Canoe for hunting?

[woodworker]

CJ,   I an a furniture maker and wooden boat maker and I would recommend a guide boat that you made yourself.  The cedar might feel like noodles when your are working with and epoxy and glass are messy but boy the feeling you get from making your own.  The guide boat is a bit heavier than a canoe but stable and easy mover, will take many water conditions and haul one heck of a load, lap some 8 oz glass on the bottom and you have one tough boat as well.  Newfoundland boat works sells kits and plans as do a good many other shops.  You can look up "Wooden Boat" too.  The guide boat will also paddle well (with a sneak paddle).  I would rather lug a 100#s of boat around that will get me there and back and carry what ever I am lucky enough to bag too and my tent my pack my other stuff and what ever else I think I need, no matter what if you got the room try building a boat or canoe for yourself, just as mentioned, wide across the middle seats close to the bottom and long, 16' plus, sharp ends, good rugged stems and keels.  Well some much for my two cents.  All the best to you, Joe

[straitera]

I've had 3 & loved each. The last was a 17' widebody Grumman aluminum about 70#. It was great for hauling everything but the kitchen sink. My favorite was a Quichita 17' aluminum not as wide. Sleek through the water and much easier to manuever by yourself. I'm looking for another used Quachita now because I hunt mostly alone. I like a longer canoe for stability & weight displacement.

[Running Buck]

The weight of the boat has always been my biggest concern. What I have hunted from for the past 15 years are Polk Boats. These are a kayack style boat that in fiberglass weigh 28lbs and in kevlar 22 lbs. At 12 feet long you can get your stuff in the boat and carry it to where you need to go. The lightest canoe I have found are the fiberglass ones made by Great Canadian.

[Ron LaClair]

Canoes and bowhunting go together like like peanut butter and jam.

 

   

   

[LONGBOWSFOX]

IF YOU ARE A BIG MAN HUNTING ALONE AND THE DEER IN THERE WITH YOU . I HAVE HAVE BEST LUCK WITH AN OLD 17 FOOT GRUMMAN.  ABOUT 250. OR 300 DOLLARS  USED.  17 FOOT IS NOT AS TIPPY AS 12 OR 15 FOR THE BIGGER MAN.THE 17 FOOTER IS ABOUT 68 POUNDS.

[jshort]

old town tripper used it for duck hunting fishing trapping very stable

[tecum-tha]

I have this one and hope to take it hunting this fall:
 http://www.allycanoes.com/ally611.htm

It is pricey, but packable and thus easy to portage. Good up to wildwater III. It is a little harder to paddle straight, but great to manoever...
And it can take a hefty load of 680 lbs but only weighs 40 lbs.
Paddling it alone gives me a 500 lbs. additional load.

I'm with Longbowsfox--I have owned a bunch of canoes made of all kinds of materials but as far as practical and bombproof, I'll take a Grumman. Mine is 15', weighs 55# and does everything a canoe needs to do reasonably well. It is not the speediest or the quietest (but there are ways around that)or for sure not the prettiest, but it didn't cost a fortune and it takes anything you throw at it and then gets up to do it again with little fuss.

[Danny Roberts]

Im lookin' into the Sportspal by Castlecraft. It has the option of foam seats to put in the bottom, which I would like 'cause I waterfowl a lot. Good luck this season with whatever you decide on !!

[Slasher]

I am on the lookout for an old canoe:

I am wanting in this order:
   1.) Mad Town Explorer
   2.) Old Town Tripper
   3.) a grumman double ender

The mad river and old town are much better paddler, but the grumman is indestructable...

[bornagainbowhunter]

i would check out local canoe rental places and buy a used one to make sure you like it and the hunting area is what you thought it would be.  That is where mine come from.  $50. cant beat that.

[OkKeith]

In addition to my Old Town, I have and old Mohawk canoe. Smooth bottom (no keel), oil cans like you wouldn't believe. Great initial stability, very good secondary stability. It's length is around seventeen feet. It is really good for two paddelers, awesome for one. Sharp entry and quick responsive. Put a load in it and it turns into a different boat. Doggy on the flip and won't track worth a darn.

A good traveling canoe doesn't really make a good cargo/packing canoe. Similar to the difference in tug boats and speed boats.

Tripper canoes are a careful balance between both and perform best when longer than 18 feet, better at 20 feet (my experience anyway). As has been said, some rocker is good, but too much and the boat can be unresponsive loaded down or even lightly loaded but unbalanced. Tumblehome (wider at the waterline than at the gunwales) is good for initial stability, but will decrease secondary stability when the canoe is loaded down.

No one canoe will do everything. The boat to run class III rapids can get you hurt when loaded with Moose quarters on calm water.

Shoot the gap. Find the best compramise of qualities and error on the side of stability and durability; don't worry about the weight of the boat. Canoe wagons and portage carriers are easy to build. With them, you don't even have to unload to transport.

Of course all of this is my opinion and based on my personal experiences. I am not a whitewater guy. I have run a few rivers but not any that would count as anything above Class I. I hunt and fish out of my canoes and have boats for this purpose. I have built several stitch and glue type and had a blast doing it. I'm not sure building one is really any cheaper than buying one out-right. I do think building versus buying, you can get a better boat for the same money. Besides, it is a lot of fun if you are a woodworking kind of fella.

A lot of the fun of a boat is picking one out. Here are some photos and a link to what I think is my next project.

  Butler Products Freight Canoe  

       

[swampdrummer]

Another vote here for the uncle johns pirogue as long as your waters are fairly calm and flat.
 
Like stated before. Tons of great info on building small boats on southernpaddler.com Good group of guys too!  :D  

Jem watercraft is another good source of info and plans if your interested in building.

Or you can go hog wild and build something like this! LOL
 
18 feet of speedy with enough capacity to haul a months worth of gear.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Canoes and small boats go hand in hand with traditional. And they are just plain fun all by themselves!

[scbowhnter]

I'm really digging all the photos and you guys have certainly gotten my wheels turning!

[Ron LaClair]

They come in all sizes. That's me in the 12 foot wood and canvas canoe alongside the 26' North canoe.

   

[eidsvolling]

Nothing like some good canoe/guide boat/piroque porn to get the juices flowing here!

pavan knows whereof he speaks here -- pay close attention.  My two cents for hull material: Royalex, then Royalex, then Royalex (aka ABS, aka Oltonar in some older Old Town boats).  This is a sandwich of vinyl and foam.  Very tough, very quiet, warm on cold water, needs virtually no maintenance, and "relatively" light compared to everything else but Kevlar and carbon composites.  Aluminum is inexpensive, "relatively" heavy, and so noisy as to ensure the survival of most cervids for twenty miles.  Kevlar is light, tough, and very pricey.  Fiberglass is heavy, tough, and relatively inexpensive.  Polyethylene is what you buy when the budget won't allow anything else.

Hull shape is a thing to be understood after some experience.  Find a canoe person (someone who won't stop talking about them) and buy him/her a case of beer or whatever else is required to enlist personal help in shopping for a boat.  Failing that (or to supplement it), take a look at   Choosing the Right Canoe -- Shape Matters   and    Fishing/Sporting Canoes .  

There are bargains to be had on Craigslist all over the country from people who are divorcing, or who have too many boats and need to cull the fleet to avoid a divorce . . .

And feel free to send me a PM at any time.  I grew up paddling and I sold canoes and kayaks for several years.

[Follower]

someone mentioned a Sportspal earlier.  I have owned, hunted and fished out of both Sportspals and Raddisons - both very similar.  Wide, flat bottom - 13 ' - foam lined aluminum.  less than 40 lbs.  For short paddles into your favorite honey hole - i recommend them.

[RC]

I got a cheap old town from Bass Pro and have had it up and down the Ocmulgee River here in south Ga.Its a whole lotta fun. I`m planning a 3 day hunt in August for pigs squirrels and fish. I`ll let you know how it turns out.RC

One thing.  Everyone that I have ever taken on a canoe trip that thought that learning the proper way to paddle a canoe was beneath them, found out differently on the first lake. there is a refined technique to it just as there is in shooting a longbow.  there is no point in thinking you can reinvent that wheel, learn from the past masters and make it safer and more enjoyable.  Get Path of the Paddle dvd by Bill Mason. I think that I will need to take a second Boundary waters trip this year, all this has made me miss the my canoe and the peaceful quiet of the wilderness.

[eddie885221]

Get a pirogue, won't cost you but about $360 and you can take it ANYWHERE