Even though sculling for waterfowl is still practiced, it has largely become a lost art in the world of today's modern day waterfowler. Reasons for this antiquation are mainly due to the seemingly infinite number of "technological break throughs" that aid and assist in harvesting these birds, which leaves little speculation at why this method of waterfowling falls into the unpopular catagory.
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Turn of the century sculling boat from Great Bay, New Hampshire. Length is 14' 8" and width is 3'4".
* Photo by permission of Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc.
During the market gunning era for waterfowl, in the late 1800's to early 1900's, the scull boat was used extensively. This time period is perhaps both the sculling boat and sculler's finest hour. These boats saw regional popularity - along the west coast of California at places like Humboltd Bay, the Great Lakes, in Maine around Merrymeeting Bay where black ducks were a local favorite as well as down the east coast around Cheasepeake Bay and the Delaware River areas and in certain areas of the Mississippi River. It was in these places, amoung others, that hunters shot ducks, geese and the like by the scores with the use of this style of hunting. The typical scull boats were 14-15 feet in length, flat-bottomed and about a foot and a half deep. Many of these crafts carried a small mast with a sail that could be used in certain instances when the wind was right and distances needed to be covered but the majority were built to be rowed via a pair of rowing oars. Hunters would scout the area looking for feeding or resting rafts of birds and start sculling toward them with a curved-shaped oar that typically measured 4-5 feet in length. Kills on the order of 50+ birds with a single blast from their 4 gauge shotguns were rather common. Then their small guns, usually 12 gauges, were deployed to finish off the cripples that were still flopping about in the water.
The taste for wildfowl at stores in Chicago, New York and the like, drove the demand for waterfowl to record heights. A market hunter could make a decent living at this respected profession. The work was long, tough, and many times dangerous but the rewards were there. A nice pair of canvasbacks would fetch $7.00 and a good day's work could yield a nice profit.
* Photo by permission of Harry M. Walsh from his book, "Outlaw Gunner."
After the passing of the Migratory Bird Act in 1918, which outlawed market gunning, many of these old sculling boats remained intact with the ex-market hunter and were still used. In fact I have seen a few that are still in use today. Unlike the use of the sinkbox, sculling for waterfowl is presently legal here in the majority of the U.S. The present law for the state that I live and hunt, Alabama, states that migratory waterfowl may be hunted from a floating craft that is powered by human muscle and the sculling boat does this nicely.
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Battery gun with light used for night hunting
* Photo by permission of Harry M. Walsh from his book, "Outlaw Gunner."