Anyone posting here ever built their own duck boat? Pictures, descriptions or your experiences would be appreciated of your favorite duck boat or style of such? I met a guy on a lake in northern Michigan and he was using a boat he had built called a "Scaup". Really neat. I bought the plans and hope to have it completed before fall. Sorry if this post is off target, but I'm curious. MarketHunter, please describe your experiences in that submerged box you hunted out of? Randy

Years ago I built a sculling boat from plans that I got from Glen-L. I used the motor option and it worked quite well and was easy to build. My only warning is to not skimp on materials. You'll pay in the end.

My hats off to all that hunt ducks in those contraptions, I'm a land lover - the only thing I want to get wet are my Labs.
I'd get sea-sick in MarketHunter's tub!

well being from South Jersey theres pretty much only one type duck boat

Hey Randy,

There's a great site for duck boats and those that build them: duckboats.net. See this page for basic info on different types of boats - many of which can be built from plans: http://duckboats.net/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=7;guest=1437716

Then check out link for specs/dims of each type on the duckboat specs page.

I built a pirogue a few years ago to pole around marshes and beaver swamps and it was very satisfying. Will one day build something similar to a TBD when I have the time and patience.

-jmc

I've built and re-built small water boats but my favorite duckboat is an Aluma-craft Ducker. Built from the '40's till the 60's they are perfect for marshes and small waters. They row and pole well and can be pushed across wet mud if needed. You can find them used. Look on e-bay.

Has anyone ever used a canoe? I am not a duck hunter but I have wondered about it. I guess that one would have to shoot from the kneeling position.

Thats the best position when in a canoe. While you're down there you can pray that you don't tip over.

I've ducked from canoe and large fat 2 person kayak (one large opening for both) pushed into up the reeds on the Connecticut River in S Vermont. Truly small water work.

my 2 person kayak


Don A,
That is a beauty. When I think of a duckboat, that's the picture in my mind.

I built a small "BBSB" type boat as well as I have a Sam Hunt cedar strip BBSB. I also have a MoMarsh Fatboy boat that is great for small waters. Its light enough I can pick up and load it by myself. We have 7 momarsh boats in our fleet and they have proved very useful. Check out the Fatboy boat at momarsh.com

I second the suggestion for the duckboats.net site. Great site!

I duck hunted a fair amount from a canoe over the years. My opinion is that is should be used for transportation only. I've known of number of times that they've been tipped. Losing equipment, getting soaked in cold, cold water. Slow going back. Small waters they're O.K.
12' Jon boats are a better option, although I recall a number of incidents when they to have been overloaded with hunters, dogs decoys,etc. and then trying to cross rough, big water.

Jon boats are okay for very confined waters or marshes, but unstable and dangerous anywhere with waves. I used an AlumaCraft Lifetime Ducker for almost 40 years in all waters and all weathers, and for versatility it's pretty hard to beat. Some of the hand-made sneak boats are prettier and maybe a bit slicker in the water, but they tend to be too heavy for one-man cartopping and overland hauling for pothole hunting.

Incidentally, I bought my Ducker second hand in 1964 for $135, and sold it 42 years later for $1,800. Not many duck boats hold up that well! [img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b8df28b3127cceb326a8b03c5800000025100EaNm7RsycMT[/img]

I've been looking for an AlumaCraft Ducker for a long time myself. Have passed on several double enders because I want the square stern model that you can run a small motor on. They're a really cool boat. I just got to see the one that belonged to Nash Buckingham when I was down in Memphis recently.

I've got a Barnegat and it works well though I don't use it much. I bought it from that guy in Virginia who has run the ad in Wildfowl for years. Well built boat, but too heavy for cartopping. I need a trailer for it, I'd probably use it more if I had one.

As far as my experience in the duck tub / sinkbox, it was really fun and interesting. Very wet, I had on all my best rain gear and was still pretty damp by the end of the morning.

It was a little choppy and the bigger waves come right straight into the box with you. You have a bailing can between your feet and have to keep the water from getting over the seat. I had to bail it out a couple times over the course of the shoot.

A friend and I actually built a test model for use across the border in Canada. It needs some modifications but I think we'll have her ready for next season. We did some test runs in the early fall but just didn't have it exactly right so we never used it during the shooting season.

Here is a small boat I built for picking up on prairie sloughs.

Below are pics of two boats I designed and built with a couple friends for layout shooting for black brant,snow geese, and ducks.
The bigger boat is 16 ft. and will hold two hunters and up to 70
goose decoys while the smaller is 14 ft and for one shooter.All fibreglass. Very seaworthy, however, the last time my shooting
partner and I got caught in a big blow on our local bay, his comment upon reaching shore was," do you think maybe we're getting a little too old for this sh*t ". Maybe he's right!! Terry
[img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img] [img][/img]

There were only 205 square-stern Duckers built - all in 1958 - but it was not a success and the DO model was quickly dropped. IMHO the double-enders are structurally stronger, and much more versatile in heavy cover. And yes, you can put a small motor on them with a fairly simple mount. Mine actually came with a motor mount, but I scrapped it because the Ducker is so easy to row and pole, a motor is just an unnecessary complication. For an ultra-light, ultra-stable go-anywhere duck boat, the AlumaCraft Ducker has no equal.

Yeti, someone gave me the same kayak and I have thought about trying some ducking, how's it work in small water? Room for a dog?


Thanks, Rob

I'll agree with Jack that a Ducker needs no motor. It is at its best when poled. A truly pleasant way to get around the marsh. I love pulling up to the ramp at Elliotts Island at low water and the huge aluminum outboard guys are just staring at the mud. I pull the Ducker out of the pickup, slide it across the mud to the trickle in the middle of the ditch and I'm on my way. Cork decoys and fullXfull Ithaca in the boat with me.

Nash Buckingham, one of America's most famous hunting writers, had the money and leisure time to hunt most of the nation's finest waterfowl areas with the very best guides, and shot out of every kind of duck boat imaginable. His personal choice of duck boats: the AlumaCraft Ducker.

I have wondered about lashing 2 17' Grumman canoes together for safety and stability, with a pair of aluminum brackets.
I've seen a pair lashed together, with a small mast and sail once when canoeing in the Boundary waters of Nothe Minnesota. Sort of poor mans catamaran, looked very stable, though,
Mike

Hats off to Coryreb,Bluedcanoed,Mike,JMC and Terry for taking on the project boats and others for the comments. Jumping off the replies are comments on the "Ducker". Interesting, but not likely to be found. Doesn't anyone make something close if they were such a great boat and in such demand? MarketHunter, where's home? sounds like from your post, you might be near L.ST.Claire or Erie or downstate? All this picks up my enthusiasm to get on with the project boat. Randy

Check out the duck boats molded from polyethelene by Otter Outdoors. I bought one and like it alot. It is very stable but can't get to use it to often due to work.

RMC,

I live around Ann Arbor and do most of my shooting on the Canadian side of Lake St. Clair.

There was a double ended "Ducker" for sale at the Michigan Duck Hunters Tournament last year. The double ended ones are rare but not impossible to find. The square stern models were only made just in the last few years of production so they're mighty scarce.

I read a short article about them one time, in Wildfowl I think. The people at Alumacraft still have the original mold or form or whatever they made them on. But when asked why they didn't make it part of their line again they said that modern aluminum wouldn't do what aluminum of that era would. So they couldn't use the old forms to make modern boats. Something like that, it was an odd story and an odd reason.



Destry

The original Coleman Crawdad, with aluminum gunwales, wood seats, plastic hull, floatation compartments, motor board to take up to 7.5hp outboard. 11.5 feet, 450lb capacity (or something like that), weighs about 100lbs empty, quite stable. No longer made, but a bit of a cult boat. Paid $140 used a few years ago.

I have hunted out of a Grumman sport canoe for years. It handles well with up to a 6 hp motor. Two hunters decoys and a dog work fine. Not tippy like a reg. canoe. Only drawback is that they don't really pole very well. Have a Canyak 9' 8" kind of half canoe half kayak for paddling or poling.

The Ducker was very expensive to make, and the high-end market for duck boats is limited. When new, the Ducker sold for the same price as a field grade Winchester Model 21! And even at that price, AlumaCraft lost money on them and production ended. Celebs like Nash Buckingham could afford one, but most duck hunters couldn't.

There have been Ducker imitations - 'Outlaw' made one in fiberglass - but they've all been much heavier than the Ducker's 67 lbs, and therefore less useful. And none have been cheap.

The secret to the Ducker: huge rolls of surplus aluminum left over from the mfrs' WWII work on army pontoons. Those rolls were a special alloy that allowed for more extreme pressure forming than the aluminum commonly used on boats today. Making a Ducker now would require custom alloyed aluminum, which would drive the price out of sight.

If someone was good at working with Kevlar, he could probably make a comparable duck boat. But again, at what cost? That's why 50 year old Duckers in decent shape are still getting top dollar: there will probably never be their equal.

A man with all the information, that's the kind of post I like to see. I'll keep looking for that square stern model, with all the running around I do I'll find it one day. I guarantee I drive past one going duck hunting in Canada. There's one somewhere along the road between I-94 and Algonac, I'd put money on it.


Destry

Good of you to remember! Wildfowl, April/May, 1995, Volume 10, Number 5, The Ducker, pp. 39-41. I wrote the article, and still have the notes. That's why I know the production numbers on the ill-fated square stern DO model.

That's an article that always stuck in my head, it was excellent. I knew of the boat prior to that but it's the first (and maybe only) real information I'd ever read on it. I saved the magazine for a long time in my files but in amongst three moves to three different states it's unfortunately long gone. The people you run into on the internet! *wink*

What were the production numbers on the square stern Ducker? I've only physically seen one, and it wasn't for sale at any price.

I bid on eBay a couple years ago for a very similar metal duck boat that had been made by a small company here in Michigan. Wish I could remember the details, it was a square stern as well. The production numbers must have been really tiny as it's the only one I'd ever heard of. I didn't get it, and bid pretty high, so somebody really was after it. It needed some work but could have been brought back to working condition with a little welding.


Destry

I have two Aluma Craft Duckers. Best duck boat I have seen for small waters. Unsinkable, with an airtank on each end. Light as a feather, when empty they can be pulled right over emergent vegetation. Float in about 4 inches of water. If you can find one for under $2K now buy it!

The square stern Ducker DO was only made in 1958. Serial numbers were from 100 to 305, a total production of 205.

The DO has several disadvantages compared to the double-ended Ducker: (1) hull drag from the square stern makes it significantly harder to row or pole (square stern canoes have the same problem); (2) square sterns don't turn as easily, or back up in rice or reed beds; (3) they're harder to blind up, and (4) lacking the structural strength of the normal Ducker, the DO's stern is more susceptible to damage. A simple motor mount can easily be fabricated for the pointed stern of the normal Ducker, which obviates the DO's only advantage.

The DO was dropped after just one year; duck hunters just didn't find it worthwhile. AlumaCraft later experimented with an Economy Ducker that lacked the usual refinements of decking, cockpit, stabilizer tubes, blind pole loops, etc., but it never really sold and only 452 were built.

I suspect your chances of finding a DO today are slim to none - original Duckers are hard enough to find, and there were more than 13 of them built for every DO square stern.

Incidentally, the original Ducker came with heliarc-welded aluminum oars, which are now even more rare than the boats themselves.

It's been proven many times (I proved it myself once) that no boat is unsinkable.

Jack, thanks for all the info. Any chance that the Wildfowl article you wrote is accessable on line? Where? Destry, thanks for the banter back and forth with Jack to have him reveal the details of the Ducker. Can anyone post a photo of the square back Ducker? Randy

Nice sneakbox, Don. The sail makes it truly authentic.

I knew they were scarce, but there's gotta be one along that road somewhere. If you'd ever driven it you'd know what I mean.

I've had five chances to buy regular duckers in the past ten years. Ranging in price from $800 for a rough one, to $1600 for a pretty nice one. I probably should have just pulled the trigger.

But I need another duck boat like I need an additional hole in the head. So telling myself I wanted a square stern kept me from adding another big chunk of something I'll use only three months out of the year to the garage.

Great info Jack, was fun running into you on here. Since I know the issue number I might have to give Wildfowl a call and see if that's an available back issue. Or at least try, they're a different magazine since they changed hands.


Destry

Check out the Poke Boat. Super light, extremely stable, and travels in an inch of water.

Put my two duckers away today. Here is a pic. These two ride so nice on those Ford Model A wheels. One can make a little sidemount and put a small motor on these, but I don't bother, as I can row a half mile in notime. I guess they are not unsinkable, but they will float to shore if empty. http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k283/Halpics_bucket/?action=view&current=DuckersInBarn.jpg

Front view.

Other pic did not show. Side view.

And one being used.

Jack what was the empty weight on these? Was it 64 lbs? When were the last ones produced? Do you have a picture of what the aluminum oars looked like so I can keep an eye out for them?

Hal, those Duckers look perfect for small water. We'd last five minutes in them where we go. Too short for any chop. Another observation re this very interesting thread is that canoes have a narrow space for duck hunting, in small and generally undisturbed waters, for transportation only, lashed together or alone.

My Dad had a boat in the late 50's which might have been a Ducker - Seems to me it was bought from Abecrombie's or Bean's. is that possible?

Empty weight 67 lbs., less than a standard Grumman canoe. The last original LD (Lifetime Ducker) produced, #2784, left the AlumaCraft factory in 1959. Economy Duckers #3001-3453 were built from 1967 to 1969 but never became successful.

The original oars were formed from two aluminum halves, joined around the edges by heliarc welds. Oar handles were ashwood. Oarlocks were pinned to the shafts. Only picture I have is the oar mounted on the boat in this link - http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b8df28b3127cceb326a8b03c5800000025100EaNm7RsycMT - which I can't seem to bring up here.

The very first AlumaCraft Ducker I ever saw was in the gun room at Von Lengerke & Antoine in Chicago in 1954. VL&A had some kind of business connection with Abercrombie & Fitch, so it's likely that the old A&F sold them, too. I would think the Ducker would have been too pricey for L.L.Bean.

King, I agree the Ducker is a small water craft. But you'd be amazed at how well they handle big chop. The Ducker was designed by a Swedish naval engineer, and it's like a little cork - I've rowed mine many times in waves where the horizon totally disappeared in the troughs. I always kept a waterproof nylon cockpit cover in it for rough weather, but never needed it. The boat's 42-inch beam and low profile make it incredibly stable.

You've convinced me, Jack. From time to time, someone somewhere gets it just right. What a loss they're no longer around.

Thanks for the photo Jack. Now I know what to look for. I guess the upper midwest is the best place to look for these. My dad got one of these new in the '40's (46-47?), but I never saw any oars like that. I have had mine in very treacherous waters also, and even waves coming from the side are not too bad because of the great bouyancy. As I remember, they advertised that a 300 lb man could sit on the 'gunnel and they would not tip. There was an article in Minnesota Waterfowler about these where they showed the original moulds used to form the hulls. Everything built with WWII aircraft quality in Minneapolis.

As for opinions, I love hunting duck in the reeds in Alaska in a small rowed skiff, etc. I would sneak throught the reeds in S.E. Alaska on the coast and do very well. It was great fun and relatively safe as it was protected water.
However, when I tried it in Oregon on a river, using the current, everything when fine until some of the "3 1/2'" duck hunters came roaring by with their power boat. I did not get sunk but decided that it was totally unsafe. It changed how I hunt down here.
John

The beauty of small boats is that you can hunt where motorheads fear to tread. No offense intended to the many good hunters who use them, but big motor boats seem to carry most of the skybusters, too.

Quietly poling a sneak boat through rice and rushes before dawn, hearing quacking on the water, unseen birds rising into the dark sky and whistling overhead - to me, that's a quintessential experience of duck hunting that the motorheads miss.

Hal, Thanks for posting your photos. Question? I keep looking at the Ducker with your dog sitting in it. Does that happen to be a fox red(or chocolate) pointing Lab? Just curious. One of my yellow PL's has a body structured very much like your dog. Randy

Just a regular viszla. Loves the water, but I don't take him in the boat when its below freezing. But when in a shore or nearshore blind no amount of cold bothers him. He goes off ice shelves, breaks thin ice, and will swim in waves full of broken ice to get at the birds. After the bird is onshore, he simply finds some dry grass and dries himself off and is ready to go again in minutes. As I understand, the wirehaired versions are the retriever of choice for some European waterfowlers.

Hal - looking at your photo (great looking dog, BTW), I see a metal ammo box. Looks a lot like my old steel Herters box with a padded, pop-up swivel seat - great in the blind, and I used to lay it on its side and use it for a seat when I was rowing.

Your comments on ice bring back good memories - the Ducker's a great performer through - and up on - the ice. I've always hunted with field-bred springers, and found that a neoprene vest keep's 'em comfortable right up to freezeout. The dog could come up out of ice-choked water, and within minutes I could slide my bare hand under the vest and she'd be warm and dry.

I also note that you're going after cans and 'bills - my favorite waterfowl - there's nothing to compare with the sound of divers ripping the air overhead!

Ammo box is one of those elusive pre-WWII side openers originally used for .50 cal BMG I believe. I glued some foam rubber on mine and usually sit on it only when in an onshore blind. I'm too tall and gangly to row my Duckers while sitting inside and so have to sit on the dogdeck. Dogdecks on both ends is another nice feature on these duckboats. I put an old piece of carpet on the bottom to reduce noise.

Jack- There used to be a place on the web to date your ducker but I am unable to find it any longer. Any idea where this info is available? My serial is LD-1453. Thanks.

Don't know of anything on the web, but I have all the dates. Your LD-1453 was one of 308 built in 1953.

Thanks Jack! That's a bit older than I thought. My boats still in great shape and my 12 year old boy started duck hunting in it with me this year. He wants to learn to pole the Ducker this summer so I think it has a lot of seasons left. It's nice to know others still use and appreciate these boats. GJS

Speaking of poles, the Duckers have open 2 inch pole pipes through the dogdecks and through the bottom for holding the boat. I have found these pipes useful on especially windy days. If you want a regular drop-anchor merely bolt two boards across one of the carrying handles and put a pulley on the end. A duckbill on the end of the pole is great for pushing into tall vegetation when the oars can't be used. I also carry some spikes mounted on wood handles to use to get up on the ice and scoot across it when poles and oars are useless. I wire an extra oarlock under one of the dogdecks.

Hal - For late season use I made a push pole with a duckbill at one end and a steel tip on the other. Getting the dog at the back with me to raise the bow a bit, I used the duckbill to push the boat up onto the ice - then reversed the pole and used the steel tip to bite the ice and push it. It's surprising how fast you can get the Ducker skittering across the ice. Awfully noisy, though!

Pinning the Ducker to the marsh bottom by pushing a couple of poles down through those stabilizer tubes made it virtually untippable. Probably the safest small duck boat ever made.

Jack, Thanks for all your input. Question? My brother builds boats and I would like to present him with a schematic of the ducker and have him loft one up. Do you have such info? Chance of finding an original one seems pretty remote. Building one might be the next best thing. Thanks, Randy

Randy - I can't help you with a schematic - best bet is to borrow one you can spec out. General specs:

weight 67 lbs.
length 12 ft.
beam 42"
cockpit 36" x 84"
depth 12"

But be advised: no one has ever succeeded in making a Ducker copy that compared well with the original - they've all been too heavy and clumsy (and damn near as expensive). Available aluminum stocks won't take the bend, and that 67 lb. weight would be hard to approach with anything else (except perhaps Kevlar). The light weight is a lot of the Ducker's charm, 'cuz it car-tops so nicely, hauls easily into potholes and skitters across mud and ice like no other.

Amen Jack, especially on windy days. Sort of scary when the wind carries you off the ice shelf and back into open water! I had a spike on a socket that would fit over the opposite end of the duckbill pole also, but traded that system for two short pieces of pole with a spike on each so I could sit down on the bottom and sort of row myself across the ice with one in each hand. But even this system won't work when the ice is not quite thick enough to support the weight, but not quite thin enough to break through with the bow. Way too tiring for this 70-year old as I found while trying to retrieve my swan this past November. It died in the air and went through about 3/4" of ice about 150 yards out in the lake where it quickly froze in.

Hal - been there, done that, know what you mean! The only good thing about pushing through (and over, and through again) that kind of ice is that it keeps you plenty warm. I always wind up getting too sweaty and doffing the parka, hat, gloves, etc., even in sub-freezing temps. I sold the Ducker, dekes and all two years ago. Except for December grouse and wild pheasants, which still get me out there, I'm ready to spend my 70s by the fireside

I got lucky and had a thaw the next day and the wind pushed my swan close enough for me to wade through the icecubes and retrieve it. Jack where are the serial numbers located? My Duckers are stored now, but I am still curious about production dates.

As I recall, the serial number is stamped on or next to the aluminum handle casting at the bow or stern. It will be a 4 digit number. Let me know what you find, and I'll be able to date the year of manufacture.

Seems like it would be fairly easy to have a custom aluminum ducker made for not too much $. Has anyone tried that route? I've thought about building my own with 1/4" wood and glass, but it would be heavy, and when the going gets nasty, I would think a low, wide, 10' long lightweight aluminum ducker would be safer, and lighter.

You might be able to make an aluminum duck boat of some sort, but I think an accurate copy of the original AlumaCraft Lifetime Ducker would be well beyond reach. I had a long talk about this in 1994 with Russ Swenson, the man in charge of AlumaCraft production in St. Peter MN, and the son of Ducker designer Erich Swenson.

Russ said he'd often dreamed of doing a limited production of Duckers after he retired. But the biggest obstacle was the cost of making up the special alloy needed for the Ducker's compound bend at bow and stern. Even with the right alloy, and assuming access to the Ducker's original forms and AlumaCraft's pressure-forming equipment, Russ doubted he could make one for less than $1500 - and that was in 1994 dollars!

The Ducker took a lot more labor than the common aluminum fishing boat. Decking and bracing were complicated, as was the heliarc welding for the stabilizer tubes and casting for the bow and stern plates. Try as they might, AlumaCraft never managed to get the cost down below the price of a new field-grade Model 21.

As far as I know, Russ Swenson's hope of resurrecting the Ducker never went beyond the dream stage, and sound, original Duckers - which could still be found back in 1994 for 6-800 dollars - are now fetching upwards of two grand.

My father-in-law, a skilled machinist, tried to cobble up a Ducker copy by cutting down an aluminum fishing boat that had lost its stern in a tornado, and decking it with plywood and fiberglass. The result looked good - low and stable - but it still weighed a ton, had to be trailered, and needed a motor because the square stern made it miserable for poling or rowing.

Jack I easily found D 506 stamped starboard on the bow handle. This Ducker still has the old MN registration number I painted on when it was first required. I remember dad complaining something about big seagoing yachts being exempt from the requirement.

I found no numbers on the other Ducker except for one unreadable area closely corresponding to the area where the serial number should have been stamped if both craft had built with the same marking system. Either purposeful obliteration or an unlikely occurrence where the craft suffered heavy waves for several hours wedged hull up by the bow on some broken granite shoreline.

Duckers are tough. I remember the starboard oar snapping like a twig just after a clump of hard green bulrush pressed its mate hard to the port gunnel. That rowing error cost us a few shivers, as the next foamy 3-footer slammed the Ducker with me in chest waders and heavy alpaca parka, my dog, and 44 "carrylite" cedar decoys into a rocky shoreline.

Hal - D506 was made in the very first year of Ducker roduction, 1947! That was also the largest production year, with serial numbers from 100 to 604. Odd that your other Ducker's # is obliterated...could it be that an earlier owner acquired the boat illegally?

Your snapped oar experience is one reason why the original Ducker aluminum oars are so desirable - they're as robust as the boat itself. Unfortunately, they don't float, which is why they've tended to disappear over the years.

BTW, Duckers were exempt from showing registration numbers if only used during the waterfowl season - but that would rule out using them for bass fishing...

Thanks Jack. I guess dad wanted me to be legal, as I used to take the Ducker fishing on the Ottertail River. Funny I never saw metal oars and assume he thought they were too expensive.

Thanks Jack. I guess dad wanted me to be legal, as I used to take the Ducker fishing on the Ottertail River. Funny I never saw metal oars and assume he thought they were too expensive.

For anyone interested in the original oars for the Ducker, I found this: [img]http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b8df04b3127cceb46fcc4b5a5a00000026100EaNm7RsycMT[/img]