Chuck Cooper
Active member
Does anyone have plans or pics of sinkboxes or even tell me where to find them,no luck searching the web,,,,Thanks ,,Chuck
sinkboxes
- Thread starter Chuck Cooper
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Philip Finck here on the site has a sinkbox. That is who I hunted with in Nova Scotia. This is the only picture I have of the construction of the sinkbox. It tapers down from the top so that the bottom is basically big enough for a man to stand in it.....foot room is about it...
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Michael R Braun
Well-known member
Dani
not to correct you but in the pictur it looks to be a Nova Scotia duck tub not a sink box. sink box is level with the water surfice. either way it is the same consept. I have pictures of a tub I will see if I can dig them up.
not to correct you but in the pictur it looks to be a Nova Scotia duck tub not a sink box. sink box is level with the water surfice. either way it is the same consept. I have pictures of a tub I will see if I can dig them up.
Philip Finck here on the site has a sinkbox. That is who I hunted with in Nova Scotia. This is the only picture I have of the construction of the sinkbox. It tapers down from the top so that the bottom is basically big enough for a man to stand in it.....foot room is about it...
Scott Farris
Well-known member
I have an old book or two with the basic information:
View attachment sinkbox.jpg
I'll look them up tonight and pass on the titles if no one has beaten me to it.
Scott
View attachment sinkbox.jpg
I'll look them up tonight and pass on the titles if no one has beaten me to it.
Scott
Chuck
Take a look in the duckboat specs section. It has the below pic and probably some more info as well.
Take a look in the duckboat specs section. It has the below pic and probably some more info as well.
Steve Sutton
Well-known member
(all "lay down" sinkboxes), plus the "sit down sinkboxes" that were used where the water was deep enough, (and which are almost identical to the Duck Tub except for the wing design), the Tabusintac Layout and the Nova Scotia Duck Tub are all "variations" of Sinkboxes......
The biggest difference in the Duck Tub and the sit down sinkboxes that were used in America is the wing design and the fact that the Duck Tub has a permenant combing around the top of the box instead of the lead flap that could raised in bad weather......other than that permenant combing the entire "coffin" is below the water and that makes it a sinkbox....
No question the American versions were more comfortable, being large enoug to actually sit down in, but that was because they saw use as in both Market and Sport Hunting and there wasn't a millionaire around that was going to SQUAT while he shot his 100 Cans a day.....my impression of the Duck Tub was that they were used by fishermen and not sports and for "subsistance" and not "sport".....as usually happens in those situations the design is simplified for ease of use.....as a result you lose the "comfort" of the bigger box but gain the ability to handle it with just a couple of people....
Steve
The biggest difference in the Duck Tub and the sit down sinkboxes that were used in America is the wing design and the fact that the Duck Tub has a permenant combing around the top of the box instead of the lead flap that could raised in bad weather......other than that permenant combing the entire "coffin" is below the water and that makes it a sinkbox....
No question the American versions were more comfortable, being large enoug to actually sit down in, but that was because they saw use as in both Market and Sport Hunting and there wasn't a millionaire around that was going to SQUAT while he shot his 100 Cans a day.....my impression of the Duck Tub was that they were used by fishermen and not sports and for "subsistance" and not "sport".....as usually happens in those situations the design is simplified for ease of use.....as a result you lose the "comfort" of the bigger box but gain the ability to handle it with just a couple of people....
Steve
Scott Farris
Well-known member
Dani,
The traditional sinkbox has lead coamings that can be turned up as needed. They are shown in both the figure I posted and in the model It looks like the model has two sets. And as a benefit all that lead reduces the number of rocks needed.
Scott
The traditional sinkbox has lead coamings that can be turned up as needed. They are shown in both the figure I posted and in the model It looks like the model has two sets. And as a benefit all that lead reduces the number of rocks needed.
Scott
Steve Sutton
Well-known member
as you well know....way easier to sink a laydown box to water level, (all that was needed was the wt. of the gunner and the gear plus some iron wing decoys), than it is to sink the SIT DOWN style which is what the Duck Tub was.....
With 140#'s of concrete hanging off the bottom of the tub, plus (2) 30# sand bags in the bottom and my 230#'s inside it the box was still less than half sunk....the rocks were needed to sink the boat the rest of the way to water level...in the American sit downs many of which were two man over a 1,000#'s of iron was needed to sink the box to water level.....so the concept is the same....The fishermen in Nova Scotia used rocks cause they were frugal and those were free....the commercial operations in the US used pig iron in the bottom of the boats partly for comfort and partly because it was more readily available to them.....
The lead combing on the American boxes vs. the permenant wood combing on the Duck Tub followed the same evolution....the big canvas wings of the American boxes knocked the waves down better than the single wooden decoy boards on the tub...one needed the added protection only rarely while the other one needed it all the time...
I recall reading at least one accoutn of a FOUR MAN sit down rig...in N.Y. I believe......having been the guy in the "Square bobber" that was bouncing around on the ocean like, well, a sqaure bobber, being handed those STONES from Phillip I can tell you that this is not an EASY thing to accomplish....I can barely imagine the crew that it must have taken to set a Four Man Sit DOwn Sinkbox...
Steve
With 140#'s of concrete hanging off the bottom of the tub, plus (2) 30# sand bags in the bottom and my 230#'s inside it the box was still less than half sunk....the rocks were needed to sink the boat the rest of the way to water level...in the American sit downs many of which were two man over a 1,000#'s of iron was needed to sink the box to water level.....so the concept is the same....The fishermen in Nova Scotia used rocks cause they were frugal and those were free....the commercial operations in the US used pig iron in the bottom of the boats partly for comfort and partly because it was more readily available to them.....
The lead combing on the American boxes vs. the permenant wood combing on the Duck Tub followed the same evolution....the big canvas wings of the American boxes knocked the waves down better than the single wooden decoy boards on the tub...one needed the added protection only rarely while the other one needed it all the time...
I recall reading at least one accoutn of a FOUR MAN sit down rig...in N.Y. I believe......having been the guy in the "Square bobber" that was bouncing around on the ocean like, well, a sqaure bobber, being handed those STONES from Phillip I can tell you that this is not an EASY thing to accomplish....I can barely imagine the crew that it must have taken to set a Four Man Sit DOwn Sinkbox...
Steve
Chuck Cooper
Active member
The sink boexes seem to look like a oversized layout boat,,,my father use to tell me of boat called a sunken monitors that you let water in as a ballast I guess,,,these would have been used in my area ,Brighton Bay ,Trenton ,Belleville area in Southern Ont,,anyone have any idea what I'm talking about??,,,thanks Chuck
Steve Sutton
Well-known member
sinkboxes since the sinkboxes pre-date the layout boats and came into use after sinkboxes were made illegal....
I've heard of the "ballast" type boats that were flooded to take the boat down....unfortunately never have seen even a picture of one....Used to be a guy that posted here that said there were pictures of one, and a description, in a book that he had but I never saw that and don't recall the name of the book now....Maybe Eric can ask Jeff what the name of that book was...
Interestingly there was an "attempt" to resurrect that type of boat in the last few years....didn't catch on but it made a big advertising splash in Wildfowl and got some "press" before it dissappeared....
Steve
I've heard of the "ballast" type boats that were flooded to take the boat down....unfortunately never have seen even a picture of one....Used to be a guy that posted here that said there were pictures of one, and a description, in a book that he had but I never saw that and don't recall the name of the book now....Maybe Eric can ask Jeff what the name of that book was...
Interestingly there was an "attempt" to resurrect that type of boat in the last few years....didn't catch on but it made a big advertising splash in Wildfowl and got some "press" before it dissappeared....
Steve
They are illegal in Indiana. this is from our Waterfowl regulations--No person shall take migratory game birds:From a sink box (a low, floating device, having a depression affording the hunter a means of concealment beneath the surface of the water).
Is this the same for other states??
Is this the same for other states??
Steve Sutton
Well-known member
legal in Canada.....
Its a Federal thing not a State law....
Steve
Its a Federal thing not a State law....
Steve
That language is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife basic regulation. A layout boat can not have a depression that allows your body to be below water level. Sinkboxes and tubs are NOT legal in the US.
Phil Nowack
Well-known member
That is 1 heck of a layout boat!!!! .... I am thinking that is going to be towed to the shooting grounds... not going across the hull!!!!!
Scott Farris
Well-known member
Chuck,
The sinkbox figure above is from American Duck, Goose and Brant by Dr. William Bruette, published in 1929 by New York City G. Howard Watt. It contains a 7 page chapter "How to Build a Sink Box"
George Bird Grinnell has a half dozen page chapter in his 1901 book American Duck Shooting originally published by Field and Stream Publishing Co. This book was republished in soft back in 1991 by Stackpole Books. This chapter contains information on both a single and a double "Battery". I did verify that he was using "Battery" meaning a floating rig as I believe battery has also been used for fixed curtain blinds.
Good luck,
Scott
The sinkbox figure above is from American Duck, Goose and Brant by Dr. William Bruette, published in 1929 by New York City G. Howard Watt. It contains a 7 page chapter "How to Build a Sink Box"
George Bird Grinnell has a half dozen page chapter in his 1901 book American Duck Shooting originally published by Field and Stream Publishing Co. This book was republished in soft back in 1991 by Stackpole Books. This chapter contains information on both a single and a double "Battery". I did verify that he was using "Battery" meaning a floating rig as I believe battery has also been used for fixed curtain blinds.
Good luck,
Scott