I am waiting on my new Excel 1854 and am wondering if I should paint the basic green a camo.

I'm pretty fair at it, and it's kinda fun. Yeah the camo looks cool, other than that, why do we paint camo if we cover em up anyway?

I've always used blinds on my other smaller duck boats and they typically cover most everything on the boat.

i got mine camoed so i wouldnt have to cover it when i parked it. the whole boat and motor is camo and the only part i cover is my spotlights on the front so they dont reflect. other than that i dont cover anything else. i have also hunted out of my boat on several occasions and shot many limits of ducks too. its all personal pref in how you want to use it.

It's a personal thing. I just think camo boats look better.

Why not

I like it because I don't hunt out of my boat and it is much easier to hide with a good Camo job. Basically it jus means I can park the boat MUCH closer to where I am hunting.

I don't like the Excel's green color. I think it should be darker like Pro Drive's green. Just my opinion..

it seems when you scratch the camo paint it doesnt show right to the shiny alluminum underneath. Maybe I just have thick camo paint but it seems to take scratches better than the boat did whenit was just od green

looks cool

Nice job deadbird8, did you do that yourself?

Any special prep or paint?

I'm leaning towards painting camo on the new boat.

Deadbird, any other tips for using stencils? I am painting a 14 foot boat with some stencils from Cabelas. Any useful tips that will make painting easier for me will be appreciated!

Thanks

yeah, DB8, i tried to look at the link to allmudmotors but its gone. any way you can post a step by step for us? or have you already done it? I want to paint my buggy with the Styx river Mossy oak shadow grass. Thank man!

I've never hunted from my boat and I dont use a boat blind. My boat gets me from the ramp to the duck blind and then I have to park/hide the boat. Thats why I camo'd mine. Plus I think it looks cooler. It was easy and I did it in just a few days. I used Parkers Duck boat paint, Marsh Grass as the base coat. Prob spent $200 on paint and stencils.

rb,

You are going to find in N Idaho that sometimes you will hunt out of your boat (blind covers it) and at other times the best method for where you want to hunt is to ditch the boat and grab your layout blind. It is my opinion that a green boat does just as well when parked 200 yards away from your spread on a muddy bank than a camo boat does.

When hunting out of your boat blind, as you noted, the boat is covered by the blind.

At the end of the day, a camo boat in this neck of the woods is purely for the appreciation of the owner...has no real function in the field. But hey, the camo boats I have owned have looked cooler than the plain o.d. green ones.

I ditch mine in the weeds <50yards from the spot and save myself a 150 yard walk.

rb,

Especially in the area you will be hunting, as the water drops there is a big muddy or sandy bank between the water line and the weed line. Layout blinds are the best way to roll. And after the snow flies, put a snow cover on your layout and it just isn't fair to the birds.