I was making a joke. As snipes are almost always shot with shotguns, I wonder if the term "snipers" comes not from shooting an accurate rifle at a target a long way away, but instead from the skilled shotgunner shooting a fast flying snipe?

The only snipe, I have seen when shooting, was a woodcock flying through the forest at tremendous speed, compared to pheasant, when pheasant shooting in England. I had started to swing on it and lining it up, when someone yelled "don't shoot!" and then someone else yelled "shoot" but my opportunity had passed in that second or two.

Once upon a time snipe, Japanese and Manchurian Snipe could be hunted and shot in Victoria, before some protection of migratory birds act was passed and some international treaty closing down that legal season for ever in Australia. A challenging shooting sport for those who could do it.

So, would I be a "goose" if I started telling good shotgunners, that they are "a hell of a sniper"! For good shotgunning?