Anyone here got a pirogue?

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bernie

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I am about to buy some sort of a small boat that I can carry in the back of my pickup truck to use to duck hunt. It will be used on the way to and from work (I am a saleman and travel quite a bit in my region) to hunt small, shallow bodies of water.

I am looking for something lightweight and easy to carry 50 or so yards, can be carried in my pickup, and is stable enough to lay in the bottom of and then lean up quickly to shoot ducks.

I like the idea of the pirogue, but is it stable enough to lie in the bottom of and hunt?

I have hunted out of a flatbottom fiberglass "layout" boat. I am talking about the Mississippi River delta type layout, not the northern type. It worked well, but was a little bit heavier and less maneuverable than the pirogue probably would be.

Thanks in advance for the input.
 
Until I was 16 or so I THOUGHT you had to have a priogue to hunt :D.

Seriously I have my daddy's pirogue which I inherited when he passed away last Jan. It has been in the family or years. About 15 foot long and 2-1/2 feet wide. He built it out of one sheet of 4X16 foot AAA marine plywood, cypress ribs, brass screws and fittings when I was maybe 10 or so. It carried me, him, and sometimes my little brother along with 3 or 4 beagles for years. just paddle to where ever the rabbits, ducks, deer etc were, turn the dogs loose and take a stand.Never did turn it over. We shot from it, around it etc.

It used to make a many snake hunt in the spring back in the same area. I guess a man could be wealthy if he had all the empty .22 brass that fell in it over the years.

It was nothing to paddle it 10 or 12 miles a day back in the bayous in the swamps by the lake.

Today they have the fiberglass, and aluminum ones. They are smaller than mine and maybe a lil less stable. Remember all the old time Cajuns (hell some still do) stood up in a pirogue and used a push pole for propulsion so stability is no biggie once you get used to it.

A 12 footer should fit nicely in a pickup 8 foot bed pus 2 foot tailgate and a couple of ropes, not too much overhanging ................. I used to get the 15 footer in my pickup and tie it down, but lately have gotten old and lazy and just pop it on my 14 foot utiility trailer...............a coonass boat trailer :D.
 
bernie,
I made one out of plywood that was 10' long and 28" wide on bottom. I have lived out of it for up to 3 days. Wouldn't recommend anything shorter or narrower for hunting. I could shoot 12 gage sideways in it sitting down and not tip boat over. I've been in one that was around 21-22" wide on bottom and if you looked sideways it wanted to tip you over.
It is my opinion that the flat-bottom plywood pirogues for the same width are more stable than the curved bottom fiberglass ones. So if you're buying one I would want one at least 30-32" wide. I think most of the mfd. ones will be wide enough as they won't stay in business if they're product ducks people routinely in the water. I think there is a company called Moccassin (or some such) that makes some good looking short pirogues. Don't know about their weight.
Am currently working on my 4th boat. This one will be 12' long and 26" wide on bottom, my narrowest yet. I'm not planning on shooting sideways in this one, tho perhaps I should just to test.
Hope that helps.
 
Bernie, I have not forgotten my promise to take some pics of my priogue and send them to you but things got hectic here. I have to leave for about 2 weeks offshore tomorrow..........see post in General discussion forum on that. I will try to get em when I get back in.
 
bernie - did they look to be well constructed in person? I'm amazed by the price! Kind of tempting...
 
They appear to be very well made, that is why I was interested. I have looked at a lot of different type of duck hunting boats, and it is among the tops in looks. I know that looks can be deceiving, but I do not like spending money on something that looks like a rag bag. My main concern was stability for shooting out of it. I do not liked to be soaked to the skin when the weather is freezing!
 
Shooting from a pirogue

Hello Guys, I have been looking to buy a pirogue to shoot from and have ran across alot of post and discussions about this topic. I have been looking for a great deal on a suitable boat not trying to figure out what I can or can't shoot from. I have seen post sugesting every thing from canoes to the traditional louisiana pirogues that I have used a good bit. And are by the way useally about 24" wide and so unstable, that the fist day of use after a while of being out of practice you feel like someone spent all day taking a broom stick to your ribs. And somthing as simple as a curious dog looking over the side at a fingerling swiming by will put you in the drink. As I have flipped over a 12' cheap riveted aluminum jon boat shooting a one week old banellie SBEII. I would have to say that shooting out of a canoe or traditional pirogue is just an unreasonable notion. However the brand someone mentioned above (mocassin) actualy "water mocassin" boats another brand is "bobcat" boats these are not traditional pirogues but very very stable and still very easy to get around in. As well as lightwieight. I assure you that you can shoot out of these boats. Leiving in north louisiana I pretty much hunt flloded timber backed up off of lake an bayous. I had a bobcat pirogue as a kid. I won it at a raffel at a local fire department fundraiser. I spent hours and hours in it and it is very stable. I actually found pretty much exact disign as the 2 brands I mentioned above at a flee market here locally that I am going to go get in a few hours. It isn't one of the brands I just mentioned but my searching has paid off. I am getting it for $75 I will post the exact brand and pics. when I can.
 
You'd be better served with a 17' square stern canoe. I've hunted from both and the pirogue was too tippy (an original plywood version). With the canoe, you can mount a 4-5hp motor, carry 1,000# and still draft 3". You can also c clamp some stabilizing boards to set up the blind in shallow water.
 
I hunted and fished from a pirouge for years and years. There’s nothing that will get you around the marsh or flooded timber like a pirouge. You can paddle down a trenasse that only has 2 or 3 inches of water to get to your duck blind,. You can also maneuver through flooded trees hunting with almost no effort and be quiet while doing this. Shooting out of one is no problem. Using one is kinda like riding a bicycle, once you learn you can stand up and pole it or sit and paddle it.

I don’t know much about commercially made ones, the only ones I ever owned were made by another local coonass. I do know that if they don’t have a flat bottom that’s curved from front to rear you can’t steer them.

A friends wife bought him an aluminum one, it had a flat un-curved bottom. I can still hear him banging into trees and cussing it. Made a distinctive clang every tree he hit, followed by a string of expletives.

I tried a fiberglass one once. Walked out into it an it started to split in the middle, me and my shotgun just made it back to the bank.

The traditional ones are the best, but it’s getting hard to find anyone one who still makes cypress pirouges. A hurricane got my last one. It was made by an old man named Chauvin in Centerville, LA. He’s been dead for years and I don’t know anyone who is still making them.

Can’t master a pirouge, get yourself a bateau. You’ll have to try to fall out of it.
 
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