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I have the chance to either make a duck boat out of a 14ft Jon boat or a 14ft V-hull. Does anyone have any insight of which one would be better for duck hunting?? I will have a 9.9 HP engine on it.

depends on where your gonna use it. I've got one of each.

The flat bottom jon boat is good for shallow water and the v hull is better for bigger water in my experiences. Whichever one you hunt more of is probably the one to go with.

If you are going to be hunting in timber, the V hull would be my choice over a square fronted john boat. A square hull john boat doesn't glance off of trees as well. I perfer a semi-V hull boat though.

'Depends on the terrain.

If you hunt the timber (where you stand to ride-up on submerged stumps) a 14' flat jon is more stable. If the bottom of the v-hull boat at the stern is rounded, figure-on going swimmin' if you run-up on a stump. 'Seen it happen too many times.

If you hunt open water, the v-hull will slice through the chop better, but chances are if the water gets that rough, you probably should be in a bigger boat anyway. Flat jons are versatile and do an adequate job of 'takin' the chop, up to a certain point.

Flat jons are easier to put a blind on and have more usable floor space in them. The bow of a v-hull doesn't provide as stable a shooting platform or support while you're standing.

We hunted exclusively out of a 17' sqaure-stern, flat bottom canoe for 17 years. When we bought a 14' flat jon, we discovered it would go just about anywhere the canoe would..........'heap-lot more stable......and comfortable, too.

I'm not knocking v-hulls.......I know plenty o' folks that hunt out of'em, so they must have their reasons, as well.

If the flat jon is at least 36" wide......that would be my choice.

Don Miller wrote:..........A square hull john boat doesn't glance off of trees as well.

BWAAAHAHAhahaha!!

I'm speeking from experience. I've upgraded to a semi-V 1542 War Eagle.

nothing like the law of forward motion. when the barge stops suddenly...everything else keeps going. Hambone had that problem with the old Dakota

Yeah, my wife wanted to take one of her girlfriends duck hunting for the first time. She strapped a headlight on her and told her to kneel-down on the front deck, shine the light in the water just ahead of the boat and let us know when we're about to hit a stump.

Just had a little surgery and I'm laid up not able to do much. Surfing around I found Duckboats.net. I think it had every type duck boat imagenable.