Andy Pope

I started carving about 4 years ago. My first attempts were canvas geese. I carve mainly gunning style birds that I can use when I am afield. These GW teal are my first real functional gunners. They’re black cork painted with house paint and Jo Sonja acrylics. The heads are made of laminated 2x4 white pine and the keels are oak. Despite how well they ride the water, still no teal. Guess I’ll have to work on my shooting!

 

These are some Ringnecks, Canvasbacks and Buffleheads I completed the summer of ’99. The bodies are all black cork…some with and some without bottom boards. The heads for the cans and buffies are tupelo and the ringnecks are laminated 2.4 white pine. Keels are again oak. I have since competed with three of these in the East Carolina Wildfowl Carving Competition in Little Washington NC. After a season of hunting, the sleeper can took 3^rd in species, the buffie drake took 1^st in species as did one of the ringnecks. All were entered in the traditional gunners class.

 

 

The next decoys are some decorative gunners I made and sold. The two Ruddies are white pine bodies with polonia (not sure if that’s spelled correctly) heads. Polonia is similar to cottonwood. I’ve also done a mallard of the same materials.