snowgoose

Hi Bill, I'm very well thanks. I hope you are in fine fettle. Half the problem is the distance. I have another very willing helper out towards Crieff, it's just a case of whether the punt will make the journey in its current state of disrepair. It's not very solid at the moment. Maybe an excessive amount of strops and wedging will get it there but it will be a precarious journey. If, no, when it is watertight again, I will certainly look you up for a trip or two afloat.

I'm not so much the youngest generation of wildfowlers but for the 15 odd seasons from my early 20's I have been collecting fowling books - old originals, old reprints, modern and the like. I suspect the £100 odd that I paid for the Wildfowler in Scotland would be hard to sell at that price now. Still, it has been read several times over so at least the cost per read keeps coming down! The only 'memorabilia' I have is a punt I bought from a chap on the Solway, along with his one and three quarter inch gun. The punt was built with oak frames and three quarter inch larch boards but is in the process of a very slow rebuild as the gunbeam was shot with rot and other bits of rot dotted around the structure. I could have reskinned in fibreglass but then it would not have been a proper punt made with solid timber. I think the OP may well have seen the gun when I took it to his house about five years ago. One day the punt will re-float and the big gun will roar across the mudflats! If anyone wants to join me in the rebuild, some trips afloat will be the reward!