Carstens Pintail Review
Best For: Large, stable hunting kayak that can handle a dog and be used with a motor.
My Experience
- Used for 2 duck hunting seasons
- Used for transportation and as a layout blind
- Hunted solo and with 2 people
- Paddled and used with a motor
- Transported in truck bed and with a trailer
Pros
- Extremely sturdy, with lots of room for storage and gear
- Good kayak for mounting a small mud motor if you can build a custom mount
- Excellent setup for one man and a dog
Cons
- When compared in the kayak category, this is one of the heaviest options
- Difficult to paddle long distances or in heavy wind
Specifications
- Length: 13'4"
- Weight: 100lbs
- Capacity: 500lbs
- Width: 39"
Overview
The Pintail is less of a kayak and more of a duck boat in my opinion. It probably isn’t a good choice for a lot of hunters, but depending on your hunting situation, it could be the perfect fit.
I owned a Pintail for about 2 seasons and it was a great duck hunting boat. It is absolutely perfect for hunting a guy and a dog in small to medium water. I used it on occasion for transportation to a spot with 2 people and it did fine for that as well.
It has some definite drawbacks though. It is terrible to paddle (and nearly impossible with a stiff wind), and it is very heavy. It is also the most expensive option from our poll. But if you can find one used and put a small mud motor on it, you will have a nice duck hunting setup.
Stability
This is one of the most stable small boats/kayaks you can buy. I have used the Pintail in conditions I would never even consider taking a small kayak out in. The only time it wasn’t stable enough for what I wanted to do was when I tried to hunt 2 people out of it. We positioned the Pintail sideways to the decoys spread and we each sat on the back side. With all the weight of two guys on one side, it wanted to lean pretty heavily and was not good balanced enough to shoot out of.
That should pretty much tell you all you need to know about the Pintail’s stability though. You can have two full grown adults sit on the side and not tip it. For hunting one guy and a dog, you will not feel unstable at all.
Weight
While I really like the Pintail, one of the big downsides for me was the weight. Everything is a trade off and you can’t expect a large, stable fiberglass boat like this to be lightweight. It’s not a poor design for this to be heavy, it just fits a different hunting situation than many of these other smaller kayaks.
I started off loading this into the back of my truck. It fits, but if you have anything less than a 6ft bed length, I wouldn’t recommend it. But then I got tired of paddling this, and I added a motor. That was a pretty good workout unloading and loading it into the truck, so I added a trailer. That made things manageable, but at that point, this is really more of a boat than a kayak.
If you want to get the Pintail with the intention of dragging it 100 yards or more to your hunting spot, I strongly encourage you to look for something different.
Price
The Pintail is one of the most expensive options from our poll. It is roughly double the cost of the Ascend H12. If you are one of the hunters who really need this exact thing, an extremely stable one man layout, you might consider it worth the price.
It is worthwhile looking for one used. Unless you live near the dealer, you are likely looking at several hundred dollars to ship one. Between the savings from buying used, and avoiding the shipping costs, you can easily look across most of your state and maybe even in the neighboring states and still end up well ahead of the cost of buying new.
Performance
This is a hard category to rate for this kayak. If I were to rate it on the same scale as the other kayaks, it would get 1/5 stars. I found it to be very difficult to paddle. I was using it on a large, shallow wetland one windy afternoon, and considered getting out and dragging it over using a paddle. The size makes it catch the wind, and the weight makes it quite a workout to gain any speed at all. After my first experience with a kayak paddle, I decided it was not a viable option, so I went out and bought oars and oar locks. The rowing experience wasn’t much better. I was constantly bringing the paddles in too close together and smashing my fingers when I tried to row. With a little practice, I think it would be better than a kayak paddle, but it’s certainly not an effortless option.
While I don’t think this is a great boat to paddle, it turned into an awesome little setup when I added a Swamp Runner Mini mud motor kit with a 99cc harbor freight motor. I used it with the motor for a season and a half before I eventually bought a 16ft boat and didn’t have as much use for the Pintail.
Storage
The Pintail has the best storage capacity out of all the kayaks listed. This thing can haul 2 people and tons of gear. I usually hunted out of it with a small decoy spread of 1-2 dozen floaters, but it is capable of much more. One hunt I took along some super mag goose shells and if you have ever used those you know how much space they take up. Along with the shells I had close to 5 dozen silhouettes and even more floaters. The Pintail handled it with ease.
Alternatives
We asked duck hunters what their favorite kayaks were. See how they voted:
Read more kayak reviews or see our top picks for the best duck hunting kayaks
Final Verdict on the Carstens Pintail
Verdict: If you consistently hunt with a dog and need a stable platform with plenty of room for transporting a dog and gear, the Carstens Pintail is an excellent choice.
