Q: How do you make a deer blind?
A: Poke his eyes out.

After 15+ seasons, it's time to start thinking about reworking my deer stands. What I have up right now are a half-dozen buddy style ladder stand. Some are in places where we haven't taken a deer in years. The oldest is rusted to the point where I believe it to be unsafe. My goal this year is to bring them all down, re-paint and repair them all. Retire at least one an mix and match the parts to put as many back as possible.

However, I'm also looking for other ideas. When I was in my 40's, 15 feet in the air on a ladder stand was a bit of a come-down. I'd spent my 20's and 30's being a nosebleed cowboy in climbing stands. Now I'm 58. I'm looking at options.

First off, I'm thinking of this:


I have a set of the Elevators brackets left over from another project. I figure a 5X7 foot platform up about 10 feet in the air with just a railing will suffice. I won't need a roof.

The other idea that intrigues me is a design I saw out on the web. It's a scissors design:



This one looks a little tippy, but I've seen other versions of this design that had longer legs and appeared far more stable.

I'm just interested if any of you have thoughts or experiences with these designs, or others you'd like to recommend. I don't really need a roof over my head. I have other options for when the weather is bad.

OMG!

Hope you have your flame suit on.

If you hunt from a blind you'll get roasted here.

Or if you don't, or still hunt, or hunt private land, or hunt public land, or hunt with drives, or over corn, or not.

Someone will be by shortly to condemn you to Hell for how you hunt.

In the meantime, I like the platform better. (it needs some sides though.)

Do you need elevation? I like ground blinds much better generally.

The best are made of piles of brush and such.

Well unless its below freezing and or damp, then a box is nice.

A camp I used to hunt out of had several ground blinds built on plastic pallets with pressure treated 4x4 skids under them. A little lumber and some old metal roofing for the sides and roof worked pretty good. Being able to move them was a plus when the deer's travel routes changed. We would move them with ATVs.

It's okay. I was the guy who asked Rick for the deer hunting sub-forum to begin with. I've been hunting from stands for 35+ years. I can take it. Thanks for your concern, however.

Yes, I'm figuring on a railing with slats.

The places I'm thinking of for the raised platform are just not right for a ground blind. These are hillside pastures with a lot of folds in them. Even though they look even, the deer can completely disappear. When I was surveying for the stand placement, I rode around in my Silverado and when I'd find a likely spot, I'd get up in the bed and have a look-see. My eye level was therefore about 9 feet in the air. There are a couple of spots where a 10 foot platform would work.

I think your best bet is a tripod. They can be bought here for $200, or so. Perhaps less after season. They have an inch bar around the top and an expanded metal floor. We added an 8"x1" board along the top to act as a kind of shelf. Then took that leafy plastic camp and tacked it to the board and floor with electric ties. This is as much to keep things from falling out as to hide. I cut mine down to about 6' to the floor. That way I can reach up and place things in the blind without cussing a rope. They are easily movable by two, or one if you can get near it with a truck. They can be be placed almost into a small tree to act as cover. Once placed I would suggest using one of those trailer house screw thingies and a tie-down to make it more stable. Hope this helps, captdavid

YOu can even buy some of the light weight versions that fold up, and pack on your shoulder fairly easily. I"ve welded a couple over the years also.

Tripod could be the answer for sure.

Wish I had a few in AK for moose. They are being used more and more often.

Tripod for open, ladder stand for tree. Ive been using a ladder stand with a cover on it for the past 5-6 yrs and it works great. I just replaced it last year because the original was rusted so bad it was becoming unsafe. I'm 80 and hunt in SE Texas in wooded area. A large selection of stands at Midway.

I'm like you, for 20 years I used a climbing stand and went as high as the tree would let me in some cases. I needed to be in some places where there weren't any straight trees, so I tried a ladder stand and fell in love. Now I have a couple and this is the best one I have. I'm a bow hunter and found I needed a seat that folded up. This has that along with a nice sized platform 24"x 30". That's if you have trees to put it in.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p...5fnsufstpstxlxxxtsb/15fnsufstpstxlxxxtsb

I can just see a leaning stand where I hunt. It would be about 2' up the tallest mesquite. It's amazing how our hunting differs! I imagine our tallest tree is probably a scrub oak, that might be be 20' tall captdavid

If you have the elevators, build the platform. For the bonus, put an office chair up there. You can sit all day.

Thanks all.

CaptDavid
Yes, I would imagine things to be quite different with trees like that. I'm hunting amid white oaks that pre-date the white man. In fact, the platform is meant to hunt the pasture that slopes away from an abandoned section of county road that stopped having traffic about 100 years ago. The trees are 4 or 5 feet in diameter. The problem is that in order to get a shot, I have to be out past the dripline of the biggest tree.




Here is another idea I had. Somebody on the Campfire was selling plans for this a while back. I like it-- kind of an extra tall lifeguard chair for 2:

It's hard for me to get my head around the differences of our landscapes. I don't understand the importance of the drip line. I have two thoughts. First, if you are going to build something as elaborate as the above stand, why not enclose it? That way you could have an all-weather blind. I can't really tell for sure from the picture, but I can see any number of places to put a tripod. I could see, snuggling it up to that scrawny tree in the foreground of the picture. One thing, if you buy a tripod, and it doesn't work on the field, you can always use it in the woods. They are not all that expensive. A thought; how high are the lowest branches on the bigger trees? Could you place a tripod that would put you in the branches at the edge? Captdavid

It has to be outside the dripline simply because:

a) the view will be obscured by the branches
b) wind will drive the limbs into the structure.

. . . otherwise, I'd probably just put another ladder stand up and be done with it.

I've got several foul weather ground blinds already, and they're in spots that produce deer in the most obnoxious conditions. The venues I'm trying to develop now are going to exploit places where deer show up on better days. I'd just as soon as hunt without a roof over my head. I'm also figuring on these being good sites to take the grandkids.

I build a 4'x4' angle iron frame with 11/2" pipe legs. I like them 15' tall. I build a plywood box to bolt on to frame. I stand up with wench. I tie it off to trees on two sides to keep it from blowing over. I have a metal roof, build windows that fold up. They have glass in them to keep you from freezing your ass off when it's cold. I have a heater in each stand also. If I had someone with me in stand a lot I'd build 4'x6'. I like 4x4 because you can see better. Metal frame is much sturdier than wood. I have some that are 35 years old. I can't imagine building out of wood.

I made it back to camp this weekend, and had an opportunity to drive out to one of the places where I'm planning to put a new stand. Y'all were asking about why I was thinking about a raised freestanding platform.

Here is a view 50 yards south of where I plan to put the blind


Now, here's a shot from the site itself. Notice how the folds come into view.





Lastly, here is a link to a panorama
Panorama of new stand site

I like that.
I'm with you guys, want to be off the ground , not in the clouds anymore.
I buy buddy ladder stands on sale and put them in several locations.

Here is one that my wife uses.

Its about 5x5 with enough room for 2 and a heater

The windows are plexiglass in wooden tracks

The door is in the back wall



The other one she uses on the property is two stories tall. A ladder and a pop up door in the floor get you to the shooting room. This is the rear view of the structure

I am looking to build a platform blind 10 or 15 feet up.. Can't get any motorized vehicle back there... Any Plans out there ?

Build off site

Take it apart then re-assemble on site

Yeap that is what I am going to do..

There are plenty of plans. A lot of them are free.

The trick is to find ideas that can be hand-carried a piece at a time.

Pre-cut the wood and then mark it and bundle it.

Have you got a toolbox that goes across the bed of your pickup?

I've often just backed my pickup into a likely spot, and just sat on the toolbox, facing rearward (to the front of the truck).

Cheap (FREE!) and portable, so to speak. It won't get as high as some of the pics shown, but where I hunt, I don't need to get much higher.

Most of the time, I just find a big tree and sit against it at ground level, and I have just taken a folding chair out and sat in it instead of on the wet ground. Most of the ground I hunt is rolling hills/pasture/crop fields, so it works pretty well, too.

At my hunting camp we've built some elevated platforms like you've shown in the first picture then put a pop-up blind like the primos double bull on top of them. Screw some eyelets into the platform and use big zip ties to anchor them to the platform. Put a folding canvas chair inside and hunt in comfort, I've even been known to take a portable buddy heater into them. At the end of the season cut the zip ties and take the blind down for storage until next year. It works great.

That would be a violation of state law in Michigan...hunting from a vehicle.

I had to do some work on a blind sans electricity lately too. Best part of it for me was that it gave me a reason to use hand saws (remember what those look like??) that Dad had given me last year. They belonged to my grandpa and when Dad asked if he owned anything I might want to inherit I mentioned only those. My goodness what good saws. Compared to the cheap-a$$ miter box chop saw these were a dream and made short work of the small tasks. Thank God Dad knows how to keep stuff sharp.

Didn't mean to hijack- just wanted to share. Hopefully you will build some memories while building the blind too. Looking forward to seeing your final product. The blind I am working on is getting a new cam paint job soon. I will share.....I mean unless it looks awful. :-)

Build it out of 2x2's and 1/2 plywood. There is bound to be a welding shop that can build you a platform. If you lived close I would build you one. Ain't much to it, my boy likes building that kind of stuff. He has been welding since he was 12.

For the sides and roof, I think its hard to beat Coroplast - that plastic stiff they make signs from. Basically plastic cardboard. Comes in colors, different thicknesses (I use 5mm), fairly inexpensive, weatherproof,light (maybe 4 pounds per 4x8 sheet), can be easily cut with a utility knife, attached with fender washers and drywall screws. What's not to like?

Coroplast even comes in camo now. You can get a 4X8 sheet for under $30 at Lowes. What I worry about is
1) Durability
2) How it holds up to sunlight.

What is your experience with it.


In a similar vein, we had a lady over at the Deer & Deer Hunting forum that used regular corrugated cardboard clad with cheap camo poly tarp for her blinds. They were impressive and cheap and they held up for multiple seasons.