"Blind Date" 14' duck buster

[T Man]

First off, hello! My names Tom. I stumbled onto your site looking for some information regarding building a deck on the front of my boat. Anyway, heres my 14' semi v. I dont have any of the before pictures, but it came with one hell of a story. I saw the boat laying in a backyard and asked how much the guy (major meth head) wanted for it. He told me 450, but he would have to get the trolling motor out of pawn to go with it. I told him I wasnt willing to spend more than 200 bucks, and gave him my number just in case he changed his mind. I already had both a 12' and 10' john, so I wasnt hurting for boats. 30 minutes later, The call came wanting 250. I told him id give him that if it had the trolling motor, he said no, so it was sold for 200 bucks. After finally waking him at the early morning hours of 2 in the afternoon I finally got a good look at the boat. It had been sitting under a tree for 2 years with the drain plug in it. The water smelled awful, but it got better when as it was draining out, he threw a 5 gal bucket under it and informed me his water had been shut off and he needed to flush his toilet. 200 bucks later I drove away with a bare aluminum 14' boat on a very nice tilt trailer. After 2 trips to the carwash to clean the crud out, and 2 bottles of aluminum brightner, I had a decent boat. A little paint, and the blind I just finished up, and its ready to hunt. I just need to build a small deck where the front seat is for a dog platform and some storage underneath, and find a set of flotation pods for the rear and it will be ready for season.

If you just read the book I just read, here are the pics.

Ready to fish

The blind

 

[bobberboy]

Thanks for the story. What do you think the guy did with the $200?

 

[Loggerhead Mike]

he threw a 5 gal bucket under it and informed me his water had been shut off and he needed to flush his toilet

:LOL2: :LOL2: :LOL2: that was too funny

nice rig!

 

[T Man]

Thanks for the story. What do you think the guy did with the $200?

When I handed it over he mumbled about getting something out of pawn. Ive got no problems with pawn shops, or people pawning things if they are hurting for some money, but If it were me, I would have gotten my water turned back on. Im thinking about a re-paint already. Its pretty bland compared to the duck boats around here, but it matches the surroundings I hunt in, so im torn. The plan is to cover the boat in quackgrass to further match the dead sawgrass I hunt around. It comes in 5x8 sheets, and will only run about 100 bucks to do the whole boat

Me and my old 12' "duckboat" with the futon frame I used as a blind

 

[Quackrstackr]

Nice snag.

You've got almost that much in the blind itself. :lol:

 

[T Man]

Built the blind at home.

3/4" i.d. Conduit-60 bucks
Bimini hardware-35 bucks
Had the netting, camo paint and zipties laying around.
(Once the grass is on there it will be about the same cost as the boat)

If I can build it at home cheaper and better, I will!

 

[huntinfool]

Looks great, just add ducks!

 

[T Man]

I have been Mr. Motivated since I found this board. Trying to get to half the level of most of the guys on here. Put a new transom in yesterday, and today I installed a set of swamp lights today, and re-wired my boat. Someone on here had the idea to use a silverware organizer to recess the switches, I liked the idea so I stole it. No pics of that, but here are the swamp lights I threw on today. Pics dont show the rock guard i made up to cover the front of the housing. Made it out of a mesh silverware holder that I cut up and re-purposed.