I was going through my Google Drive and came across a bunch of posts I saved related to the old Desert Ducks. Thought someone else might like to read it sooooooo prepare for copy pasta!
I'll try to the best of my knowledge to give a short breakdown on the timeline of the different guns.
1. Earon Carter & the Kamikaze Shooters hooked up w/ each other. I believe the very first 3 Comp Guns went to the 2 co-captains (Dave Loo and Tora) and another one of their main Turtle Squad members. We're talking mid 80's here. Before that Earon was mainly known for his work on Sheridan based guns.
2. One of the Shooters took the rail off of his Gold Cup and had Earon mount it on a modified Nelspot. Dave Loo liked the looks and had that same teammate modify his Comp Gun to fit Pachmayer grips for a .45 and also modified his pump handle into a more squarish/rectangular look (like the slide of a .45) and also added Millet sights to his Comp. This was long before Line Si came out with their .45 grips for the Bushmasters. In fact one of the Shooters was still making wood grips for Navarone's Nelspot lowers back then.
3. Dave took the concept of his heavily modified Comp Gun and came up with the idea for the DD68. Obviously Earon had a HUGE influence in the making of this gun as him and Dave were ultra tight. Personal friends off of the field, etc.
4. Soon Dave made more improvements and variations came out including the "Slam Changer" 12 gram changer, "Shorty Duck", "Counter Weight" foregrip, etc.
5. Dave burnt out from running his own field (Shiloh), making the Ducks, etc. basically quit paintball for awhile. Overall I'd generally say 2 years.
6. A Duck-Mag was also built. The first A-M that I&I Sports got was given to a Kamikaze Shooter. (This was even before A-M's were being sold as back then I&I was HUGE and products were often given to I&I for testing to see if they would carry them.) He took a slide for a Duck & also a Duck lower and modified them to fit onto an A-M. He also modified the bottle adaptor to fit vertically in front of the trigger guard. As far as I can tell, this was the first vertical bottled A-M. So the A-M had the look of a .45 lower, with the Duck slide as a shroud over the A-M barral including the front Millet post.
7. SC Village started up a stockgun tourney and Dave built the first 3 "Stock Ducks" from parts he and another Kamikaze Shooter teammate had. A 4th one was soon made for another Shooter. This was 92 or 93.
8. Glen from Check It Products liked the Ducks. Attened the same HS as Dave's son, etc. and got an itch to start up his own company. One of the Shooters had built what would be considered the original "Box Gun" and Glen took that one off original and used it as a template for learning the manufactoring business. Dealing w/ machine shops, working with CAD programs, sourcing and pricing parts, etc. and he came out w/ his own version.
9. Ken K. (Navarone) was working w/ Earon when Earon was still in his Rosecrans shop. Mike R. (GBD) was another employee that the time. Ken took what was left of Dave's parts and started making more Ducks on a piece-by-piece basis. From then on, Carter Machine has put out more Ducks.
10. At the time stock & pump class games weren't hugely popular even here in SoCal so CIP discontinued offering their Box/Super Stocker pump guns. I think it was around 01-02 that they got rid of their inventory of parts.
11. Stock & pump games made a comeback. Redux, Box Gun clones, etc. spring up to support those peeps that want a Duck or Box Gun but otherwise wouldn't have the means to purchase one.
I hope that clarifies some of the history of the DD68. If anything at least it might shed some light upon the different versions and where they fit into the whole category/family of Ducks and Duck clones.
There is less than 85 kamakazi shooter dd68 ducks including hybrids .They are stamped kamakazi shooter dd68 .There are some Loo and Earon guns that have mixed parts .They are callled hybrid duck (number unknown).Carter later made his own version, He said there are about 15-20 of his.
Just for an FYI, the markings don't always make a good reference. For example I have the first Mini Duck. It's also got the original Counter Weight pump handle, and is also one of the first batch of Slam Changers. It has NO markings on the slide regardless of being a very early gun.
My Stock Duck is one of the first 3 Dave made when we entered the first stock gun league at SC Village. It has the Kamikaze Shooter DD68 slide markings as it was made from a combo of Dave's parts and other Ducks parts I had stashed away previously.
If I recall correctly, the SC league was also the place that Earon Carter's stock Comps first made their competitive appearance. Even if we were way ahead going into the final weekend (where points were reset to zero) it was pretty obvious the the peeps using the Comps were getting better range then the few of use using Stock Ducks, which was a + for them on the wide open Iraq and Beirut fields.
Alot of action today on this thread. Kinda glad, I saved the first page and showed it to Earon when I was there a earlier today.
If you want a few ways to distinguish Earons Ducks from the others would be:
1) Only Earon Made the Back Bottle versions
2) For the In Grip changer- all his are set at 15* angles
3) The shotgun slots are Earon
4) All the Slide Counter Weights are 5/8" (Loo ducks were various sizes)
also only Loo Ducks had Vert lines on the counter weight
I was trying to get info on the guns pictured but I didn't write it down till later LOL.
Earon only made 2 of the Duck tale ones like IronChefs
The Blue duck was made for a guy in Nova Scotia
Mine (beach blitz background) was made for a pilot in Canada
The Gold one the shotgun slots don't appear to be his style as they appear longer than any he's done. But the feed tube is his design
The copper one is at Earons right now - you probably will not recognize it the next time you see it
This is copy-pasted from a Narly45 (Derrick Obatake) post on pbn. It's interesting info that might be useful on Vintagerex.
***
The Box Gun evolved from my Nelspot barrel getting rusted out. I needed a new marker that had the same balance and feel as my Nelspot. I got a Duck receiver and blank barrel from Dave Loo and asked Earon Carter to machine the rest of the gun giving him some minor specifications: It had to have adjustable Millett sights, a ported barrel, a fixed top so the sights would be fixed to the barrel for accuracy, it had to look and feel like a 1911 .45 and it had to be accurate as hell. Needless to say Earon being the master machinist came up with the Box Gun.
Glen Chon of Check It Products wanted to produce a production “Stock Class” pistol so my gun was used as the prototype for the existing Box Gun. That is why there are many similarities to the Desert Duck. Earon Carter and Dave Loo had a hand in designing those two guns.
In the photo you will see:
Nelspot (nick-named Rail Gun or Nelly) converted to gravity stick feed with a custom rail and adjustable sights from a Gold Cup .45 made by Earon in the early days. It is probably the first ever to have adjustable hand gun sights since it was done over 19 years ago.
One of the first Ducks built. The first shorty and the first to have the “comp” added to the slide.
Long Slide Stock Class Duck. All of the early Ducks were originally set up as Stick feeds then later set up as “Stock Class” in order to compete in various Stock Class tournaments.
Dave Loo’s Personal Duck.
The original Box Gun.
Earon Carter is still building custom Desert Ducks and Box guns. It may take some time but they are all hand machined and fitted just as they were back in the day. If you get one from him you are getting an original masterpiece from the Master.
Mongo from Redux is also making newer versions of the Duck and Box Gun that are very nice and have some very cool modern upgrades.
Back in the day only a hand full of guys could really “Kill” with these markers and here are the names of some of them:
Dave Loo – Kamikaze Shooter.
Mark Torabayashi – Team Captain of the Kamikaze Shooters.
Jack Wada – Kamikaze Shooter. Still playing and Killing today.
Matthias lubber - Team Ronin from Hawaii.
Brian Higashi and Mike (Hair Cut) Maceda also got very good with these markers.
I'll try to the best of my knowledge to give a short breakdown on the timeline of the different guns.
1. Earon Carter & the Kamikaze Shooters hooked up w/ each other. I believe the very first 3 Comp Guns went to the 2 co-captains (Dave Loo and Tora) and another one of their main Turtle Squad members. We're talking mid 80's here. Before that Earon was mainly known for his work on Sheridan based guns.
2. One of the Shooters took the rail off of his Gold Cup and had Earon mount it on a modified Nelspot. Dave Loo liked the looks and had that same teammate modify his Comp Gun to fit Pachmayer grips for a .45 and also modified his pump handle into a more squarish/rectangular look (like the slide of a .45) and also added Millet sights to his Comp. This was long before Line Si came out with their .45 grips for the Bushmasters. In fact one of the Shooters was still making wood grips for Navarone's Nelspot lowers back then.
3. Dave took the concept of his heavily modified Comp Gun and came up with the idea for the DD68. Obviously Earon had a HUGE influence in the making of this gun as him and Dave were ultra tight. Personal friends off of the field, etc.
4. Soon Dave made more improvements and variations came out including the "Slam Changer" 12 gram changer, "Shorty Duck", "Counter Weight" foregrip, etc.
5. Dave burnt out from running his own field (Shiloh), making the Ducks, etc. basically quit paintball for awhile. Overall I'd generally say 2 years.
6. A Duck-Mag was also built. The first A-M that I&I Sports got was given to a Kamikaze Shooter. (This was even before A-M's were being sold as back then I&I was HUGE and products were often given to I&I for testing to see if they would carry them.) He took a slide for a Duck & also a Duck lower and modified them to fit onto an A-M. He also modified the bottle adaptor to fit vertically in front of the trigger guard. As far as I can tell, this was the first vertical bottled A-M. So the A-M had the look of a .45 lower, with the Duck slide as a shroud over the A-M barral including the front Millet post.
7. SC Village started up a stockgun tourney and Dave built the first 3 "Stock Ducks" from parts he and another Kamikaze Shooter teammate had. A 4th one was soon made for another Shooter. This was 92 or 93.
8. Glen from Check It Products liked the Ducks. Attened the same HS as Dave's son, etc. and got an itch to start up his own company. One of the Shooters had built what would be considered the original "Box Gun" and Glen took that one off original and used it as a template for learning the manufactoring business. Dealing w/ machine shops, working with CAD programs, sourcing and pricing parts, etc. and he came out w/ his own version.
9. Ken K. (Navarone) was working w/ Earon when Earon was still in his Rosecrans shop. Mike R. (GBD) was another employee that the time. Ken took what was left of Dave's parts and started making more Ducks on a piece-by-piece basis. From then on, Carter Machine has put out more Ducks.
10. At the time stock & pump class games weren't hugely popular even here in SoCal so CIP discontinued offering their Box/Super Stocker pump guns. I think it was around 01-02 that they got rid of their inventory of parts.
11. Stock & pump games made a comeback. Redux, Box Gun clones, etc. spring up to support those peeps that want a Duck or Box Gun but otherwise wouldn't have the means to purchase one.
I hope that clarifies some of the history of the DD68. If anything at least it might shed some light upon the different versions and where they fit into the whole category/family of Ducks and Duck clones.
There is less than 85 kamakazi shooter dd68 ducks including hybrids .They are stamped kamakazi shooter dd68 .There are some Loo and Earon guns that have mixed parts .They are callled hybrid duck (number unknown).Carter later made his own version, He said there are about 15-20 of his.
Just for an FYI, the markings don't always make a good reference. For example I have the first Mini Duck. It's also got the original Counter Weight pump handle, and is also one of the first batch of Slam Changers. It has NO markings on the slide regardless of being a very early gun.
My Stock Duck is one of the first 3 Dave made when we entered the first stock gun league at SC Village. It has the Kamikaze Shooter DD68 slide markings as it was made from a combo of Dave's parts and other Ducks parts I had stashed away previously.
If I recall correctly, the SC league was also the place that Earon Carter's stock Comps first made their competitive appearance. Even if we were way ahead going into the final weekend (where points were reset to zero) it was pretty obvious the the peeps using the Comps were getting better range then the few of use using Stock Ducks, which was a + for them on the wide open Iraq and Beirut fields.
Alot of action today on this thread. Kinda glad, I saved the first page and showed it to Earon when I was there a earlier today.
If you want a few ways to distinguish Earons Ducks from the others would be:
1) Only Earon Made the Back Bottle versions
2) For the In Grip changer- all his are set at 15* angles
3) The shotgun slots are Earon
4) All the Slide Counter Weights are 5/8" (Loo ducks were various sizes)
also only Loo Ducks had Vert lines on the counter weight
I was trying to get info on the guns pictured but I didn't write it down till later LOL.
Earon only made 2 of the Duck tale ones like IronChefs
The Blue duck was made for a guy in Nova Scotia
Mine (beach blitz background) was made for a pilot in Canada
The Gold one the shotgun slots don't appear to be his style as they appear longer than any he's done. But the feed tube is his design
The copper one is at Earons right now - you probably will not recognize it the next time you see it
This is copy-pasted from a Narly45 (Derrick Obatake) post on pbn. It's interesting info that might be useful on Vintagerex.
***
The Box Gun evolved from my Nelspot barrel getting rusted out. I needed a new marker that had the same balance and feel as my Nelspot. I got a Duck receiver and blank barrel from Dave Loo and asked Earon Carter to machine the rest of the gun giving him some minor specifications: It had to have adjustable Millett sights, a ported barrel, a fixed top so the sights would be fixed to the barrel for accuracy, it had to look and feel like a 1911 .45 and it had to be accurate as hell. Needless to say Earon being the master machinist came up with the Box Gun.
Glen Chon of Check It Products wanted to produce a production “Stock Class” pistol so my gun was used as the prototype for the existing Box Gun. That is why there are many similarities to the Desert Duck. Earon Carter and Dave Loo had a hand in designing those two guns.
In the photo you will see:
Nelspot (nick-named Rail Gun or Nelly) converted to gravity stick feed with a custom rail and adjustable sights from a Gold Cup .45 made by Earon in the early days. It is probably the first ever to have adjustable hand gun sights since it was done over 19 years ago.
One of the first Ducks built. The first shorty and the first to have the “comp” added to the slide.
Long Slide Stock Class Duck. All of the early Ducks were originally set up as Stick feeds then later set up as “Stock Class” in order to compete in various Stock Class tournaments.
Dave Loo’s Personal Duck.
The original Box Gun.
Earon Carter is still building custom Desert Ducks and Box guns. It may take some time but they are all hand machined and fitted just as they were back in the day. If you get one from him you are getting an original masterpiece from the Master.
Mongo from Redux is also making newer versions of the Duck and Box Gun that are very nice and have some very cool modern upgrades.
Back in the day only a hand full of guys could really “Kill” with these markers and here are the names of some of them:
Dave Loo – Kamikaze Shooter.
Mark Torabayashi – Team Captain of the Kamikaze Shooters.
Jack Wada – Kamikaze Shooter. Still playing and Killing today.
Matthias lubber - Team Ronin from Hawaii.
Brian Higashi and Mike (Hair Cut) Maceda also got very good with these markers.
Comment