Good or Bad Idea Groundblind??

[88GW]

I have a spot where the deer walk down the middle of a field consistently where there are no large trees to put a stand in and very thick scrub brush on the edge.  My thought was to build a homemade ground blind constructed of some pallets as the frame, roofing paper lined so it is dark inside and old christmas trees with various brush and limbs to cover the pallet.  My hope is to have it be permanent so the deer get use to it and allow me a shot as they walk through the field. Anyone have any insight on this from your own experience or someone elses?

[88GW]

[88GW]

something like this

[Merlot]

Maybe a blind near where the deer enter the field? May work better.

[growalot]

From a person that has brush blinds all over the size of tool sheds...it's a good idea but...nix the roofing paper...as I recall I have never seen roofing paper that didn't give off a smell when warm. Buy a cheap camo tarp from a freight store( can't recall name to save my life) ha! that made me remember...Harbor freight.

[Buckmaster7600]

I have a spot similar to what you described. What I did was build a blind on an old trailer that I got for free. I park it 30yds out in the field and leave it there all year and move it when cutting the hay. Deer got accustomed to it very quickly and often lay under it in the summer. I have killed a few deer from it but it is often just my rainy day spot because it's dry.


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[stubborn1VT]

Homemade round bale blind would probably do the trick.  Plenty of DIY info online.  I'm hoping to build one out of electrical conduit and 2x4s this year.  I will place it in an open hayfield between a couple power poles.  The tall grass that grows around the poles provide a bit of cover, and the deer and turkeys hang close to it.  I'm hoping to customize the windows so I can comfortably shoot my bow out of it.  I don't truly need a blind that looks like a round bale, but I've always wanted to build one.  Plus, I'm thinking it will last longer than a pop-up.  My 2 cents.

[growalot]

This is my packing crate blind...though I put it up on a tower because I had a drop off I wanted to get a full view of..shot a few deer in that drop off...built 2010 and still dry...though this year some fixes are needed ..new roof and wall repair to the card board...squirrels....chewed above the windows

Edited March 24, 2017 by growalot

[grampy]

Over the years, I've built dozens of natural ground blinds. Just using what I'd find lying on the ground nearby. Usually with a large tree, upturned root ball or log as a backstop.  This is how I hunt 75% of the time now. To see the deer on their level and to have them at times, literally close enough to touch is simply amazing to me. In productive spots, I'll have more than one, for changes in wind direction. I can be very mobile as well, to keep up with the changes in deer movement, stage of the rut, or a change in food sources or weather patterns. And it seems my success rate and enjoyment, have both risen, since I came out of the trees!

[Doc]

I have been down out of the trees for quite a few years now. I cannot say that it has improved my success rate any. In fact it has been a bit of a handicap. However, it has improved the excitement level immensely. There is something about taking on the deer at ground level, eyeball-to-eyeball that sends the old adrenaline right through the top of my head .. lol. Knowing that one slight error, careless movement, sloppy bow draw, or wayward drift of the wind, can blow the whole deal (and often does) really puts on some extreme pressure unlike anything I ever experienced up in the tree-tops.

My stands are always constructed of fallen trees, limbs and other sturdy natural materials. These stands have to season a bit (about a year) to be the most effective, and usually they are built strong enough so that they can be used a few years without any further disturbance. They are pretty good sized so that they form a wall wide enough and tall enough that I can sit or stand behind them, draw my bow and let the deer walk across into a shooting lane without my having to move at all, or just slightly and slowly lean out the side slightly to get the shot off. These stands have been designed for bow hunting, but have been productive during gun season too.

 Picture taken from the deer trail. Shot distance is exactly 20 yards. behind this stand is a ravine with 200' straight down rock walls. It forms a rough sort of pinch point. that the deer tend to follow.

What you can't see is an old pole-line road exactly 20 yards out from the stand, that ran from the main highway in the valley up the hill (about 2 miles) and back to an old dirt road behind my property. The pole-line road has faded out pretty well now and looks more like an ATV trail with old rusty wires draped through the tree-tops and some old ceramic insulators nailed into fallen and rotten electric poles About 1940's vintage. The deer have taken over the road now and it has become a rut, food, and bedding route through the woods. This one has been very productive  and is remote enough to make some very mature deer feel very secure here.

Deer's eye view of my stand. No, don't even try..... you can't see it.

My view of the deer trail from the same stand as above, through one of the shooting lanes. The trails run perpendicular so that deer are moving crosswise and offering a broadside shot.

For gun only stands I use a different design which is basically waist and roughly constructed in a "log cabin" fashion such that  all walls form gun rests as shown below:

built for comfort.....This is a stand that covers a very reliable escape route on opening morning and is a plateau about half-way up the hill. It's about as close to a guaranteed spot as I have ever seen. The best thing is that it is about 1000' up the hill behind our house which makes for a very nice drag home. That's something that is getting more important with each passing year ....... lol.

 

 

Edited March 24, 2017 by Doc

[wolc123]

My favorite ground blinds are made from old construction-style truck caps.  These have fold-out sides and ladder racks on top.   On the first one I made, I built a 3 ft high, 3-sided wall, slightly smaller than the cap, on the deck of an old snowmobile trailer.  The cap is bolted down on top of that wall.   I would park that thing out in the center of a field, such as you describe, in the spring and the deer would get used to it by fall.  I have killed a lot of deer out of those, actually more than from tree stands over the last 10 years.   They are really nice on windy, cold, or rainy days (especially all of those combined).   Those old truck caps are extremely durable (unlike those cheap pop-up blinds they sell these days).   

Eventually that snowmobile trailer rusted out, too bad to move, so I parked it in a hedgerow, blocked it up, and reinforced the floor.  I added a second level up on the ladder rack, and another 3 foot high wall on three sides, making it a two-story.  Last fall, I killed a 2-1/2 year old buck from the upper deck, during archery season.  That was the first of (3) from that blind last year.  On opening morning of gun season, my buddy killed a fine, fat BB from up there.   I was snug and warm in the lower level that afternoon, when a big doe showed up at the BB's gut pile at milking time, and soon got to meet up with her son and husband in "deer heaven" (our freezer).     

[grampy]

Doc, I really like your blinds! Seems we are very similar in our hunting set up's.  Some nice deer have been taken in each of these over the years. Hopefully my grandson will get his first deer, from one of these. As they are all set up for two now.

Edited March 24, 2017 by grampy

[88GW]

Blue path is where deer usually walk from fields to woods or vice versa. Yellow dots are property boundaries. Pink dots are current stands. X represents where I want to build ground blind. It is thick scrub brush in that area even though aerial doesnt show it. 

[Billdogge]

Any of you guys taking deer out of those natural ground blinnds with a bow? If so show them off! That's a real accomplishment. 

I hunt out of them a lot with the gun but usually get picked off drawing with the bow. Might give it a try again this year

[G-Man]

I find landscaping fabric is a great blind material.. Keeps wind and water out but lest you hear through it..last about 3 years in the Sun but a fifty foot roll is cheap enough to replace.. Will last longer as a liner or if other matrial coves it

[88GW]

Has anyone used shoot through mesh or screen material from Lowes so you can draw without getting busted?