Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer blinds...

Here in the Michigan woods most everybody hunts from a deer blind or stand. This time of year there are lots of leaves on the ground, making walking quietly difficult. When I was young and tough I spent years stalking thru the woods and finally came to the conclusion that I saw more deer when sitting and waiting for them to come to me.

We hunt private land and our blinds stay in the woods year round. Deer get used to seeing them and mostly ignore them.

To me finding the best place to put a blind, making it comfortable to spend long hours in and making it easy to get to without disturbing the wildlife is a real art. Yet I find nothing here about the subject...

In my 40's and 50's I spent every fall hunting out West where I could do all the walking and glassing for game that I wanted to. I loved it, just wandering the mountain West be myself but it doesn't seem to translate here in the heavily forested Midwest.

I'm surprised there isn't more on the subject here.

Every time somebody tries it, the western folks show up and say that we are idiots and just too lazy to hunt. They can not be told that conditions are different, and we just do what works. miles

Down here in the S.Texas brush country people can't see or walk thru the brush, there are some places you can crawl on your hand and knees, but you never know what you might meet, sitting in a blind is one of the ways to hunt and it works for a lot of people. Rio7

There is no question that blind hunting works well, and some places its one of the few ways to be successful most of the time.

But even in thick east TX and south TX brush, you can hunt on foot, and do very well. Just typically folks used to blinds have a learning curve. I know it took me some time to get to figure out how to hunt deer, in thick noisy areas on foot.

Often I describe it more as taking slow steps until I find a bit of a different vantage, and then wait for long periods of time before moving, often not more than 10 yards or so, someitmes 50.. Really its almost like blind hunting here and there, just no blind.

Same way we did it in the West.. no continual moving unless hunting bedding areas, then its so slow its not even funny

I've done the spot & stalk thing, and also blinds. In flat, brushy country the deer are likely to see or hear you before you see them. Yes, if you are extremely experienced & careful you can slip up on deer in brush, but your odds go down.

The one tip I would give people about blinds is deer - especially smarter, older deer - will learn to look at blinds to see if anything looks amiss. More than once I have seen a deer step out of the brush, look at the blind, see me in it, and bail out back into the brush. Today I always have the back wall blacked out, so they can't see my silhouette, and I put a camo mesh on the windows. That way the blind always looks the same, whether or not you are in it.

The really smart old bucks, will tend to avoid blinds altogether, unless it's the rut, or you otherwise call them in.

I "walk" a lot in the big woods of the Midwest. I track when I have snow. I love it, but some areas of the Midwest just aren't conducive to the practice. Take for example semi ag land in MI's lower peninsula. There aren't big tracks of private ground. A section is usually broken up into 5-20 parcels. I think similar instances occur is WI, IL, etc.

...and where there is heavily forested areas in the Midwest, it usually contains a fair amount of hunters compared to western states.

That's exactly what I do... The back of the blind is windowless and I use camo netting on the windows. I paint the inside of the blind a really dark brown and usually wear a hat and a hoody to minimize any shine from my face. Sitting still is good.

Dick

I'll offer that the best time to find stand or blind locations is a week or two after the season. Give them time to settle down, then wait for fresh snow . Gps the places, or if you are young enough, remember them! Check again for use early in the fall. We look for pinch points or places where two edges come together.

As for getting in and out without disturbing them, I keep a pair of muck boots outside for several weeks before the season, and wear them into the stand. If it is cold, I change into a warmer pair. Two weekends ago I had a young buck hit the trail into the stand. He stopped, looked around- and at me motionless in the stand- and then proceeded to make a scrape right in the trail! Not an old wary buck, but I didn't alarm him.

Also, need to play the wind on the way in. If you need to get to a stand from the west, you can't hunt that stand in a west wind, and need o think carefully about hunting it in quartering winds. . Which means having multiple stands for different wind conditions. Takes more work, but then you can hunt in any wind without compromise.

And be lucky!

Ps any typos are from this damm autocorrect!

I've spent many a happy hour in a deer blind!

I pack a sleeping bag in and sit in it, with my feet inside the bag on a piece of closed cell foam. Which is completely cheating.

I would love to see someone successfully still hunt in the cross timber region of OK where I hunt.

Washington Irving didn't refer to it as the cast iron forest for no reason.

because where I hunt in Ohio is mostly pine trees and dead ash, I use blinds mostly. Have a few ladder stands too. If I am in all black in my blind, the deer do not see me at all. I shoot most of my deer inside of 15 yards. My closest was somewhere between 4-6 feet from the edge of the blind. I only use my blinds bow hunting because I hunt on the edge of a suburb. If I gun hunt, I only use a ladder stand and the deer are at the edge of archery range. This way if any of the neighbors ask about a shot I can show them if I missed the deer by 100 feet in any direction I am still hundreds of yards away from the edge of my property line.

+1 on the wearing black and the interior of the blind should be black as well. Even though the blind is in the woods year 'round and deer get used to it they will look into the blind when approaching. I have had them bolt when they see my face if not wearing black, just the bright object in the blind that they're not used to seems to spook them. I have had it happen to me, and it's not just the older wiser bucks younger ones seem to know to look in the blind.

The wife andf I have hunted on a neighbor's property (Right across the road from our house.) for nearly twenty years. The blinds stay in the woods and aren't moved. Still the deer check them out every time they show up. Ther worst are the big and smart old does that spend a lot of time looking at the blind, stamping their feet and snorting. I've really been tempted a few times...

Since the blinds are kind of permanent, I've taken the time to make them comfortable... good comfortable office chairs that swivel and rock, windows that open and good heaters. The ultimate luxury is a good floor; thick plywood on a really flat surface and covered with indoor/outdoor carpet. This allows the chair to move easily and silently. (Keep some WD-40 in the blind.)

There's a coat hook and a shelf for the basic necessities... food, drinks,Tom Clancy or John Sandford books, a few good cigars... nobody said you gotta be uncomfortable just cause you're hunting. Re: the cigars... I can prove that deer like the smell of a Royal Jamaican better than the smell of a person.

That said,,, some of the best days I've ever had hunting were wandering, by myself, in the Western mountains. Really pissed off an outfitter once in the Bob Marshall by taking off by myself for a day and going up the mountain behind the camp. He told me he spends most of his guiding time looking for lost hunters and chasing wounded game. He wasn't a fan of the markmanship of most Eastern hunters. He said the worst of them showed up in new clothes by Abercrombie & Fitch with new Weatherby 300's. He said many of them were scared to pull the trigger.

It's fun to walk when you have wet leaves, right after a rain. At 78 it's getting harder for me especially since my knees are much older than 78, made that way by thirty years of basketball.

dick this thread brought back memories of your articles on blinds in precision shooting.i've used a few inspired by your articles

Ed

I love to still-hunt, but it's just not practical for a good bit of the season here because of the number of hunters. I have a couple of ladder stands on the patch of public land I hunt and on opening day, I crawl into one well before daylight and wait for something to wander or get pushed by. Later in the season, still-hunting becomes possible because most of the hunters have gone home. One of my stands is only about 11 feet up (the seat), but it's placed so I can see more than for concealment. At any height I'm willing to climb to, movement still has to be avoided. The elevation also makes it less likely I'll get hit by stray shots. I haven't tried a blind as yet as I don't want to be confined or have my vision and hearing restricted. I have used a tree umbrella in the rain and as a screen to cover my stray movements while sitting on the ground. The umbrellas are very light and set up quickly.

Can't emphasize this enough. It's exactly why climbers on your back or other, very portable set-ups work best for trophy bucks.

Dick:

Not sure that you are describing a blind. Could it be a spa? You can hunt a place like that for another ten years, fifteen if you move the recliner in now!😅

Dick

We basically have to hunt blinds by owner/lease rules. Sucks but thats life around the hill country.

So while everyone does what they want to, I did a lot of mostly slipping out of my stand during the week and sitting under trees. not to shoot a deer, but to see where they were traveling daily..

Found a good more or less saddle/crossing area, heavily used. No feeders around, and so on so I knew I was in a natural path.

Built a blind big enough for the wife, I and the dog. Before they quit allowing wives to go to the stands...gets dumber by the year I guess. When she is no longer allowed on the place, I'm gone...

But back to blinds. Hexagon with 4 foot wide walls. On a trailer. Elevated about 8 feet to the floor.

Got it to the top of the ridge I had sat on a lot looking.

Placed it behidn some trees, trimmed them. Got it just forward enough that the box was about the only thing visible from down below where all the activity was.

We can actually drive up to it if the wind is blowing out of the north, park 10 feet away, climb up the ladder carrying Tiger, put all my stuff in it, and the deer down below have NO clue anything changed. Can leave the same way.

Though generally if weather is good, we park about 600 yards away and slip in from the side through a couple of gulleys, same deal though, nothing sees us either way.

Spa wise I"m a bit short, though we do have a batt operated small TV.... lol. 2 office chairs now, one for me, one for Tiger. Tiger has his bed on teh floor too if he wants.

Damn nice, warm, dry, lazy way to sit.

In the end I still prefer sitting under a different tree every hunt, but I can't get away with that very often....

And out of the blind I mention above, I've killed 4 bucks so far, 6.5 or older....I would not have likely killed more from a climber at all. Simply because though I see old bucks all the time, they don't all have the antler I am after. So I let others shoot em instead.

But as noted, how and where and what you set up blind wise, makes a lot of difference.

The trails I watch are 300 to 350 yards away, have dropped a lot of culls and does at that range. Luckily all the oldest big bucks have come by off the main trail and around 175 yards or so mostly... real chip shots there.

I did pile up a doe and 2 spikes one night off the main trail, all 325 ish to 350ish. All dead in a 20 yard area... pure luck of course the last one stopped to look at the other two.. bad mistake.

Over the years I have built some crazy big deer blinds, loaded with comforts, one I call Casa Grande, is 12ft X 12ft sitting on a 15 ft tower with and elevator for people that can't climb the stairs,over looks a lake and 3 big wide roads out thru the brush,all the comforts of home, there have been a lot of critters killed there over the years. Rio7

No spa... but a good friend has one. He built it on a hill in the middle of his farm. It has an upstairs with two beds and two chests, a working bathroom, a working kitchen and a quite elegant main room for deer watching or shooting if you are actually hunting. The whole thing looks like a Swiss chalet.

He uses a 43 lb. benchrest rifle in 30-378 Weatherby Mag. It's sitting on an ingeniously designed stand that can be rolled from one window to another and, then, locked up to stay still.

This is the only deer blind I've ever walked into and found an apple pie in the kitchen. There also a TV to watch the Michigan/Ohio State game.

Over the last twenty years there were a lot of articles about this place in Precision Shooting.

I have been in it, and it is impressive. It is also great for the wounded warriors. miles

Next time, start this thread AFTER the season! I spent 7 hours yesterday in a ladder stand. Temp at 7:30 was 8. High temp all day was 20. I thought about your blind.. I'm not there yet, but I'm 7 hours closer!

Ps. Enjoyed reading your contribution and about that stand. I miss ps!

There is something to be said for a comfortable ladder stand, not the type we use for a few hours around here, and just being out in nature.

Of course you have to dress for the part, but I still love playing that part of the game when I can.

OTOH having the dog sitting with you in the blind is fun too. And a 2nd set of REALLY good eyes. Sure wish we could talk the landowner into allwoing the wife to come to the stand with us again like we used to could... that was really like a family outing.

While I personally do not hunt from a blind, just not my cup of tea, I fully understand the logic behind it. What I don't understand is why folks need an ATV/UTV to get to the blind and "drag" the critter out. Just seems flatazz lazy to me?

When you are pushing 80 and nothing works anymore, you will be there...

Walking in all these leaves just doesn't work... way too noisy. For years I had a stump blind, just a bunch of logs piled around the base of a tree. It didn't seem to bother the deer and it worked very well for me for years. I got really good at using Eddie Bauer goose down to keep warm. One opening day, during the night it had dumped 2" of soft, wet snow on us. That morning I sat under my tree and every couple of minutes got a blob of wet snow dumped on me, mostly down my collar. That was the end of that s---. The next year I had a roof.

I've made several blinds since then, each design better and more functional. Both my and Glorya's blinds are 4-1/2' deep and 5-1/2' wide... enough room for a good chair and a heater. They are tall enough to stand up in. Removable windows keep them warm and allow you to block the wind.

Still hunting works here right after a rain if the leaves are really wet. However, my knees are much older that the rest of the body due to thirty years of competitive basketball. (I'd do it over again, even knowing what I know now.) Walking to the back end of a Walmart and back makes me a cripple for a couple of weeks. Still hunting is out. I would love to take Glorya antelope hunting and, then, spend a week just wandering the Bighorns by myself with my little deer rifle... no way.

The blind has extended my hunting and given me years that I wouldn't have without it.

Forty years ago I agreed with you 100%. See above post. At my age I really can't handle and drag a dead deer. Thank God, I have a young neighbor with a strong back and a pickup.

I don't like four wheelers in the woods either. Too noisy; they disturb the quiet and deer can hear them a very long way away.

I hope that you choose to sit home when you get old and have a bad back, knees and other parts. I choose not to. miles

Deer blind story... I love it.

In 1980 I had a Wyoming deer tag and no place to hunt. At the last minute I called a guide I know in Buffalo and asked if I could come out. I had known him for years. Anyway, he said he and his son were going elk hunting but I could stay at his place and come along as long as we didn't bother each other's hunting. He trusted me not to get lost so they would have to spend their time finding me.

When I got there he told me the following...

An Eastern oil company owned a lot of land outside Sheridan. One year the executives called and said they were coming out and going hunting. Told the locals to build them some deer blinds.

The locals told them that blinds didn't work in that country. The big shots said they were the bosses, they owned the land... build them some damn blinds.

The blinds were built. The big shots came to Wyoming and hunted for a week... Never saw a damn thing.

Different parts of the country.

As others have pointed out, at some point you just can't do all the things you used to could.

My father due to CHF could no longer drag a deer before his 50th... I helped all the time and no big deal.

ALthough we generally could drive a truck up to the deer, years and years before ATVs came along.

As to noisy, I drive up to my stand to fill feeders during the day, and see plenty deer that evenign. I suspect that in many areas since deer are used to vehicles period, its not abnormal to hear/see vehicles of all types in the woods at least in TX.

Now if you drove up on an ATV etc... where vehicles are not seen, I could see it being another issue

For me, I hope you can drag deer the rest of your life. Others it may not work.

Now in my 60's, I have transitioned from the trees to the ground and use ground blinds, mostly from natural materials and also an older Double Bull small portable unit which sees a lot of use in spring turkey season. Playing the wind is most important for sure! In December it is always windy and add that to the cold temps and tree stands don't make for a long post. My heater body suit is what I pack in for long sits. Works great and even better with some chemical heat packs tossed down the legs!!

Love having access to an ATV for hauling out an animal. However my only beef with them is that besides seeing healthy 20 somethings using them to get to their stands, the use of them has really limited the security areas around here for deer. Remember the old saying that most hunters hunt within 1/2 mile of the road and to get back in the woods to find undisturbed deer? Well now with the use of ATVs virtually no place is unhuntable if you have legal access and an ATV. They are a great tool for hauling out deer, but IMO have impacted the ability of deer to have a buffer from hunting pressure.

My older brother helped me put up a 4'x4' plywood blind on an 8' tower about 8 years back on my land. Worked very well, until 70mph straight line winds pulled the anchors and dumped it on it's side 2 years ago. The plywood tower blind then became a plywood ground blind.. which this summer was rebuilt to become a 4'x8' ground blind. My brother hunted my land with me this year and wasn't too subtle about how he thought the ground blind was going to suck.

He changed his mind when we got there. He's now all in favor of nice ground blinds.

I only have 30 acres of creek bottom, and probably 50% is too close to a ranch house to hunt and another 30% too heavily wooded to hunt, so a blind works perfectly well to cover the major open pasture. Might put a second one up on the north end of the property next summer.

PS: Have to admit I never expected those plywood sheets to last 8 years and have a lot more life in them.

They are kinda fun to build, too, FWIW

Plywood lasts a long time if kept painted like anything else mostly.

I have blinds that are heading towards 20 years old. Just have to keep em painted and keep water out of them so they don't rot from the inside out.

Last blind I had the lumber yard order 3/8 treated plywood for me too...

Tin siding is another way to go but loud if you bump it... thought about square tubing and metal siding and then spray foam insulate the whole thing lightly.

I plan on building one before next season. What are you guys using for windows? I might be cheap and just go with a hinged shutter. Paint it black so it looks like an open window.

I need better windows. I simply cut holes in the sides of the blind, trimmed the removed pieces down just a tad, then screwed them onto a larger scrap piece of plywood that is hinged to the outside bottom. Makes a window that's easy to lower and raise, and the original piece being inset and fitting the cut window makes it nice and snug to keep out weather and wasps. I was meaning to paint the outside black next year so that when it's open it looks the same, but didn't get that done this year.

2"x2"s along the bottom edge of the window makes a nice shooting rest, and wrapping some black rubber cupboard liner from Dollar General/Walmart/etc around the 2"x2"s and it will keep it silent and keep it from dinging up any wood stocks or checkering.

I finally paid for vertical sliding glass windows. Not that cheap at 36 bucks for 36 inch wide by 8 or 10 tall. BUT I would do it again in a hurry.

If not I will have to rethink my other way... to make it weatherproof.. the old blind windows where nto wind/waterproof...

I generally have a 1x4 or 2x4 flat for a shooting ledge.

My other windows I removed were 2x2 with a rip in them, to set in a piece of plexiglass and work really well also. Hinged to open up, and magnets to hold em open.

The Hinge Windows from these guys are cheap enough. Not sure if I like their other options.

http://deerviewwindows.com/

That's a pretty good deal, thanks for the link.

That is good. I can frame my 2 windows to 24"x12" and real windows for $56 is a good deal. Wish I'd known about these last summer.

on that place, imvs vertical slide woudl be by far my choice.

The hinged ones or horizontal sliders over the years I've just decided are not the ticket. While the vertical slides are for sure.

But thats just me.

Though I bougth the 36 inch ones for 36 bucks, not quite as high as they are. But from a blind place that I talked into selling windows only...

It took me a while but I finally figured out how to make good windows that were cheap and worked very well. My walls are 3/8" plywood but I use a 2 X 4 under each window as a shelf and rifle rest. I cut a thin slot in one edge of each 2 X 4 and the slot goes up and next to the window. A piece of plexiglas fits down into the slot. I use small blocks of wood with a wood screw in the center above the glas to to keep or release the glas and let me take it out. The 4" side is horizonal and makes a small shelf.

The local hardware will cut the glas to my measurements and it works well. I use camo mesh that is attached above the window and that I can let fold down to make it much harder to see inside. (curtains)

The window sills (the 2 X 4's) are at a height that lets me sit in the office chair and comfortably rest my hand holding the rifle on the sill providing a good, solid rest. I really hate wounding game. The office chair is adjustable for height and can be made to exactly the right height for shooting comfort.

The glas has to be the correct width to fit the window well but needs to be about 2" higher. It will then rest against the 3/8" plywood wall and keep everything flush and (reasonably) air tight.That keeps everything solid and you screw the little woods toggles in above the glas. Simply twist them to hold or release the window.

I hope that I'm articulate enough to make the above clear. I've thought about making blue prints and selling them but, I always got paid to design things and I'm retired and my drawing board hasn't been used for years.

Note... the 4-1/2' X 5-1/2" dimensions are critical. 4" X 4' is much easier but too restrictive to have enough room. I mean, where you gonna put the TV?

Terrible problem... It's deer season, it's warm and not raining temporarily. I saw deer yesterday. It's Thanksgiving morning and the Lions play at 12:30. That 20" twelve point is still out there looking for does.

I can go sit in my blind, it's just across the road, and light the heater and be perfectly dry and comfortable. Instead I'm sitting on my butt playing computer... what an arsehole.

Get him tomorrow!

The lions were way ahead. Did you get out to the blind?

And what kind of fool would not allow women/spouses on the property? If it was my property, I would ban men and allow women. They are much easier on the eyes!

At halftime the Lions were comfortably ahead and I decided to go hunting and trust them to win without my armchair coaching... they did.

It was raining and I carried the gun to the blind in it's case, lit the heater and got comfortable. Mid-afternoon there were three quick shots from the property next door followed by a couple more a little later. Sounded like they all came from the same place. The rest of the afternoon I kept hearing loud voices from there... they were obviously looking for a wounded deer. That property starts about 200 yds. West of my blind and, with all the racket, nothing, absolutely nothing, was moving where I was.

I stayed there for a while waiting to see if their wounded deer would come by me. I would have killed it and given it to them. It didn't and a little before dark I packed up and went home. It was really nice and comfy out there in spite of the scattered rain showers but no action. The previous day there had been lots. Unfortunately it's a holiday weekend and the woods will be full of last minute hunters. Season ends Monday. When there are hunters in the woods all our deer get really nocturnal.

There is a muzzle loader season in Dec. Interesting thing here... All the muzzle loader shots you hear sound just exactly like a 30-06. Glorya was out one morning years back and came in laughing her arse off. Some guy had got off five black powder shots in just a few seconds. I never could load a muzzle loader that fast. ?????

The Lions won comfortably without my help. They just fired a couple of big shots and, all of a sudden, we gotta team. When they beat the Pack a couple of weeks ago, I decided we are gonna do good the rest of the season.

Years back, shortly after we were married, Glorya and I went over to the property one day before season. The guys were sighting in. Everybody but me and the owner were just casual deer hunters. They were splattering shots all over the paper. After a while I got out a little Sako Vixen .222 we had in the car and had Glorya shot a group. I don't remember, three or five shots, (Edit...I remember, it was five shots. She kept the target.) but it was smaller than a nickel at 100 yds. This did not make the guys happy.

The next day the owner came over and said she couldn't hunt there. They didn't want her wandering into the house if they were dressing. BS!

That makes no sense at all. We all get outshot, nothing special about getting outshot by a woman! Mental pygmies!

Right! They were just macho guys and not very sophisticated hunters. Had a problem getting shown up by a woman.

Re: getting beat by women... In the 60's and 70's I shot on a really good smallbore rifle team out of the Saginaw Gun Club. We had eight members on the team and seven of us, including me, had NRA Master classifications. We shot gallery all winter long. We won the league for something like eight or ten years straight.

Anyway, my buddy's daughter shot with us when she was in high school and college. She and I always bet a quarter on every match. I think I helped put the damned kid thru college.

Her Loveliness (Mrs. Wright) andf I shot benchrest for years till she finally took a job at the local Indian casino as a finance manager. For years after she quit shooting I woud get a load of s--- everytime I went to a BR match, "What are you doing here... Where's the first team?".

Women are normally a delight to teach to shoot. Men are normally a real PIA. This is the Northwoods and men may be poor but they are sure macho. Don't even think about telling them that they don't know what they are doing with their rifle... or their gun for that manner.

Dick, We guide hunters from all over the world, I swear when their plane crosses the Red River , they all turn into John Wayne, and I have seen more than one Annie Oakley, send them to the house. Rio7

Back when I was a younger I did a lot of hunting out West. I got to know a couple of guides pretty well. They both told me that they really cringed when dudes showed up, all dressed in new, fancy, expensive hunting gear, and with new Weatherby .300's. Most of the dudes were scared [bleep] of pulling the trigger on the Weatherby's and most had shooting problems. Lots of chasing of wounded game.

When I showed up I had good but worn clothes that showed they had been used... lots. At that time I collected really good, expensive custom rifles, but, if I had one with me, I, also, would have one of my pair of rather beat pre-64 M-70's in .270, maybe 80% guns. Plain rifles, with 4X scopes (per Jack O'Conner), well used, but both were real shooters. If a horse was gonna roll over on the gun, it wasn't going to be a Griffin & Howe.

It was amazing how quickly I got acceptence and respect from the guides. I've posted this part elsewhere but it's been one of life's good lessons.

Our firearms deer season ended 30 Nov. However, muzzle loader season starts 4 Dec. and lasts about a week and a half.

This year has been remarkably warm for deer season. It averaged highs in the 40's almost all of season. I remember very well going hunting at zero degrees years ago.

Chances are that our deer will have a chance to clam down after the frenzy of the last two weeks with all the hunters in the woods. The secondary rut will keep bucks moving so there is always a chance for a trophy.

The weather forecast for the first three days of muzzle loader season is for a high of 50 degrees.

I may yet get to see the big guy.