Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Homemade permanent deer blinds or purchase?

The foam probably does make it a bit quieter.

I'm thinking of myself in a few years, it's getting noticably worse.

Man how times have changed. When I started I remember the old Baker climber. One foot piece. Hug the tree and climb. Dangerous as hell. Most of us slid down a few times after the foot piece fell off your boots. That ain't fun.

Check out the blinds from Dillon Manufacturing. We have a number of them and some are over 15 years old without a issue

Dillons are good stuff. 15yrs no problems here too.

It makes sense to make it comfortable. You can stay all day if it’s crummy weather. It was raining last year, stayed in stand. I usually get out around 10 go back at 2:00, I had brought lunch, damn Aoudad showed up at 12:00 noon. I would have missed him if it was a sunny day.

Here is another thread on blinds with some details on the one I built, if you're interested.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/14237043/7

Here is the one we put up a couple of years ago. Hoping to get another up in next few weeks

That's ok, I don't mind being that guy.

Man. You can sleep in that!!

Yes, it is 5x7 on a 5x8 trailer. The interior is framed with aluminum B-22 Unistrut. Each wall is an individual panel. 8 clamps hold it together. The roof is 4 separate panels with leakproof joints.

The blind has seen many hunting areas. Last year I got tired of the tear-down reconstruct process. Spent last summer mounting it permanently to the trailer. Were I to do it again, the blind would be of wood frame construction in one piece on a dedicated trailer. Tired of all the muscle work.

The aluminum framed panels served me well over the decades. Broken down they stack roughly 10” tall. Not doing that anymore unless I’m forced to.

Kinda off the subject, but there was a fellow years ago that built a stand in the bottom that was 8x16. You got to understand that the fellow was kinda eccentric. I wont go into a bunch of details, but the stand was built on 6 cut off telephone poles. It was about 8-10 feet off the ground and had windows on all 4 sides. Furnished with a couch, table, and chairs, the fellow would stay however long it took to kill a deer. If it was a couple days, that was ok, he'd just spend the night and be ready the next morning. This was about 40 years ago and we called it the 'hotel'.

That made me laugh. Been there done that with the same.

Man, that thing needs A/C and heating, running water, etc.

DF

Back in my military flying days, a few miles from our home base in an area we frequently flew over this hunting club had at least ten blinds built with old VW car bodies - the old Beetles with the flexible moon roofs - mounted on a pair of power poles at least 25-30' high. I guess they had the choice of rolling down the window or standing up in the moon roof to shoot. The club was about 10,000 acres and we figured at least one of the members was in the junk car business and another had to be in the utility business.

Who makes the black round can ?....that looks simple

These guys make it and it doesn't leak as it's molded as one piece. I can't say that about the other blinds.

https://sportsmanscondo.com/

Thank you Sir !

I'm building one right now, or more accurately reworking/refurbishing an old one. The original owner made it from 2" 11ga. square tube of about 4' x 6' dimensions on a 10' tall stand made from 3" x 1/4" wall square tube. Heavy as heck!

He made the original front 3-facets, so the blind was actually a hexagon, and he sheathed it all with 1/2" plywood. It's lasted 8 years and was in rough shape. Plywood doesn't weather very well, and he had lots of exposed ends that allowed the water to penetrate the ply's. In addition, the half assed attempt at windows, left them prone to leaks, blowing open, PITA to open etc.

I've cut all the steel apart and made the blind a true 4' x 6' rectangle. I then framed for the door and windows using 1 1/2" 14ga. square tube and sloped the roof. It will get fitted with (2) 30" x 11.5" slider windows on the front, a 30" x 11.5" slider on each side and a 16" x 11.5" on the back, with a 24" x 60" door also on the back. All the doors and windows are from Deerview Windows and cost $552 total. These windows/doors mount from the outside and seal and cover any end grain of the window/door openings. I've used the same windows on some other blinds and they're top notch. I put a carpeted rest under each window, so your gun isn't resting on the metal window frame.

The blind will get sided this time with 7/16" LP siding panels. These panels have a surface coating/primer that holds paint and weather very well. The steel frame, interior and exterior will all get painted with Rustoleum oil based paint. BTW: equal parts of Rustoleum Rusty Red Metal Primer and Hunter Green Gloss paint make a perfect Satin Olive Drab color that goes on easily, lasts a long time and is easy to recoat/touchup. The outside blind corners will get painted galvanized 2" corner flashing to cover the corner end grains (the galvanized trim will get rubbed with vinegar to etch to hold paint). The roof will be shingled with appropriate drip edge.

The key to making homemade blinds last is using siding, not plywood, protecting all end grain and using good windows/doors.

This blind will get mounted on a 3' tall stand with skids (runners) and can be dragged on/off a trailer. It will get anchored when in place to prevent blow over. It will have steps/handrail to get in/out.

Estimated material costs:
$200 steel (1 1/2" square tube for framing the windows doors and a 20' stick of 2 3/8" pipe for the skid base)
$552 windows doors
$50 for self tapping/sealing screws and other self tap flush screws, tube of brown silicone caulk
$285 for LP siding panels
$100 for floor roof plywood
$40 shingles
$60 corner/roof flashing
$66 paint

$1350 total (Some of the steel from the original stand I was able to re-purpose, or I had as scrap/drop for the stairs etc.) Right now, I have 16- 20 manhours in 100+ degree heat building this thing by myself, but a good chunk of that was reworking/squaring the original steel. I have all of the framework steel completed and painted. I figure an additional 16- 20 manhours to complete. In reality, using square tube adds a bunch more labor to the welding, versus angle iron. But your fasteners aren't all poking through on the inside like angle iron.

When I priced material as above for a similar blind as stick built, material cost was $1100. But the labor using a chop saw/framing nailer etc. was probably 1/3 to 1/2.

Pricing new blinds (without a tower) would be $2300, figure with tax and building a base, you're looking at $2750 plus some of your time to fab the base)

In reality, I'd buy a good quality fiberglass blind from Dillon or Xtreme Blinds. and build my own base. Unless you enjoy/have time to build one right.

Half the reason I'm into this project is to keep the costs off the radar of my BIL's wife. He can hide $200- $300 expenses at a time.