278 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
craft, they lacked the beautiful contour found in punts built 
by practical gunning-punt builders. 
Well may these professionally-built punts, as we call them, 
be perfect, or nearly so (not to make too much of them), 
when the price for a shallow double, made of yellow pine 
bottom, sides and deck, elm knees, oak stem and stern, ash 
coaming, oak floor timbers, and deck rafters, copper fastened, 
rightly made (this says a lot), and complete with fir cockpit 
cover, oars, and other appurtenances, is between £40 and £50. 
This seems a lot of money for a punt. No doubt a double 
punt could be built for much less, yet the above sum is not by 
any means above that which could readily be absorbed in cost 
of material and labour necessary to produce a good punt. All 
the timber employed in the making of a gunning-punt must be 
sound, good, and of special sizes. Oftentimes a fair amount 
of money is spent in finding such material. This is, of course, 
expense to no account; yet, nevertheless, it adds to the total 
cost. Then, again, a good deal of waste has to be paid for in 
securing the right size of planks, etc., this meaning another 
extra cost of what really never goes into the punt itself. Many 
punt-gunners I am personally acquainted with could never 
believe a punt to be worth the amount asked until they be- 
came desirous of possessing one of their own building. I 
must confess that at one time this was also my own case. 
Except for the clinker-built sea-punt, and in lieu of placing 
your order with a punt specialist, I should advise that a good 
joiner be engaged to build your punt, under the personal 
supervision of one versed theoretically, if nothing else, in the 
construction of gunning-punts. For ordinary fowling-punt 
construction, and disregarding professional punt-builders, it 
might not be going too far to say that a really good joiner, 
under a punter’s eye, will make a far better gunning-punt than 
an ordinary boat-builder ignorant of punt-gunning, left to his 
own resources, even with a drawing. There are so many small 
