunting seasons. Grouse, mountain quail and mourning dove seasons began recently and other upland game and waterfowl seasons begin later this month or in October. And, yes, Shewey's book includes a chapter on snipe hunting. That's bound to raise eyebrows among those who equate snipe hunting with a classic practical joke. Indeed, the Dictionary of American Slang says a snipe hunt involves taking some uninitiated person to a remote spot, usually at night, and giving him a gunny sack to capture the "snipe" that his "hunting companions" say they'll soon be chasing his way. At that point, his companions sneak away, leaving their victim behind, holding the bag, to discover the hoax in his own good time. So well known is that hunting rite of initiation -- and so little known is the fact that common snipe are, indeed, a legitimate game bird -- that Shewey says he is often greeted by disbelief when he approaches farmers to seek permission to hunt snipe on their land. "I'd had some real funny responses from people," he said. "It got to the point where I started carrying a frozen snipe I'd kept in the freezer from the previous season plus a bird book and the game regulations -- and on several occasions had to show all three just to prove I wasn't crazy." The Salem outdoor writer doesn't have to go to such extreme lengths to establish his credibility with anglers. Shewey has countless magazine articles and nine fishing books to his credit, including "Trout and Beyond, Alpine Angler" and "Mastering Spring Creeks," plus the Oregon, Washington and Idaho volumes in the "Blue Ribbon Fly-fishing" guidebook series. In fact, Shewey was attending a fly-fishing convention in Montana when Wilderness Adventures Press asked him to write the Oregon version of their state-by-state series of "Wingshooter's Guides." Shewey's been hunting birds since age 7 in southern Idaho, helping his father retrieve ducks in place of a bird dog. Now, he travels about 40,000 miles a year to research fishing articles from Alaska to Baja California and said his work has appeared in every fly-fishing magazine. The premise of the "Wingshooter's Guide," Shewey said, "is to provide a single volume that can aid wingshooters in anything from learning a little bit more about their quarry to actually planning a hunt somewhere in the state." The Oregon guidebook includes basic information on bird hunting regulations, federal and state wildlife areas and public hunting areas and maps galore. "The lucky thing about Oregon is we have a lot of forest service land, we have a lot of BLM land, and that means we have a lot of public access to chukar, forest grouse, mountain quail and valley quail," he said. "And one of neat things about Oregon waterfowl hunting is we can do it on every imaginable environment -- we've got desert basin marsh hunting, we've got great river hunting on the Willamette and Columbia rivers and we've got great coastal estuaries." Shewey's favorite form of wingshooting -- chukar hunting -- is also the one that's most likely to attract out-of-state hunters who read his book. "Chukars are at the top of my list for a couple reasons," he said. "One is the desert rimrock country they live in. I just love that country." Second, they're great for the pointing dogs. Shewey hunts with Jake, a 2-year-old Weimaraner that he trained himself. "I think there are very few birds that are better for these dogs than chukar," he said. "They're just great hunting dog birds because they hold well, they don't run a lot, they don't flush wild a lot and they are in that open country where you can see them." And, of course, he enjoys the challenge and solitude of the snipe hunt. "All the years I've been doing it, I don't know that I've ever run into another snipe hunter," Shewey said. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife surveys indicate that about 850 snipe hunters bag about 3,200 birds in a typical season. Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA