Video I ran across about Steve Sanford who recently joined

Mr. Anderson:

I'm always a sucker for helping kids out.

If you give me your mailing address, I can ship you a copy of the Revised Gunning Box Plans (I, too, will have to rifle through a couple of boxes to get my hands on them.)

When I do build another later this year, along with step-by-step photos, I plan to tell the "back story". I first got the idea for one (not that many hadn't built them for 100 years already) during a northwest gale when I was about 14. There were Black Ducks jumping from potholes everywhere on Captree Island (Great South Bay) and I thought: If only there were a way I could lie down to hide and stay dry....

Sounds like a great project for your son (and, yes, it's easiest to stack the plywood and cut out 2 or more at the same time) - just let me know how I can help.

Also, I love the MacQuarrie quote - one of my favorites!

All the best,

SJS

View attachment Coffin Box - vs.jpg
 
Cap'n Ferrar~

Great to hear from you - and I appreciate your defending me in the earlier Coffin Box discussion. I look forward to seeing you anytime this spring - I can also use a good pair of hands for my projects.

re the Rope v. Line conundrum: just Google it!

All the best,

Cap'n Fowler
 
Mr Sanford-

Thank you for the generous offer on the updated plans. I have sent you a pm with my email address. My son is very excited about building the coffin box. He has helped build two boat blinds in the past couple of years. This year will be no different as we will likely continue to make changes to our boat blind and we will be trying to get a couple of layout boats put together. Oh, and train the new Chessie pup that comes home in two weeks.

I need to get busy. Lots to get done before next September.

-----------
 
Welcome aboard Steve. I built two boxes from the plans a number of years ago. Nice simple design. Bob
 
Lou~

It's nice to hear from you - and from all the others I've "met" since joining the site. I have hunted over your E. Allen birds for many years now. Whereas my old saltwater rig was (and still is) cork or hollow pine with 1-pound anchors, I now hunt mostly freshwater. Instead of a boat with outboard and "weight no object", I now frequently walk in or carry a canoe. So, I added no ballast to your decoys and the weights are 1-ounce bank sinkers. And, I used to see Keith Mueller and Fred Muhs at the US National Decoy Show - and finally met Paul Dobrowski at a US National retrospective last March. Red Oster, too, I know is a fan of you and your Allen decoys.

The shop in the video has been supplanted by this new shop I built in 2010 - just before I retired (although I prefer to think of it as entering Phase II). The new shop is much bigger, has a wood stove, great light, and is set up for boatbuilding. The shop in the video is our Granary and now houses all my gunning stool and other gear.

View attachment Shop - Summer 2010 - vs.jpg View attachment Shop Handle - Pencil Brook Farm - vs.jpg

Best of all, the new shop was ready in time to serve as the dance hall (with machinery and equipment temporarily evacuated) for my daughter's wedding in July of 2010.

All the best,

SJS
 
Steve
I am glad to see another very talented person on this site. I very much enjoy the quality of work that everyone does on this site.
 
can't wait to see the coffin box build.....never seen one before this post.....i hunt some really wet fields and i think one of these boxes would be a perfect tool to use in them. i have used my FA field blind but it doesn't last long and even with the heavy duty bottom it still gets wet after a while.

also to me there is nothing better than building something useful for yourself. I would also think the wood box would maybe block the wind a little better? I dont like how my field blind has my head hanging out in the open. i did however just get my new filson tin cloth wildfowl hat in the mail yesterday so maybe the wind wont bother me anymore :)

anyways can't wait to see the coffin box build.....thanks for sharing the plans


Kyle
 
Hey Steve its nice to see you found this site. Now I won't have to reply to the inquiries about the Sanford Box and building them at your house as you can answer the questions yourself better. Unfortunately when I moved to the Catskills my Sanford boxes were left on L.I. and stored poorly outside and the plywood delaminated. I will be looking at your new build as I would be very interested in replacing them.
 
Lou~

It's nice to hear from you - and from all the others I've "met" since joining the site. I have hunted over your E. Allen birds for many years now. Whereas my old saltwater rig was (and still is) cork or hollow pine with 1-pound anchors, I now hunt mostly freshwater. Instead of a boat with outboard and "weight no object", I now frequently walk in or carry a canoe. So, I added no ballast to your decoys and the weights are 1-ounce bank sinkers. And, I used to see Keith Mueller and Fred Muhs at the US National Decoy Show - and finally met Paul Dobrowski at a US National retrospective last March. Red Oster, too, I know is a fan of you and your Allen decoys.

The shop in the video has been supplanted by this new shop I built in 2010 - just before I retired (although I prefer to think of it as entering Phase II). The new shop is much bigger, has a wood stove, great light, and is set up for boatbuilding. The shop in the video is our Granary and now houses all my gunning stool and other gear.



Best of all, the new shop was ready in time to serve as the dance hall (with machinery and equipment temporarily evacuated) for my daughter's wedding in July of 2010.

All the best,

SJS
Click to expand...

Steve,
Glad you like our birds...always a plus. ;) They do work great for hauling into protected backwaters like that. My buddy Gene & I have hauled a bunch like that back to a marsh that was about 1/2 mile back into the woods but well worth the trip.
Red Oster has been a friend & customer for a long time. Great guy to work with.
I met Capt. Freddy Muhs at the world show a couple times and he carved several of our patterns. Great talent, sorry to have heard he passed on some time ago.
Gene (Eugene Allen Chandler-E.Allen) and I hunted Cape Cod back in the early '90s with Keith and Paul and had a great time. Dave Clark was with us back then also. Turns out we hunted the perfect storm in up to 75 knot winds. Fortunately we were hunting off a rock jetty and had to move as the storm surge and tide were coming in an covering over our jetty. Interesting time and we got to shoot a bunch of Eider. Great fun.
Lou
 
Hey, Pete!

Nice to hear from you - after quite a hiatus! I hope all is well. I'm enjoying this site - so heartening to see so many others passionate about this grand sport.

I have often wondered (these many years) - Did you ever carve those Whistler heads I sawed out (in the early '90s)?

All the best,

SJS
 
About 13 - 14 years ago, I purchased one of your pond boxes from a builder at the Tuckerton show. When I lived in eastern PA, I hunted out of that box A LOT and took many black ducks out of it in the meadow. When I moved to KY, I brought it with me and it was deadly on mallards along the farm ponds around Lexington. Several years ago, we had a dove shoot in September and one of the hurricanes came up from the Gulf and blew down an entire field of sunflowers. No cover anywhere!! I took that box and layed it out in the middle of that field and shot a limit of doves from my back in less than an hour. To this day, people still crack up about "layout hunting" for doves!!

Thank you for joining. I loved the video! Your decoys are amazing!!

Best,
Steve
 
Steve, its funny you mentioned those whistler heads. I had those decoys put together and almost done for years when I got them out of Al McCormicks basement when he got sick. I had put them on simple block tail gunning bodies. Funny thing is I never saw many Goldeneyes when hunting Long Island. Moving up to Sullivan County they sat like that for years. Last year I finished up the drakes and this year I was layed up with a broken ankle and finished up the 3 hens. I didn't get almost any late season hunting in because of my situation but got out with a guy on the last day of the L.I. zone. I had 1 drake goldeneye buzz the decoys at 30 yards but I was too slow to spot him and I didn't get off a shot so my quest for a Goldeneye continues. We went out of Westchester in Long island sound and stayed the whole day to get some Widgeon, Gadwall and Mallard. Nice guy but he had some of the ugliest decoys ever with 2 long lines of broadbills that were scratched, cracked and half sunk. I remember you saying that because you spend so many hours duck hunting looking at your decoys they might as well be good looking decoys. I used to spend some time back in the day in Washington County. My friends dad bought a house on Cossayuna Lake and I remember Carters Pond close by. never hunted it but I did some fishing at cossayuna and deer hunted with some locals and remembered flushing a ton of grouse while doing it.
 
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