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Forums10
Topics38,373
Posts543,989
Members14,389
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Most Online1,131 Jan 21st, 2024
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Ernest Hemingway- circa 1939, when he gave a eulogy for Gene Van Guilder, Sun Valley Resort (Ketchum, ID) who was shot in a tragic canoe duck hunting accident, and died, leaving a wife and a young daughter--
The Oct/Nov issue of Field&Stream has a version of these lines- "Best of all, We love the Fall" and as Oct. and Nov. are my all-time favorite months of the entire year, I made the connection to my most favorite writer/sportsman of all- "Don Ernesto".
The accident occurred in late Oct 1939- Taylor Williams, head guide, was paddling the canoe (his shotgun unloaded and cased), Gene was in the bow, his shotgun ready for jump shooting at flushed ducks, and they had stopped and picked up Sun Valley employee Dave Benner, who sat in the middle, with his shotgun loaded (huge mistake)--Apparently, when ducks flushed from a backwater and Gene stood up to shoot (big mistake, as canoes are tippy, and the recoil on a standing hunter can affect balance way more than if he had remained seated-- and Dave, seeing multiple ducks flushing, fired, just as Gene rose up-- The full load of shot caught Gene in the upper back- he did not survive.
Taylor Williams saw the entire tragic accident- years afterwards he was still criticizing his failure to have Dave unload his shotgun before he got into the canoe--
I mention this, as being an avid waterfowler, and in past years, did a fair amount of river "jump shooting" from my camo-ed Grumman canoe-- ONLY the hunter in the bow has the gun (I also tied off the paddle with a length of rope, so I could drop it and pick up my shotgun, in case of flushing ducks--
So, with that line on the cover of F&S in mind, and surmising that many of us on this website are hunters, let me remind all of us, that safety is always a first concern, whenever we take to field, marsh, rivers- in the best time of the year- stay safe, "All the pheasants ever bred, won't repay for one man dead". RWTF
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 10/05/19 08:40 AM.
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,469 Likes: 386
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,469 Likes: 386 |
Fox, I often hunted that way with my brother in one of a couple lovely mid fifties Chestnut canoes we have. Great way to jump shoot ducks on Delta Marsh on the narrow, winding waterways that connect the various larger "bays" that make up the bulk of the marsh. ONLY the man in the bow had a gun. Great way to hunt but the guy in the back paddling needs to learn patience....his turn will come. And never three in the canoe.
Last edited by canvasback; 10/05/19 08:55 AM.
The world cries out for such: he is needed & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 9,350 |
Finest canoe ever built, Chestnut. I'll bet your Dad fished the Miramichi.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,667 Likes: 372
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,667 Likes: 372 |
It would be worth starting a new thread to show off those canoes. I'd love to see some photos of them.
_________ BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Me too-I can still recall the overnight canoe/camping trips we took, starting on Torch Lake. All the canoes were the "freighter" style, higher prows-I still have my old 16ft. Grumman, primed and camoed- had the cut-off stern for an outboard motor too. RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 598 Likes: 30
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 598 Likes: 30 |
Canoes are way too unstable for duck hunting; flipped my last one about 40 years ago. Grumman Sport Canoe wasn't too bad as it had a stern end. Give me my Duckers any day. Have two including an original rare aluminum oar for one.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,667 Likes: 372
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 6,667 Likes: 372 |
Have to work at it to flip a Sport Canoe.
There are ways to sit in canoes, than there are ways to kneel. The former is always worse than the latter.
_________ BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,698 Likes: 99
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,698 Likes: 99 |
I've had one canoe for 53 years now. An aluminum Feathercraft 17 footer freighter type with a full length keel. It's been down the Suwannee river from the Okefenokee to the Gulf of Mexico multiple times, through the rapids of the Flint, marsh hen hunts on the coastal marshes, and on no telling how many duck/squirrel floats on our local waterways. It is pretty beat up nowadays, and lives now mostly on the bank of my backyard fishpond. That canoe and a pair of Gokey botte sauvage boots are my oldest hunting artifacts...Geo
Never turned it over that I recall.
Last edited by Geo. Newbern; 10/05/19 12:41 PM. Reason: added final sentence
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 5,522 Likes: 167 |
I use an Osagian Missourian 17 foot square stern with a 9.5 Johnson or a 55 pound thrust Kayak trolling motor. What fun and very stable https://www.nauticexpo.com/prod/osagian-canoes/product-22090-450660.htmlMike
Last edited by skeettx; 10/05/19 01:42 PM.
USAF RET 1971-95
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 247 Likes: 4
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 247 Likes: 4 |
I know guys also hunt out of kayaks. I have two and neither is stable enough to hunt out of. I just use them to fish strip mine lakes.
One of my friends and his dad nearly lost their lives jump shooting geese out of a canoe one late December. They came around a bend, bunch of geese got up and came over the top. They fired up at a steep angle and the canoe went over, dumping them in 15 feet of water that was only slightly above freezing. They were extremely lucky to make it back to the truck before hypothermia killed them both.
I might try it out of one of those Beavertail sneak boats. They are supposed to be very stable.
Nothing the government gives you is free.
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