I've been enjoying some layout boat duck hunting this year with my hammer guns, but it is hard on them. Lots of scuffs on the wood and metal as they lay across the gunwhales, etc. Do those of you who duck hunt with sxs's in boats use a dedicated [well used] boat gun, or do you use nicer guns and not worry about it? They are meant to be used, after all. Just curious.

I'll be re-working the wood and refinishing the barrels on this husky in the off season, but I'm not relishing the thought of getting it all dinged up:

I’m not thinking I’d ever take a “fine” gun and use it as a boat gun. Boat hunting is tough and it’s rough on guns, no matter how careful you are. The finest I’ve ever taken to hunt out of a boat with is a old Weatherby/SKB Orion and a Remington 3200. This year...I dented the rib of the Orion a week or so ago and I’m not even sure when it happened. The only time I’ve used “finer” guns is when I’m not sitting or standing in water, the weather is fairly decent and I don’t have to worry about slinging it. Waterfowling, especially the real kind where you get really wet, down & dirty is super tough on ANY gun. Downright abusive sometimes. No need to put an old fine gun through that kind of abuse.

Opening day 1977, beginning my 15th season with my Super-Fox --

If I owned one I would absolutely take a Super Fox duck hunting. In any conditions.

My Lindner Daly Diamond is theoretically a great duck gun. Tightly choked 30" barrels, 7 1/2 pounds. I'll take it out a few times when the weather looks passable but it sure won't be a regular occurrence.

Mark,
I don't hunt from a boat a lot, but when I did, I would have a dedicated and secure place for the gun while moving and another while hunting. Just throwing it on top of the decoy bags ro balancing it in my lap or propped against the gunwales was not good. If your boat is big enough to allow it, you might even build a "wagon box" case for it.

If you have safe places for it at all times that you are not actually working so birds, it will be a whole bunch safer and less beat up.

punt guns!?

My old family pictures of my parents and other family members duck hunting back in Minnesota in the 1930s show them hunting from canoes!!

My boat is pretty small (9' Aquapod), so there isn't a whole lot of room for the gun once I get my dekes in the boat. Great idea with the case however. I think I'll probably just get a utility duck gun in the offseason so I don't have to worry about it too much.

Mark, Get a bigger boat!

Your gun(s) deserve it (and your dog too).

There's different ways to hunt from a boat, as you know. Your's is fairly rough, as it sounds like you're pretty much in the boat the whole time. When I hunt from a blind that requires a boat to reach I do not hesitate to carry my SuperFox, in a floating gun slip. Then, when I get to the blind I uncase it. It's a pretty easy life for a SuperFox, though I will use it for walk in hunts from blinds, too.



Back on land..........



But, here's where it gets rough for my guns, duck hunting. I drift and jump shoot ducks on large creeks and rivers, and small ponds, in a fiberglass kayak. I wanted a double for that and settled on a 30" barreled BSS. I opened the left barrel to match the right, at .018", for steel. It's gotten a little beat up but I don't care. It's killed scores and scores of ducks. I use half a kayak paddle for drifting, keeping the gun in my left hand and the paddle in my right, which is used only to steer and keep the shooting "lanes" to my left as much as possible. A rope is tied to the paddle. When ducks flush I drop the paddle in the creek and grab the gun with my right hand, to shoot. Take time to put the paddle in the kayak and the ducks are out of range.



Sometimes I will use the BSS in other conditions, too. It's a deadly duck gun for me.

Stan: Absolutely great photography and a reminder of so-many blessings. There were no ducks for me and mine this year but I remain hopeful for what the next few years bring.

I remeber hitting my shooting Parker with a decoy weight! That and steel shot ended its duck hunting. It had shot it's share!

bill

There is no worse treatment of any shotgun than duck hunting from a boat. None.

I wonder sometimes, just how many shotguns are lying at the bottoms of rivers, lakes, sloughs, and swamps...
JR

Where abouts are you hunting Stan?

Hunting coastal PNW is hard on shotguns, I hunted out of a Marshrat as a layout and just sitting on the shore no blind or on a camo bucket following the tide in(so many stumps and logs that ducks didn't seemed to be to bothered by another lump on the beach)

Bank sitting on the Rio Grande, next week the marshrat will be on the Rio Grande also

We keep an AquaPod chained to the blind for long retrieves in deep water, and I wouldn't even think of taking a fine gun out in that thing. I have hunted (a little) from a kayak and did not enjoy it. A friend in Nevada hunts only from a canoe, but he's always in shallow water and puts out stabilizers once he gets to where he wants to be. In a situation like that, I might take a nice gun. When I used to hunt with two of us in an 11' jon boat on fairly big water, I wouldn't take anything nicer than an 870, but that's me.

Michael, mostly around here in east-central Georgia, and on the L'Anguille, Cache, and White Rivers in eastern Arkansas, and Reelfoot Lake, TN for early teal.

My drifting the creeks and rivers for jump shooting is all here, near home. My favorite conditions for it is when a severe cold snap hits us, and it gets down in the 'teens. I wait until the morning after the last really cold night, to go. All the ponds and lakes are frozen over and all the ducks are in current where there is no ice. The numbers can be unbelievable. Very sporty shooting, trying to pick out drakes with the early morning sun in your eyes.

A great hole on the Cache, in the Rex Hancock Black Swamp:



A big brushed up blind on the L'Anguille:



Early morning ....... teal hole on Reelfoot:



If I had to start over looking for a rough duty duck gun I would likely find a tight 12 ga. Fox Model B with 30" barrels and try it. $500 gun ..... not much to lose if you go in the drink.

The two worst things that have happened to any of my guns out hunting had nothing to do with a boat.

Shooting carts are sometimes not kind to guns, either. I bought and installed a couple gun scabbards on mine, over 15 years ago, that are not seen often. They hold the gun very secure, but it can be removed and replaced quickly. It could be adapted to a boat very easily, and mounted horizontally.

https://www.scabbard.com



There is a strap that you can't see, that is tucked down inside at the top, that loops around the barrels to hold it in securely, but I don't use it unless I'm going some distance, as the design of the scabbard holds the gun very securely.

I love my aquapod. Once it's grassed up, I'm able to lie down undetected within ten yards of my dekes, sipping coffee, sometimes out in the middle of the marsh, where a blind or larger boat would flare birds. They usually have no idea I'm there until it's too late. I can also easily pick up and move a bit if the birds are in love with a different area of the marsh. I don't need a dog either, as I simply paddle over to get my birds. I'm 57, and have been duck hunting for 50 of those years, and I've hunted every way you can think of. This is my favorite method, and probably the most efficient and effective I've tried.

Stan, I've had my Poke Boat for about 28 years now....and I love it.

I don't have fine doubles, but I have old doubles...My Citori of 32 years has killed at least a thousand birds in Vt, Maine, Md, NY and god knows where else. My Iver Johnson Hercules from the 20's (I think) with bismuth has killed a few and lastly, my 10 ga. Rem 1894 of 1910 is my late season diver gun here on Champlain. I haven't dropped any overboard yet, but they've all been rained on, snowed on, etc.

I bought them to use 'em....

Mergus

Me too, mergus. And use them I do.

My fiberglass kayak is built in FL. The company that mine came from sold out to Don's Kayaks. $395, 12 ft. long, only weight 39 lbs.

https://www.donskayaks.com

SRH

I used to hunt and fish out of a canoe...life goes on and we adjust it doesn't help to sit around dreaming about it.

Sounds like you're the one dreaming.

I do it. No adjustment needed.