490 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1921 
A double battery A good “hide” Decoys anchored in pairs 
DUCK RIGS ON GREAT SOUTH BAY 
A FEW SUGGESTIONS THAT COULD BE EMPLOYED TO 
ADVANTAGE BY DUCK HUNTERS ON OTHER WATERS 
BY VIRGIN I US 
H ERE are some random thoughts 
on duck-shooting rigs and meth- 
ods which we use on Great 
South Bay; perhaps they will 
help duck-hunters from other parts of 
the country: 
Instead of attaching each decoy to an 
anchor, we fasten two or three decoys 
on a piece of RLinch galvanized iron 
rod. If two decoys are put on a rod it is 
done thus : use a rod about two feet 
long, bend it in the middle so that it 
makes an angle of approximately 140°. 
With galvanized staples fasten a decoy 
to each end, and tie the anchor rope in 
the middle at the angle. Use a %-inch 
rope, and if it is new stain it to a brown 
color. The ducks will notice new rope, 
so this is worth attention. 
In the case of three decoys together, 
use a slightly longer rod, and put one 
on each end and the third in the bend 
where the anchor rope is fastened. 
If you do much shooting it will cer- 
tainly pay you to use bUnch rope instead 
of heavy cord for anchor lines; it lasts 
much longer and will not tangle up so 
readily. 
Now, the chief advantages of this de- 
coy rig are that you can put them out 
in half the time and pick them up in a 
third the time that it takes when one sets 
out each decoy with an anchor and line. 
In cold weather this is a blessing. 
'T’ HE duck-boats we use are called 
“punties” and are usually made of 
white cedar. Dimensions are about as 
follows : fourteen feet long by three feet 
six inches wide. Sides are one-inch 
cedar six inches deep. Bottom of half- 
inch, perfectly flat, except at stern, where 
there is a two or three-inch shear, be- 
ginning about two feet from stern. The 
stern is square, and there is no shear to 
the sides. The deck is crowned to about 
two inches in the highest part. A hole, 
roughly six feet long by two feet wide, 
with a combing, say, two inches high, is 
placed fairly well forward so as to leave 
a good-sized afterdeck on which to stand 
when shoving the boat. A hatch is made 
to fit over the hole snugly. The stools 
are carried on the hatch and forward 
deck; the gun, shells, etc., inside the hole. 
On the decks are strips of wood about 
lj4 x 1/4 inch, raised on ^-inch blocks; 
the grass is stuffed under these strips. 
Sometimes wire is used, fastened down 
at intervals with staples, but the wood 
strips are best. A well-thatched punty 
has grass sticking up unevenly over the 
combing of the hole. It is seldom neces- 
sary or wise to stick grass up straight 
around the hole ; it does not give a natu- 
ral appearance. 
These punties are propelled with 
“shovin’ oars,” made of ash or hickory, 
varying from eight to ten feet. They 
are round, except for the blade, which is 
about 2^4 inches wide and an inch thick ; 
the rest of the oar is about lj4 inches in 
diameter. The gunner stands on the 
stern and “shoves” through the shallow 
water of the flats, far easier than he 
could row a boat. Over a soft bottom 
one must “watch one’s step.” A man 
who doesn’t lose his balance and fall 
overboard at least once a season is not 
considered a real good duck-hunter. 
The punty is painted a muddy olive- 
brown color which just matches the color 
of the bog. If they are well colored and 
properly thatched it is best to pull them 
out on the open bog instead of in the 
sedge grass. And do not pile seaweed 
over them ; it never looks natural. 
A very wise thing to do is to put a 
gun-rest in the forward end of the hole. 
It is nothing more or less than a stick, 
plenty strong enough to support a gun, 
placed conveniently across the hole. One 
shows in the photo of the two punties 
pulled out on a point. If one’s gun should 
go off by mistake, it will not carry away 
one’s foot or the bow of the punty. 
Punties at anchor with hatches on 
\Y7 E shoot deep-water ducks, such as 
’’’ broad-bill, from batteries anchor- 
ed out in the bay. A battery is a water- 
tight box, just long enough for a man to 
lie flat in; just deep enough so that the 
sides reach his “highest point’ when flat, 
and wide enough so that either one or 
two men can lie in it. The sides of the 
box have decks several feet wide, and 
at the head of the box is a deck to .which 
a piece of canvas, some twelve feet long 
and held out flat by wooden battens, is 
attached. Frames covered with canvas 
are hinged to the outer edges of the side 
decks. The “close-up” of a double bat- 
tery shows the arrangement. The decoys 
seen on the decks are made of iron, and 
there are a sufficient number of blocks 
of lead in the box so that when the gun- 
ners are on board the battery is sunk to 
the level of the water. 
The whole machine is painted battle- 
ship-gray, and it is imperative that the 
gunners be dressed in gray clothing. 
From one hundred to two hundred de- 
coys are used; they are set out from the 
foot of the battery — the furthest stool 
being within gunshot. 
When the gunners have been put on 
board and the stool arranged, the tender 
then sails away to a distance of a quarter 
of a mile or more. When the gunners 
kill some birds, or cripple them, they 
signal to the tender, who draws near, 
picks up the dead and kills the wounded 
if they have gotten out of range of the 
guns on the machine. 
Batteries have been called murderous 
contrivances, but the greatest number of 
birds I ever “murdered” from one of 
them was sixteen in one morning. As 
this was high score for the season for 
an amateur gunner in the vicinity where 
I shot, I hardly think that we can call 
the battery “murderous.” 
One more word as to decoys, particu- 
larly black-duck decoys : most of those 
that are factory-made are too small and 
highly colored. They should be a little 
larger than a live bird and painted a 
brownish-black, except the head and 
neck, which are a lighter brown. There 
should be no gloss or shine to them. The 
set shown in the photo are all home- 
made, and the best I have ever shot over. 
