Video I ran across about Steve Sanford who recently joined

Here's a photo of Steve's barn wall I took late last year:
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I'm a fly tyer and had a field day with that bunch!
Gary
 
Great little video. I stumbled on that somewhere before. Enjoyed watching it again. I find his statements about a "brotherhood of duck hunters" to be pretty accurate. I have many friends and stumbled onto others that seem to be genuinely interested in the sport as a sport, understanding it to so many levels beyond bag limits and bragging rights. I have enjoyed learning from many strangers that I meet and then becoming not so strange to each other.

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That was a nice watch. He's an easy man to listen to talk about decoys. Some beautiful decoys too.

Tim
 
Well...

This is my first foray as a member of any chat room, so I'll do the best I can.

I am a retired wildlife ecologist who grew up on Long Island's south shore - actually born (in a crossfire hurricane) on Fire Island. My Dad first took me afield when I was 4 or 5 - and I have loved ducks and "the meadows" ever since. My passion for the sport has given me an appreciation of the natural world, a very satisfying career, a boatload of truly cherished friends, and a rich lifetime of irreplaceable memories. It has also given me a subject for my artistic leanings, drawing, painting and carving. I started carrying a gun when I was 12 and am nowhere near ready to give it up. I learned to hunt in my Dad's grassboats and scooters. He Dad passed away in May of 2011; he shot his last double on Brant in Great South Bay in January of that year.

I served as NYSDEC's Waterfowl Biologist for Long Island from 1980 through 1989 and I retired from NYSDEC in 2010, having left Long Island in 1994 to work in the agency HQ in Albany. I live on a farm in Washington County, about an hour northeast of Albany, in dairy country. We have fine shooting here but I still look forward to gunning late-season saltwater on Long Island each year.

I have been carving since my early 20s. I carve traditional, round-bottomed, hollow birds with fancy paint jobs (no website yet) but also use some cork for gunning stool. Just this week, I have been exploring "foamers". I also build and restore boats. I will be restoring a Benjamin Hallock Great South Bay Scooter later this year. And, yes, I'm the same Steve Sanford whose Gunning Box (coffin) plans have been floating around for years. (Unfortunately, I think many of the plans are my original plans from around 1981 and not the Revised Plans from around 1991. The only real difference is the construction technique.) I plan to build another one later this year and will photograph each step to document the process - presumably for this website.

And I do have my Old School ways. I avoid camouflage clothing whenever I can (no choice with neoprene waders nowadays). My everyday duck gun is a Winchester Model 12 built in 1925 (the year of my dad's birth). On my recent (January 19-20) Long Island shoot, I opted for my Dad's Winchester Model 50 (circa 1954). I think of his gun as the "warhorse". Long ago painted camo to ward off the salt, it has killed thousands of ducks (mostly Blacks and Broadbill), brant and geese. I am happy to report that I honored its long history a couple of weeks ago.

Photo is the door handle on my shop. Please drop by if you find yourself in the neighborhood.

All the best,

Steve Sanford (aka Cap'n Fowler)

View attachment Shop Handle - Pencil Brook Farm.jpg
 
Great video!

I was impressed to see "NO POWER TOOLS" for shaping the blocks!

Nice guy too.

Welcome aboard Steve!

Jon
 
Steve - Welcome. You will find a lot of good people here who don't take themselves too seriously........ unless, of course, something sets us off like opinions about dog training...........no shortage of opinions. You will also find many of us who appreciate the traditions and from what I have just seen we will be better for your participation !
sarge
 
Welcome Steve. Very nice video. I like many here have a set of those plans archived somewhere. I hope to find a place to be able to utilize a Sanford Box. I'll look forward to seeing your build and how the assembly is different from the old plans.
 
Great introduction, happy to have you here.
Got to like a guy who uses a Model 12 and 50. I use my Grandpa's M12 20 and my dad's M50. Warhorse is a good way to describe them.

Tim
 
Steve-

Thanks for allowing the plans to float around. I have a copy of the plans and will check the date. I took them from the South Shore Waterfowlers Association website.

My 12 y.o. son has a project due at the end of the year where he has to build something and complete a report including the instructions and build process. We have chosen to build your coffin box for the project. I am hoping that he can also include a bit of history on the box for his project as well.

Really looking forward to building this with him. Of course we will have to build two of them. No sense in building just one!

__________
 
Welcome aboard, please explain to me again the difference between a line and a rope....LOL
This spring I am going to make an effort to visit.
 
Welcome to the site Steve. I enjoyed reading your story. Question for you about how you got into waterfowl biology and your stint with NYDEC.. I have 16-year-old son who is very interested in that line of study/work and we've started the college process. I would be great to hear from someone formerly in that line of work about where you studied and what you studied?

Thanks much in advance.

-Glenn in CT
 
Eric~

Thanks for posting the carving video. It certainly got the ball rolling on this site. It's been a real pleasure to hear from so many thoughtful "kindred spirits".

All the best,

SJS
 
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