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Floating blind

alloutdoors

By alloutdoors,
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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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Here's a project I've been working on, hope to get this out on the water and start getting pictures from it in the next few weeks. This will be used while wearing waders in relatively shallow water. Tomorrow all the seams and joints are getting filled with marine epoxy paste and then the bottom and sides will be sealed with Coat-It. The top deck will get a few layers of poly. After that I will be building a frame out of PVC to support a camo cover. When I'm all done this should more or less look like a muskrat house to any ducks or other critters I want to sneak up on. My camera and lens will be about 8" over the water which will provide a very unique eye-level perspective when shooting waterfowl. Stay tuned.

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Foam cut to fit.

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This is from the bottom after cutting the opening in the foam and framing the cockpit area. The 4x4 in the center of the bow area is what anchors the camera mount.

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Quick release plate for my gimbal mount.

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Bottom deck installed, ready to be sealed.

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With the camera mounted.

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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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Time to update this. Sealing took longer than planned. Cure time for the Coat-It is supposed to be 12 hours at 70° but when the weather turned cool it was more like 48+ hours. We finally got one last day that went back up to about 80° so I dumped the rest on the night before (almost half the can), dragged it out in the driveway before I went to work the next morning, and it was cured and bone dry when I got home.

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Then the top was sealed with poly.

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And painted.

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Frame for camo.

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Conducted sea trials this morning, worked great!

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It's plenty buoyant and stable. I'm going to start bringing a paddle in the future, I wouldn't hesitate to cross a small body of water on it.

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Didn't have anything terribly interesting to shoot this morning, but here is a beaver lodge to show the unique perspective you get with the camera this close to the water.

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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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Almost time to get this thing in the water. A lot of the ponds and marshes around here were starting to open up but they have refrozen after the big storm, won't be long now though. My mother in-law finished up the cover a few weeks ago and we were out there this weekend so I was able to pick it up and bring the blind home. Can't wait to get out and chase some ducks this spring!

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The flap over the middle section secures into place with four strong magnets (1/2" rare-earth disc magnets).

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If I want to get to the far side of a pond and need to cross water too deep to wade through I can open the flap, pop out the forward support rib of the rear section, and hop up on the deck and paddle it like a canoe.

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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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Nicely done! Will you use flippers in the summer to follow birds? or try mounting a small electric trolling motor?


I spent some time paddling it yesterday with a canoe paddle, but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Because the blind is perfectly flat it just wants to move directly away from wherever you are paddling, so it kind of travels on a diagonal and also wants to spin. Next time out I'm going to try a kayak paddle, which should let me keep it more or less moving in the direction I want. A trolling motor would be more trouble than it's worth. It really works best using the Flintstone method.
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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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Sweet dude!

I was out yesterday laying on the flooded pond shore in wet goose crap trying to accomplish this same thing,lol

 

Thankfully I didn't have to lay in any goose poop. I did have a few leeches crawling around on my waders though. The first beaver that tries to climb onboard I'll probably scream like a little girl.

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alloutdoors Newbie

alloutdoors

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How about divers flippers?


If I take it into a creek, or a lake with a rocky bottom, then maybe. I can't imagine the nightmare it would be in a marsh like where I was yesterday between the muck and bumping into sunken logs and stumps every two steps. I didn't really design the opening to have my feet trailing behind me either.
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Culvercreek hunt club Enthusiast

Culvercreek hunt club

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17 minutes ago, alloutdoors said:

 


If I take it into a creek, or a lake with a rocky bottom, then maybe. I can't imagine the nightmare it would be in a marsh like where I was yesterday between the muck and bumping into sunken logs and stumps every two steps. I didn't really design the opening to have my feet trailing behind me either.

 

Might want to consider adding a nylon web hammock seat and using the paddle pusher style ankle fins. might help in the short local deep water crossings. 

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