Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Raised box blinds - with the cost of plywood, etc build or buy?

Raised blinds - with the cost of plywood, etc is a factory built blind cheaper?

Looking at adding a raised platform blind on my property and had thought of building it BUT with the cost of wood products a cheap wood blind is no longer cheap!

What's the best alternative?

I would buy a poly box of some type.

Will cost more up front but you wont be replacing wood rot every few years.

Wood is cheaper and will last a few years if properly taken care of, I have been in some over 10 years old and fine . The factory built blind will be more comfortable especially in really cold weather.

Need 8 sheets to rebuild one on my place. Figure $500 or so. Hardware needed, guessing $100. New windows that will hopefully be water tight another $350. Total around $950 on an existing steel frame. Redneck with stand is around $3500. No doubt it is way better but sill another $2500 more than my calculation. Figure I'll rebuild it once and then in a few years replace it with a good one from Redneck or 360. Its a great spot and needs a comfortable place to spend a day on it.

Built several raised blinds 6'x6' wood and 1/2" plywood in 1998 cost $0 just my time to build.....got all materials for free.....very little maintenance over the years.....

Keep the wood painted, it will last a long time. I build frames out of metal, fug wood for platforms. This stand is 15 yrs old, needs paint again. I like them 4x4.



Built two of these spring 2020, 5’6” x 4’. Cost 800.00 apiece for metal and wood, etc.


where's the nearest suntrust bank

I built a 6x6x8 platform and put a Ground Blind on top.Put it on 1 month before season,take it down shortly after season ends.
It's nothing fancy used landscape timbers for legs,2x4 for all braces and plywood on top.

You previously posted your shooting houses, they look great.

I've had this idea for a long time. The new pre-fab blinds are outrageously expensive for a box on legs. I looked into it...you can buy a used porta-potti for a few hundred dollars, including the extra large handicap versions. Add in $100 worth of bleach and spray paint and you have a poly/plastic blind, weather proof, with door. Add windows and legs as desired.

They are hardly 3’x3 foot.

Standard portapotti size is 44" wide, 48 deep, 89 tall. ADA units are 65 wide, 92 deep, and 95 tall. Standard is clearly doable with a rifle, and ADA with multiple rifle shooters or archery.

Theft of Porta Potty’s gonna increase in the South. 😜

Build a frame out of old scrap wood and cover with those cheap camo tarps from Surplus stores. Cheap and works great for a temporary blind.

Never seen an ADA cshitter

thanks for the input, starting with a new (to me) property with no scrap lumber since the sellers cleanup everything so it would look good to sell.

I do like the ideal of putting a pop up blind on a platform for a quickie blind for this year.

Pop up blinds aren’t a bad option either.

If plywood is to expensive, check out a local mill and rough cut lumber. Around here we have a few Amish outfits and the price is less than half of a Lowes/HD. Another option for siding is tin roofing.

Check out the Fiberglass models.

Years previous they were “expensive”.

Now, lumber prices as they are, the fiberglass models may be more affordable.

I have a place near me that makes metal roofing and was able to buy some cut offs for 1/2 price and that's what I made mine from. 4x4 legs and 2x4 frame and covered outside and top with metal. It's ugly but it was cheap and the deer don't seem to mind.

build it right and take care of and it will last and last and last