Hunting From a Canoe

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Carlsen Highway
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Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Carlsen Highway »

Anybody hunt from a canoe?
I learned how to paddle a canoe properly a few years back taught by an older friend of mine who did it a lot (when I was hunting in America) and it turns out I love them. Most of my hunting is done on canoe trips now.

My old canoe

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New canoe this year
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View on the way - this is Lake Manapouri, surrounded by mountains and bush of Fiordland National Park. Those are all different islands in the distance. Red deer through this whole area.
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Camp (litte broken sapling to the left of centre in foreground is a stag's rub tree, and that bugger of a stag came back at nights and roared all round my bed. I kept the rifle handy in case he was clumsy or malicious.)
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Ususally its lever gun expeditions, because the little Winchester 92 is my canoe gun, and the .44-40 will handle a big deer to my satisfaction.
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This camp is on lake Te Anau, (also Fiordland)
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German tourist I picked up on the way one time.
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Lake Te Anau also has red deer surrounding, but also most famously has elk. I have learnt a lot about what a canoe can do on a lake.
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Last edited by Carlsen Highway on Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by AJMD429 »

Never hunted from one, but loved paddling my aunt's Royalex canoe all over the place as a kid. Way nicer than the aluminum or fiberglass ones I had access to.
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Grizz
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Grizz »

In Alaska I hunted deer from a kayak I built. Cockpit was just big enough to include the deer when going back to the boat. Was shooting a .308 at the time. I was camping in my fishing boat however.

Your photos are exquisite. It's a great way to be out. Somewhere there is an Alaska hunting forum that has lots of info on hunting and transporting moose in the interior in canoes.
Last edited by Grizz on Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by 2ndovc »

Great pictures! I spent a lot of time canoeing as a kid, haven't been in one for some time but they were a lot of fun!

jb 8)
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by crs »

Great pix, thanks.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by FWiedner »

.
Looks like great fun. I want to do that.

:)
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Griff »

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by bikerbeans »

I am very jealous!

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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Marvin S »

It’s illegal to hunt from a moving watercraft here.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by BenT »

Great pics. My friend and I will float a river during deer hunting. When we come to a horse shoe bend, one of us will get out and walk across the point and try to kick out a deer to the person in the canoe as they round the bend. I use a Win 94 Wrangler in 32 special with a saddle ring sling when we do this.
I have friends in Minnesota that hunt the islands on the St Croix river and also camp on them while hunting.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Rusty »

I read a story in I think OUTDOOR LIFE MAGAZINE years ago that someone wrote about squirrel hunting from a canoe. I always wanted to try it myself but was never in an area remote enough to try it, at least with a rifle anyway. We always had a family tradition of hunting tree rats with a shotgun so technically I could try it.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by octagon »

As kids we used to bow hunt carp from a canoe at the lake,we'd trade these fish to the cooks at the Chinese restaurant who'd give us free beer at the bar. Yeah, the good life 8)
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Sixgun »

Neat pics from another land....wife and I got a good laugh with the one picture showing the rub and your lean to...then the next pic must be the deer...that'll teach him to get that close. :D
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by piller »

Looks like a wonderful place to hunt.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by gamekeeper »

Great photos great country, Kirk in Canada is no stranger to canoeing too...... 8)
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Tanqueray »

I think I live in the wrong island James.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Bill in Oregon »

New Zealand is an enchanting place, with so many fabulous opportunities to hunt and fish. You are living a lot of guys' dreams, mister! 8)
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Ray »

I cannot seem to find the Robert Service poem along this theme but at least a line or two it goes something like this......

Dan McGrew was too intrepid to be true.....

He met his fate while attempting rape.......

Standing in a leaky canoe !
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Griff »

Tanqueray wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:55 amI think I live in the wrong island James.
Being a "Southie" myself, there might be a bit of snobbery in my view... But, if I ever win the Lottery, I figure I'm going to need 3 homes... one down around Dunedin, one in the Sounds (family heritage & all), and one north of Auckland (South Head)... maybe even an island in the Hauraki Gulf. :D
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by RIHMFIRE »

Fantastic post!
too many gators down here to hunt with a canoe!
some bigger than the canoe! :shock:
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Batman1939 »

Somewhat regrettably I just sold my Coleman RamX 15' canoe a couple of weeks ago. It looks like that's what you have. We used ours for running some rivers and mostly on the Missouri River which runs by my place. Our place is now for sale, so have sold drift boat, kayaks, canoe and several float tubes. Kind of a bittersweet time, but we need to move on.

Those canoes are pretty good value for the dollar; we enjoyed ours.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by marlinman93 »

Never a canoe, but I have hunted using small boats to get to a hunting area. We can't actually hunt from any floating device, or shoot rifles or pistols from or across water. But getting to a remote area only accessible by water is a great way to get to game that hasn't been available to many hunters.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Pisgah »

It's illegal to shoot game from a watercraft in my state -- but perfectly legal to use one as transportation to your hunting site. Over the years, a buddy and I have partnered up and used canoes numerous times to get us in to isolated National Forest areas that would require lengthy hikes to reach if we came in from the nearest roads. We park one pickup truck at our intended take-out point, then drive the roads upstream to our put-in point. An easy, quiet float takes us to our hunting area, and at the end of the day we then float on down to our take-out spot. Sure beats a long walk in to these prime areas followed by a long, torturous drag out when we are successful!
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Drawdown »

I sure had to pull this thread back up. I did most my hunting last Sept and oct by solo canoe camping. Didn't get my deer, but got plenty squirrels! I mostly squirrel hunted mornings and bow hunted deer in evenings. And my camp resembled yours very much, especially my blue tarp kitchen & resting spot!

I've got an Old Town Penobscot 16' 4", and before it another Old Town tripper. I've canoed off and on all my life, a lot floating smallmouth rivers, used to do that a lot.
I've yet to paddle in with a deer rack hanging over the side, but I hope!

But anyways, great thread and soothing pics!
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by AmBraCol »

Thanks for bringing it back up, Drawdown. I missed it the first time around.

Here's a link to a rambling remembrance of the one time I went on a big game hunt that involved a canoe. Hadn't thought about that in some time. When I was a kid we used canoes mostly when we'd go to the Araguaia river during dry season to fish. We'd take along our rifles/shotguns/etc but hunting was an afterthought to the fishing. Good times.
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Drawdown »

Thats a great story, thanks a lot! And it reminds me of a wild one I got into, i'll try to describe it briefly.
I believe aprox 1993, I let my lifelong best friend talk me into another daring chance, like he'd got me into before###!!!

Most our canoeing was for fishing, and we were back then devout river smallmouth men. SE Ky, SW Va, and E Tn, and there's some fine smallie rivers here. At that time, we'd already fished the New R, in Va a couple times, but only wade fishing, which is what we usually did. (Most people relate the New R to W Va, but it starts in N Car, then up thru Va into W Va)
Its a big, fast treacherous river that we knew little about yet. But he got the crazy idea to put in a canoe, way up river where we knew nothing about, aprox 10 miles up, and float back down to our spot. Its mostly in smaller mountain country there but kinda in the boonies. After he begged a month I give in.

Well, we get to a put in he had picked out on a map, a place we knew nothing about! I never felt good about it but I wasn't chickening out.
Well down we go, fast beautiful shoals, slow pools, then another rapids. We catch fish decently. Well best I remember aprox 2-3 hours down, aprox 1mile maybe close to 2, we shoot thru another rapids. Water gets real calm, slow. I say hay this river getting wide! We go around a little curve.
Well, there's a dam. A hydro dam thats built between 2 big ridges shot out waaaaay up there.
I didn't get mad at him at first, just myself! Little later, well he still hears about it!!!
Easy to see, no choice but paddle and pack a loaded canoe back up river. I was strong as a bear and dumb as a ox then. And this trip verified it once again! He's gotten me into a bunch like that###!!!
And he broke my new spinning rod when we was finally, late in the day, loading the stuff in the truck.
I wasn't caring about what I said or how I acted back then!
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Grizz »

the areas i hunted by kayak in Alaskan solitude are pretty well overrun with people now. it's harder and harder to find the kind of solitude that blesses me.

but there is a way. if i go during the lull between two big storms, i get some peace and quiet for a while before the "recreational crowd" reappears. i took the last halibut trip out of Glacier Bay by running in there on a major storm forecast. got the anchor down in clay with some bit of shelter, and weathered winds that make the rigging scream, and break the kite string, and slay several boats and kill some people. and caught our commercial bag limit in the follow up calm. and hauled that trip into Juneau to sell the fish and buy the winters groceries.

kind of long reminiscence, but i have consumed two cups of fisherman coffee
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Drawdown »

This is a good serious thread all good stories! Forgive me for trashing it with a crazy no good trip!
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by OldWin »

Very nice. Beautiful pictures, as always.
People do it here for deer and moose. There are many huge bogs and flowages that are very remote. If there is stream access from a road, you can throw in and get to some great hunting areas.
Canoes are common as rocks here, and have been forever.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by yooper2 »

Haven't gone hunting from a canoe in several years but used to frequently.

My best friend had an old Chestnut Prospectorthat we recanvased and one year after our seasonal gigs on Isle Royale came to end we went hunting in the Minnesota Boundary Waters for 3 weeks with that old boat. I brought an old Steven's 311 and he had a BPS. We gained alot of respect for the old voyaguers humping that canoe over portages. We had a ridiculously good time though!


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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Pisgah »

Marvin S wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:01 pm It’s illegal to hunt from a moving watercraft here.
Here, it's illegal to SHOOT from a water conveyance, but not to use a canoe to transport yourself to the hunting ground. A friend and I have often canoed the nearby Tyger River to National Forest lands where we find lots of deer -- and never another hunter.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Marvin S »

Just have to be anchored here. Lots of duck boats with blinds built on them.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Grizz »

i notice the word "illegal" appearing often in this thread. it is illegal to drive 1mph above the posted speed limit. where i live the traffic averages 10 over. which leads me back to:

when subsisting and feeding my household in wilderness, some minutia of some trivia seemed to get overlooked or forgotten by our tribe. it used to be common to hunt game from vessels, you know, because cars hadn't been invented yet, and there were no roads where the game is. punt guns in duck boats come to mind. when i arrived in wilderness it was legal to hunt from water craft, which fishermen and other gatherers have done since before history was recorded in caves. some days i hunted 10mph over . . ,

i never hunted for sport. where i come from it is illegal to starve your family.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

I have an Old Town Pack canoe. Its fun to fish from and I routinely shoot turtles with a Single Six while sitting on the water. If that's illegal, come and get me coppers!!!!!
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Marvin S »

I have the old town pack also. There worth a few bucks since the fire at the royalex factory. Nice lite weight canoe.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Drawdown »

I believe you'll are referring to the Pack, aprox 12ft, one man canoe, weighs aprox 35lb??, hang on to it. That's one the top 3 canoes old Town ever made as far as useful. I kept a 16ft'r for years but I never knew that boat was available until they quit making it. If I had id got one also, perfect for the one day trips!
I primarily always used a tripping canoe for multi day camping trips, and they'd be loaded to full, but for short quick trips the little boat is the ultimate!
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

Its a short one man canoe and weighs almost nothing. But it will carry a lot of weight. I have it rigged out for fishing right now. Great little boat.
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by yooper2 »

I got some old, tight grained cedar that I'm saving to build a Rushton pack canoe with. I saw one in the watercraft collection at Mystic Seaport that was maybe 12' long and weighed about 16lbs. I was shocked when the curator told me to pick it up, felt a whole lot lighter. Made me think of Nessmuk's "Sairy Gamp". Such a boat would be more fragile than Royalex but soooooooo classy for bit of evening fishing.


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Edit:
I think it was this boat. https://store.mysticseaport.org/ships-p ... canoe.html
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Re: Hunting From a Canoe

Post by MS 9x56 »

Good friend and I used to do a lot of fishing and jump shooting ducks and occasional squirrel from canoe mostly in rivers sometimes lakes and ponds. We used single shot and double barreled coach guns on those expeditions as they were short and easy to maneuver in a canoe. Always had a good time and usually made a shore lunch of our quarry.
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