By Bruce Urben, WWA President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s July, 2023 Newsletter edition.
Today’s waterfowler has more access to gadgets, new equipment and innovations than our waterfowling forefathers ever dreamed possible. The size of our blind bags have evolved to be backpacks, sometimes even small suitcases, to bring these gadgets afield with us.
Back in the day – early to mid 1900’s – the average waterfowler had a skiff, their gun, ammo, decoys, and maybe lunch and a dog that came along with them. As our forefathers moved into the 19th century they evolved to develop their own “blind bag”, called a “gunning box”! This piece of equipment was handmade by the waterfowler, usually out of wood, just like their decoys. Considering that they usually hunted out of a skiff, the wooden hinged box was rigged with a cradle to hold their shotgun in easy reach while they were hunting. It also held their shell boxes, some lunch, maybe a change of gloves and any other articles they may have needed for the day’s hunt. This helped keep their important equipment relatively dry – the shell box sat on the floor of the skiff and safely held their gun above the wet floor while paddling or push poling through the rice beds, jump shooting ducks.
It is said that the gunning box actually originated in Wisconsin, specifically the Winnebago lakes area, from Oshkosh on west. Many have termed these boxes as “the Lake Poygan Gunning Box”. These vintage boxes can be seen at any sporting collectibles show and are usually in very high demand by collectors.
In my collecting “addiction”, I recently acquired a gunning box from the early 1980’s, proudly labeled with the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s original logo and related artwork.
The collector I obtained it from had purchased it from a “picker” in the Beaver Dam area, along with a number of vintage wooden decoys. While not considered a vintage box by any means, the Chapter volunteer that made the box was certainly aware of the history of the gunning box and it’s use. I am quite sure this box was a great raffle item for one of our fundraising events in our early history!
Our WWA “historian” is coming up empty on its original maker. If any of our “vintage” members recognize the box or has any information about it, please let me know (info@wisducks.org). In the meantime, this replica of the classic Poygan Gunning Box will continue to share its heritage of past waterfowling history in Wisconsin. Who knows, maybe you will see it at a local event in the future, helping to continue to raise funds for our WWA mission!