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A snipe hunt is one of a class of practical jokes that involve experienced people making fun of newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task.
Inexperienced campers or hunters are told about a bird or animal called the snipe, as well as a (usually ridiculous) method of catching it—such as running around the woods carrying a bag, or making strange noises. Since the supposed snipe doesn't exist, the hunt never succeeds, no matter how foolishly the newcomer acts.
To extend the joke, there actually is a species of bird called a snipe, but it is found primarily in wetlands and the joke is invariably played in wooded areas. Tolstoy novel War and Peace includes a real snipe hunt.
Other variations
Another variation of this type of practical joke, called a fool's errand in the UK, involves sending newcomers on a work site to fetch nonexistent tools, such as a left-handed screwdriver, a can of striped paint, fallopian tubing, an alternating current battery, or a tube of elbow grease.
A variation in UK schools - called long stand - involves a teacher sending a pupil—usually picked for being annoying as much as for gullibility—to another teacher for "a long stand". When the pupil arrives and delivers the request, they are asked to wait—usually in full view of the class: this is their "long stand".
In the Boy Scouts of America it is common for first-time attendees at a camporee (a large weekend event) to be sent after a "left-handed smoke-shifter," supposedly a branch with a fan on the end used to deflect smoke from a campfire. This practice is also common at Camp Agawam.
In the Air Force a variant involves new airmen being sent to the commissary to purchase a bottle of prop wash—prop wash is actually a term for turbulent airflow coming from the aft end of a propeller. More military snipe hunts include, but are not limited to, sending someone for keys to a drop zone, box of grid squares, blinker fluid, winter air for tires, canopy lights, and lightstick batteries. Sometimes comissaries will get into the act and prepare things like bottles labeled "prop—wash", and so on to sell to unsuspecting victims.
A US Army variation is to send a soldier in search of a Priky-7, a non-existant object that sounds like an older military slang term for a radio. After being sent to several non-commissioned officers (i.e., sergeants), he is finally sent to a Sergeant First Class (an E-7 pay grade). That sergeant explains why he isn't looking for a prick E-7, but a Priky-8, and is sent looking for the company's First Sergeant (an E-8 pay grade).
Additional variants include sending a soldier in search of spark plugs for diesel engines, squelch juice, and bulb grease.
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