doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT, Small water duck boats. OPINIONS??

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!