Looking for info on Gunning Boxes

Joe Friday

Well-known member
Supporter
Hello all,

Does anyone have web links or literature about gunning boxes? I've built 4 or 5 boxes for shells and hunting accessories but am interested in reading anything about the general use or history of such boxes. My understanding so far is that they were more common in the midwest/central flyways than here in the east. But I could be wrong. I'd love to read a magazine article or historical piece about them.

I've searched the threads here, but found nothing in terms of a history or documentation. I recently acquired some wide cypress boards, and got the bug to make a couple more of these boxes for friends.

best to all.

Joe
 
Joe

You may have brought up the one subject in duck hunting literature that hasn't been documented. I absolutely love seeing gunning boxes from before plastic existed and know others find them intriguing as well. But I have never seen any article or book go into a discussion about them. I hope someone here can point both you and me to some literature about them. If not talk about a subject ripe for the picking and ready to be explored and written about.

Eric
 
Thanks, Matthew!!

For reference, the olive box is my first one, completed about 2007. Others I've made have been gifted away. I acquired some very nice cypress recently, and so I'm working on another box for a friend.

best wishes,

Joe Friday


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HUNTING & FISHING COLLECTIBLES MAGAZINE (no longer in publication) had several articles about gunning boxes over the years. I have almost every issue but have no idea which ones contain the articles, at this time.

Ducks Unlimited Magazine, also had several articles about gunning boxes over the years. Those I have also, but which ones who knows.


Almost all gunning boxes had a stout handle, and a cradle for holding the shotgun. Used in marsh boats to keep essentials and shells dry, and the shotgun handy. The one that I helped to make has served me well for many years.

This has been brought up before and I do believe photos and some info were included.


my 2 cents
 
Capt Ritch, Mine are carried with a rope handle. But I think I will build a leather strap handle for the one I'm currently working on.
 
Just to follow up; This is the gunning box I was working on last month. I loved the wood so much, I could not bring myself to paint it. It is cypress that was collected from an old tobacco barn here in Pitt County, North Carolina. I stained it with Minwax "gunmetal" stain, and put Zinser's shellac on it. I painted the logo free-hand. I added leather pads for the gun cradle. The rope is a nylon anchor rope secured with a knot as well as a hidden brad-nail running through the wood.

This gunning box will go to a New Jersey hunter who was my best hunting friend when he lived along the Outer Banks of NC. The Bodie Island Club was an actual club in the very early part of the 20th century, located on land now owned by the National Park Service and which makes up the Bodie Island public duck hunting areas. I believe my friend's great-grandfather was involved in the formation of the club, or with surveying the club property.



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Capt Rich:
Inside the gunning box; original saw marks are visible on the bottom board and on the edges of some of the other boards. The laminated card is a Dare County, NC duck blind permit from years ago. In Dare County, all duck blinds are regulated and must be permitted. In the early 1990s my friend studied a map of county blinds and discovered a cove near the Bodie Island lighthouse was situated so that a blind could be legally built and licensed there. It sits in the shadow of the Bodie Island Lighthouse, and there is no more picturesque spot on the whole Outer Banks in my opinion. We could park at the lighthouse and walk a trail we made through the woods and marsh and get there in 10 minutes. I helped build the original blind and hunted it whenever I could. Interior dimensions: 12.5" across the length x 7.75" front to back, and 8.5" deep.



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Wow, those are great. I have seen one of those boxes before, on Ebay several years ago.

This is the box I just finished last Saturday. I treated the leather with silicone waterproofing, like that used on leather boots, so it looks really stiff in the pictures. I got a snap closure kit and added that to secure the lid. The hardware is just zinc-plated hinges, with the zinc coating burned off using a small propane torch. I think it provides a rougher, older look. This box is just a bit smaller than others I've made. It measures 14" long x 6" wide x 7" deep on the interior. The box is made of cypress lumber i obtained from an old tobacco barn here in North Carolina. The paint is acrylic. I found the duck I.D. chart online and just downloaded and printed it. I think it gives the box a nice vintage vibe.



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Nice touch on the duck ID chart. I use a wood sugar bucket or firkin, fiberglass ed the bottom. it's 13 inches tall and about the same wide.985939B4-D252-46BA-98B4-B24982F797F7.jpeg6ABF1AE8-C36C-40FB-9C18-5F9036EB4058.jpeg
 
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