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I have 4 4x6 blinds at the lease all on 10 or 12 foot 4x4 posts using the Elevator brackets.
I've put stands up on 16 foot legs in the past as well.
Prefab the walls with 2x2s covered with 3/4 plywood.
Get the legs on base w lag bolts and brace them with 2x4s temporarily.
Stand the base up, remove the temporary braces spread legs and brace them horizontally around the bottom about three feet from ground level.
Them brace them diagonally from top down to just above horizontal base.
Running the diagonal bases opposite from the one across from it will sturdy the legs up so base doesn't wobble.
Pull the walls up and assemble and drop roof on.

I'm about to build one more stand for one person and it'll be 5x5.


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Originally Posted by devnull
I built a house with those exact same braces using 8' 4x4s. You can go longer but heed a couple things:

1) Pay attention to the directions they come with. Make sure you use 2x6, not 2x4s for the sides of your floor. You'll need them to put lag bolts into the sides.
2) DEFINITELY use cross braces on your legs. Run them from the very top of one leg to the very bottom of the other leg. This is where the support of your legs come into play.
3) The taller the house, the more careful you'll need to be when pulling it up to keep it from falling on over. Take your time and go SLOW. There's plenty of videos on youtube of folks pulling them on over on accident. The best way to built is modular. Build your floor first with legs and then pull it up. After it's up, add your walls and ceiling.
4) Use some type of anchor system. I drilled holes in my legs large enough to run rebar through them at opposite angles of the legs. I then bent the rebar at the top to act as an anchor.


These are great suggestions and I’d add a coup,e of more.

Run a horizontal braces around the base of the stand along with diagonals. The 4X4s will twist over time and the braces at the bottom will help keep things in place.

Use cables for your bracing but use some wood braces as well.

Pad the inside of your shooting house with carpet samples because it will sound like a drum when you move around.

Add material for a shooting rest at the inside of the openings because a 2x4 wall doesn’t give you a lot of support. We use some sand bags for rests in the towers we have along a power line for long shots.

Lastly,

Don’t ask your framing carpenters to build 3 modular towers on a construction site. Because you will get everyone’s best ideas on what makes a great tower stand.... show up with a trailer and you get a 16 high 6x6x6 tower with treated wood and 3/4 in treat plywood with OSHA approved stairs etc... they are damn heavy and took about 8 people, one flat bed truck and loader to assemble. They will never move again....

If you are in areas where it gets cold, think about ventilation because it sucks big time to be sitting under a metal roof when the sun comes up and it rains all morning inside the tower from the frozen condensation that melts for two hours....

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[/quote]

If you are in areas where it gets cold, think about ventilation because it sucks big time to be sitting under a metal roof when the sun comes up and it rains all morning inside the tower from the frozen condensation that melts for two hours....[/quote]

I think he meant insulation although ventilation is important too. I go insulated double walls when I can. I use whatever is available, foam, batting and even carpet pads. Insulate the roof too. This is good for hot or cold but especially noise with the insulated double walls being the best. If you have young kids in the blind this is even more appreciated.

My son when he was five was perfectly comfy with a sleeping bag on a thirty degree day. He fell asleep and he said when he woke up there was a boom and he shot the deer. He had the order wrong as it was me shooting. I asked if he was dreaming about deer hunting during his nap and he sad yes dad.

Forgot to add one I forget all the time. Don't face the blind into the setting or rising sun during the season. I have set up for summertime sunset/rise only to find out the stand was almost worthless at the most critical times.

Last edited by Tejano; 07/05/18.

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I actually ment ventilation and not insulation. Here in the SE we don’t need insulated stands but on the cold mornings 10 to 15 degrees, your body heat condenses on the ceiling. When it starts warming up you have cold wet rain inside your tower. It’s worse if you have a metal roof. Key is to not trap your body heat and many ways to do this.

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The 4-way chimney type roof vent worked well for this as the warmer humid air would rise. If I don't do this I add at least one small vent up high as an exhaust vent, good for hot or cold weather use. Both may encourage any scent to go upwards too unless there is a temperature inversion or down drafts.

Insulation also reduces condensation so might help with your use too. Spray foam is ugly but easy.


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Originally Posted by tzone
I find 4x4 to be common and too small. I also find 6x6 a bit too big to see if the deer are close. So I'd go with 5x5 with the understanding you'll have some waste.

Every place can vary but we have a hexagon on 4 foot sides. And an 8x8 square in anotehr place. Both have deer come by easily close enough for a bow shot and the hexagon we unfortunately have deer bed up under the stand now and again. They don't stay that long cause the dog can't handle it and will eventually whine or whimper some and they'll get up and walk off.

I think a small blind thats brand new woudl be worse than a huge blind thats been there...


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Deer don’t pay any attention to a blind that’s been there a long time.

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How do you keep coons, owls and such critters out of your stands off-season? Missouri is covered with coons, squirrels, owls and varmints galore, they'll chew and schitt on anything and everything, and I can't imagine a way to coon-proof one without people-proofing it, too. Yes, you can close the windows/doors but danged it they don't find a way in.


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Glass windows or wood windows. Buzzards-owls are the worst!!!

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Originally Posted by ratsmacker
How do you keep coons, owls and such critters out of your stands off-season?


Sheath the blind in tin. I don't like an all metal blind, too cold and noisy but over wood it is fine and makes the blinds last a long time. I use liquid nails or caulk to cut down on wasps an black widows, it helps some.

Here one of the problems is Rattle snakes denning under the blinds. I have run across them and two hunters found 36 under a fairly small blind.


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I was standing a blind on a hill back up, 5 rattlers under it. I was in shorts and flip flops. One was a five footer.

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how come they allways show up when you are in flipflops &shorts ?

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They just know. It was August 31. It was hot that day!

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I never hunted while sitting in a shooting house in my life. I get why some folks would employ such things- limited space to hunt, owning a small property and being forbidden to trespass on neighboring land, etc. Thankfully, having lived and hunted almost entirely on huge tracts of public land in the Appalachians I've been able to use the still hunt/sit a spell method, which is good because I would go batshit crazy sitting in one spot staring at the same scenery day after day year after year. Guarding the same trees for more than a couple hours drives me up a wall. Come to think of it, I only ever saw one such edifice in 50 years of prowling the woods of PA, MD, WVA, VA, and NY. I did sit in one in the Black Forest outside of Sankt Margens near Freiburg, Germany, but that was at the strict behest of the forester who controlled that neck of the woods. "When in Rome..."


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Lots of good suggestions, I can add painting the inside black and wearing a black Ninja style face mask. Makes you hard to spot as I have had several deer look right into the blind, looking to see if they can detect a hunter. The black interior makes detection harder and the face mask adds to concealment.

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Cross braces are needed if you go above 8 ft.
A concrete block in the ground with a cable tie down is a good idea in case of winds.
Stability is a good thing.

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Originally Posted by hanco
Glass windows or wood windows. Buzzards-owls are the worst!!!



House trailer bathroom windows work good.

Lay them down long ways. It’ll open half way to poke gun out.


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Originally Posted by tzone
I find 4x4 to be common and too small. I also find 6x6 a bit too big to see if the deer are close. So I'd go with 5x5 with the understanding you'll have some waste.

+1

An old office swivel chair works well.

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I couldn’t mention building a “Shooting House” without my wife wanting 2500’ sq feet, 2.5 baths a master bedroom and a kitchen loaded up with Wolfe appliances. Wouldn’t look out of place in field, if I painted it in camo. 😎


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I have office chairs in all of mine. Comfortable

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