Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer take the kids out on a camping trip for the "snipe hunt", a prank their father's pulled on them when they were younger. But the trip goes wrong when Bobby kills what he thinks is the snipe, but turns out to be a whooping crane, an endangered species. Meanwhile, Peggy goes all the way to Lubbock, TX to get her some special made shoes for her large feet.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bound and Gagged: To prevent Dale from running away while they were asleep, Hank has Bill tie him up in his underpants. When the park ranger see him hopping around in such a state, he comments that the Order of the Straight Arrow is still the same as when he was a kid.
- Camping Episode: The guys take the boys out camping for their own snipe hunt.
- Cassandra Truth: When the park ranger questions the whereabouts of the whooping crane, Boomhauer flat-out confesses what happened, but his unintelligible way of speaking just goes over the ranger's head.
- Characterization Marches On: The flashback scene has Dale's dad, who looks exactly like Dale today. Five years later came the episode "My Own Private Rodeo" would have Dale's dad as looking nothing like him (and being a gay man who originally pretends to be straight).
- Curse Cut Short: Bobby and Joseph sleep over at the former's house and talk about how they might have to put hot coals in their mouths after walking on them. They see what it's like by putting their flashlights in their mouths, leading to this exchange:Bobby: (after they pop the flashlights out of their mouths) Hell, that's hot.
Joseph: Hell, you're not kiddin'.
Bobby: Fu-
Peggy: (immediately pops her head into the tent) Pardonnez me. Did I just hear what I almost heard?
Bobby: I was gonna say "Fuuuuuuuu-get about it."
Peggy: Son, Peggy Hill knows half a swear word when she hears one. Now go to sleep. - Dirty Coward: The first instance we see Dale as this. After the whooping crane gets attacked, he attempts to run away and deny being involved with them, and tries to run off, but his plans are foiled by Bill.
- Dramatic Irony: When the hippies start chasing the guys, one of them unknowingly steps on a bird's nest and its eggs. Bad considering they were trying to save animals.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Dale is depicted as balding later in the series. but in the scene where the park ranger asks about the whooping crane's whereabouts, a tied-up Dale tries to leave the tent but falls down with his hat going off, revealing a head full of hair.
- Eat the Evidence: When trying to get rid of the whooping crane, Dale suggests that Bill eat it, but he replies he filled up on silence sticks.
- Endangered Species: The whooping crane, currently the most endangered bird in North America. And while their population is actually in the hundreds, Dale's assertion that there were only five left wasn't entirely inaccurate. Their population had dwindled to no more than 21 birds left in existence by 1941. Bobby ends up killing one by mistake, or so the characters think.
- Flashback: When the guys reminisce about their snipe hunt when they were kids, we see them and their fathers (Cotton and expies of Bill, Dale and Boomhauer respectively). And they also happened to get a bottle of Bloody Mary Mix and drink and share their childhood dreams: Bill, who wants to fly jets and be an astronaut, Dale, who wants to be a millionaire in London and have people killed, and Hank, who wants to sell propane and propane accessories, but only if his grades are good enough.
- Funny Background Event: When the park ranger begins his investigation, Boomhauer leaves his tent with a hippie woman who kisses him before she runs off.
- The Gadfly: On the drive to the camp site, Bill gets hungry so Hank and Bill both do this so the boys talk, breaking their oath of silence and giving them a bite of their silence sticks (Slim Jims).
- Improbable Weapon User: As the guys escape, the hippies uses their hacky sacks and hit their car with them. One even throws a frisbee.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: This when Hank and the boys gather around a fire:Hank: I am Kicking Elk. As long as the sacred fire is burnin', the oath of silence is suspended. (The boys express relief over being able to talk) Shut up, I'm talkin' here!
- Malicious Misnaming: Eustace, who was shown on the camping trip and failing the silence test, is seen dropping off his son Randy with the guys, with Dale greeting him as "Useless".
- Mistaken for Cheating: The audience is led to believe that Peggy is traveling to Lubbock to meet a lover she has on the side. It turns out she's going to a shoe store that specializes in shoes for women with big feet (which Peggy is ashamed of).
- Mistaken for Murderer: After Bobby lifts the whooping crane's body to let its spirit be with nature, one of the hippies sees and happen to think they murdered the bird and let the ranger know.
- Mooning: While on the way to the camping site, Dale does this twice to Hank's car, with the first time ending with the driver (Boomhauer) ending up in the wrong lane, causing Dale's ass to get scraped against a hedge wall.
- Not Quite Dead: Just as Hank is about to be arrested, the whooping crane everyone thought dead gets back up and flies away.
- One-Shot Character: Garth, the boy with the long blonde hair, who looks like Boomhauer with lighter skin, but it's unknown if he was meant to be his son. This would be his only appearance.
- Shoe Size Angst: Peggy's big feet are mentioned here for the first time (though the season four episode "Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet" would delve more into why Peggy hates having big feet and her coming to terms with it) and her storyline has her going all the way to Lubbock, TX to get her some specially made shoes.
- Snipe Hunt: The guys lead the boys on their own snipe hunt, which turns into disaster when Bobby kills what he thinks is one, but is really a whooping crane.
- Tracking Device: The whooping crane had a tracking device on, which leads the park ranger to search near the camping site, where unknown to him, the bird is stuffed in a cooler.
