Supporting the Blind

[yoderjac]

Folks use ground blinds in different ways. On my private land, I like to build more permanent box blinds that I can use for kids or I can use as I age: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/foodplot-stand-transfered-from-the-qdma-forum.5529/. I like having a little elevation for downward angle shots. However, there is a significant resources in time and money put into these. There effectiveness changes somewhat over time as habitat like vegetation changes, but topography remains constant and they tend to always have some level of effective placement. Of course you can't just randomly locate box blinds. I have enough experience selecting stand locations that most work out pretty well, but often I find after hunting a stand for a year or two, it would have been better to move it to a slightly different location in sight of where it is. Climbers are great for this, but I'm getting a bit old for them and you need the right kind of tree.

That brings me to how I use portable ground blinds. I set them up in tentative locations for my permanent box blinds and hunt them for a couple years before committing to a specific location. With turkey, you can put a blind up and hunt it the same day. That may be true for deer with a firearm but not with a bow. Deer need to see the blind as a permanent part of the landscape. So, when I put up a portable blind, I don't remove it daily, weekly, or even after the season.

In my area, we do get some snow and sometimes it is heavy enough to collapse a ground blind but it is fairly rare. Once the top collapses, it fills with water as the snow melts and is difficult to reset. I don't know if this will work for folks further north that have regular heavy snow loads but I plan to try something this year.

I just purchases some cargo supports from harbor freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/ratcheting-cargo-bar-96811.html and https://www.harborfreight.com/2-in-1-support-cargo-bar-66172.html. I used the 25% off coupon they have on New Year's day but I'm sure they have coupons for these specifically from time to time.

At any rate, I plan to place one of these in the middle of each portable blind after the season ends to provide additional support in the center. Hopefully this will keep them from collapsing.

I just thought I'd pass along the idea and see what others do who keep portable blinds in place year round.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Catscratch]

Looks like a good idea. In KS it's the wind that ripes them up. I tried tent blinds a couple of yrs and found them to be a lot of work. Now I just make a ground blind with some logs, grass, and cedar limbs. Much easier to work with and never a worry about moving them (just build a new one) or losing my investment. I treat them and build them much like I do duck blinds.

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[yoderjac]

Yep, it won't do anything for wind. I have had some wind issues on rare occasions here but it is not the norm.

 

[John-W-WI]

Good idea Jack. I bought some made specifically for ground blinds, but I think I paid a lot more than that for them. Snow is a killer on ground blinds. We have broken the fiberglass rods in several of them because of the snow.

-John

 

[Knehrke]

I've had the top hub collapse due to the weight of snow a bunch of times (being in upstate NY), but nothing was broken and once inside the blind it's been easy enough to push upward and remove the snow and ice. However, this year I also put a 2" piece of PVC running from the nub on the top of the removable base of my adjustable blind chair to the top hub of the blind. It prevented the blind from collapsing and I didn't get a mass of ice and water forming in the top, but I was concerned that with more snow it would have ripped the blind open or broken the rods themselves. I'm exploring options now for something more permanent, as several of my best tree stands are in Ash, which will be dead in a couple of years if not next year due to the borer. Has anyone used the ground blinds with internal metal frames that are supposed to be able to withstand snow and ice better than hub style?

 

[MNAaron]

I simply take two 2-4 boards and then push them tight and screw them together has worked well for me. If you can dig a small hole to place one end in that also helps keep them upright.


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[yoderjac]

Got a couple installed today. Season was over Saturday.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Gator]

Got a couple installed today. Season was over Saturday.

Thanks,

Jack

Permanently ready for turkey season as well :)

Bears were my problem with blinds :(

 

[yoderjac]

In the last 10 years, I only lot one blind to a bear. It also dug up some newly planted ACs and chestnuts. I think it was just curious.

Because we have such a small property (less than 400 acres) run-n-gun is not a great tactic, especially if we have multiple folks hunting. I was always more successful with a patience tactic rather than trying to get tight on a bird in the tree. I killed lots of gobblers over the years on Quantico. It is managed very well for turkey and has great populations but it is pretty heavily hunted. The local saying goes, if you can kill birds on Quantico, you can kill them anywhere. One year, the Primos video team came down. They closed off one of the prime training areas and give them a great guide. They hunted for a week solid and struck out. They opened that training area the next week to the local base turkey hunters and they took several birds.

At any rate, because of the high pressure, I was always more successful setting up where birds wanted to be later in the morning. Most of the gobblers (but not all) that I've killed were roosted 250+ yards away. My biggest issue was having the patience to sit still and wait it out. As I'm getting older, sitting still in the open for long periods is even tougher. However, not that I have private land and can set up these permanent blinds, it is much easier to wait out a gobbler.

Good to hear from you,

Jack

 

[Gator]

In the last 10 years, I only lot one blind to a bear. It also dug up some newly planted ACs and chestnuts. I think it was just curious.

Because we have such a small property (less than 400 acres) run-n-gun is not a great tactic, especially if we have multiple folks hunting. I was always more successful with a patience tactic rather than trying to get tight on a bird in the tree. I killed lots of gobblers over the years on Quantico. It is managed very well for turkey and has great populations but it is pretty heavily hunted. The local saying goes, if you can kill birds on Quantico, you can kill them anywhere. One year, the Primos video team came down. They closed off one of the prime training areas and give them a great guide. They hunted for a week solid and struck out. They opened that training area the next week to the local base turkey hunters and they took several birds.

At any rate, because of the high pressure, I was always more successful setting up where birds wanted to be later in the morning. Most of the gobblers (but not all) that I've killed were roosted 250+ yards away. My biggest issue was having the patience to sit still and wait it out. As I'm getting older, sitting still in the open for long periods is even tougher. However, not that I have private land and can set up these permanent blinds, it is much easier to wait out a gobbler.

Good to hear from you,

Jack

Not to hijack your blind thread, but I completely agree that if you know where gobblers are wanting to go/be after they finish with their daily morning mating with the hens, it's much easier to kill them by sitting and waiting. Never have to make a single call. With that said, it's much more enjoyable for me to find them, get close and call them in versus just waiting them out. I've done both, I think waiting them out just feels more like deer hunting versus the interactive calling them in which is what makes turkey hunting fun and different for me. I quickly lose interest and typically only hunt for about 2 weeks.

 

[yoderjac]

My patience strategy is a bit different. I don't ambush them. Often I'll call in a flock of hens that bring the gobbler to me early. I don't call until gobblers hit the ground. I'll start by making some very soft feeding type calls. I don't respond to gobbles. If I do, more often than not, hens will lead him away. I'm just trying to communicate to hens that is is safe in the direction. About 20% of my harvests are made by making feeding calls to hens. Of course, my blind is in a location were hens like to be in the morning and this helps.

More of my harvest occur later. I've actually watched this happen on our pipeline where I can see a long distance. Hens are feeding with the gobbler. Every now and then one will sit and the gobbler will mount it. As the morning goes one, the hens will slowly head off to their nest. I'll usually wait about 10 minutes after the hens head to nest. Sometimes the gobbler is in view sometime not, but I know he is in calling distance. I'll start to make some calls. If the gobbler responds, I'm in business. It is a regular call and response type hunt.

When you think about it, run-n-gun hunters are kind of doing the same thing but in poor habit with lower turkey densities. As the move from location to location trying to get a response, they are simply allowing time for gobblers to get done with hens. Prior to that gobblers will respond, but they are not going to leave receptive hens. Basically, rather than walking around making calls, hoping that my path crosses within hearing distance of a receptive gobbler, I'm setting up in a high probability location where gobblers will generally be when they get done with hens.

You are right, it is a different kind of hunt. I find that I'm less directly connected when I'm in a blind.

I'm learning to live within my physical limitations as I age. It reminds me of the old story...

The young bull runs over to the old bull and says "Let's run down there and service one of those cows!" The old bull responds. "You stay here. I'll walk down and service me all of them cows!"

Thanks,

jack

 

[yoderjac]

TOTAL BACKFIRE!

I lost two blinds to this "bright" idea! It took a little analysis but I figured out what happened. I'm using these because I'm leaving the blinds out all year. As expected, the sun and weather weakens the cloth so it does not take much to rip it. Well, in order for the support to stay in place, you have to put a little pressure on the hub. That was fine, but I did not account for wind. Since the support was not connected in any way to the hub, wind caused enough movement of the blind for the support to slip off the hub. Once it hit the material, it just ripped through.

If I ever do try this again in the future, I'll need to find some way to connect the end of the support to the hub so it does not slip off.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[jsasker007]

I have been using ground blinds for awhile and the only thing that has held up to the year round weather issues is a steel framed blind I bought from redneck blinds. It has a steel frame that requires assembly(wasn't too bad at all). It is soft sided but is built to take the snow loads or even a branch that might drop on the blind over the course of a year. Here in Minnesota the snow keeps taking out the portable blinds. Probably not nearly as good as a permanent blind but way better than any pop ups I've tried. Hindsight tells me that the money I've spent on all the cheaper blinds could have paid for a super nice permanent blind.jmho.

 

[yoderjac]

I have been using ground blinds for awhile and the only thing that has held up to the year round weather issues is a steel framed blind I bought from redneck blinds. It has a steel frame that requires assembly(wasn't too bad at all). It is soft sided but is built to take the snow loads or even a branch that might drop on the blind over the course of a year. Here in Minnesota the snow keeps taking out the portable blinds. Probably not nearly as good as a permanent blind but way better than any pop ups I've tried. Hindsight tells me that the money I've spent on all the cheaper blinds could have paid for a super nice permanent blind.jmho.

I really prefer something elevated a bit for a downward shooting angle, especially for archery. I typically use my popup type ground blinds for a couple years to determine if a spot is good worth investing in building a box blind. I'm now considering a hybrid: http://www.habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/semi-permanent-box-blind.10729/. I've looked at the commercial more permanent hard sided blinds like Redneck but I can build something better for less. I'm now thinking about keeping the cost down by using one of the less expensive but larger commercial pop-up blinds (link in the other thread) and putting it on a pedestal with enough roof over it to remove snow issues. I'm planning on giving it a try this year and I'll post my progress in the other thread.

Thanks,

Jack