I get no respect

[warbirdlover]

I'm being made "sport of" by my SIL and brother in regards to the new deer blind I built this year. Here is the blind as it sits......

and the second pic is what they think I should do with it!!

[5.45 Shooter]

HaHa, It does kinda look like a food stand!
Do you stand up all the time you hunt, shooting windows look a little high?
Put a little camo on it, tack some branches to the sides, as long as you can sit in it with out making much noise, it should work.
I have found with my pop-up blinds if I lean branches over it, that breaks up the square box look & the animals don't mind coming a little closer to it.
I would think the plywood glue smell would run off most of the animals, you don't see much plywood growing in the woods.
But Good Luck with it anyway!

[JerryM]

I guess the days when hunters hunted are over.
Jerry

[MOshooter65202]

Haha 2funny you got a food handlers card for that deer blind

[rickyrick]

I think its just dandy that you built your own blind, were I a deer hunter I would probably build my own too.

[Shotgun693]

When you get old enough or beat up enough occasionally sitting in a blind is nice.

[mo84]

As long as you bring home deer it dont matter how the blind looks. Your prices seem reasonable also Out in the open hunting isn't what its cracked up to be

[HALL,AUSTIN]

When its cold and you are warm or when it snows/rains and your dry who cares. Is my deer any more dead because i hunt from the ground? Heck no it isnt. All that matters is the comfort and practicality IMHO. And if you like it then its great man. I think its nice... looks dry, so long as you dont blare music from it then you should be fine

[warbirdlover]

I guess the days when hunters hunted are over.
Jerry

Sitting in a blind or on stand is the only way you'll get a deer in Wisconsin. Unless you believe in deer drives which I hate. I don't think it gets to -30º F. in NM does it? Ever have to walk on snow shoes in 3' level snow with 6' drifts? Maybe mountains? Also 64 years old and falling apart. Enough reasons yet? And the main reason is you can't hunt the way you do all over this country. You walk around in Wisconsin you're gonna have all the hunters PO'd at you for scaring all the deer from their natural movements. We have 6 hunters on 120 acres which is considered deer hunting Heaven in Wisconsin! Go on public land and see if you can find anywhere without a bright, orange, glowing hunter sitting there.

And I was going to paint it all black, put some wagon wheels on it and hook up a horse and have a "moveable Amish blind"!! I don't stand all the time. I've got a tall swivel bar stool in there.

Plan is to paint it camo this summer (vertical tree like stripes). This isn't like the wilderness of out west. There are farms, house, barns, corn fields, and plywood buildings or blinds all over the area. The deer are not alarmed at the smell of plywood or paint etc. Neither are the wolves and this year the cougar we had on the land.

[warbirdlover]

This blind replaced an older, beat up blind that was there for years. I've taken two nice 17" spread 9 pointers off that stand and the year before I got on the lease this buck was taken not 10 feet from the stand. So close the guy couldn't even use his sights!

The second deer was taken this year on the stand closest to mine. He came from my direction.. Opening day the wind was all wrong and I'm betting he caught me.

[603Country]

The blind looks fine. I think it might have been you that was asking in an earlier thread about what kind of roof it needed. I suggested corrugated tin and still feel that way, but looks like have a decent hide with a serviceable wooden roof. You might want to add sliding plexiglas windows so that you can block the evil cold winds that blow on some days.

I think that my buddy and I built the worst blinds in history. He had some surplus panels from a factory air moving system. The 4x8 panels were sheet tin. We build the blinds out of that - roof, walls, and all. They'll probably last 1000 years, but every time you twitched a muscle in those blinds, the metal panels gave off a bong or clang. And God help you if you accidentally hit the wall with your metal rifle barrel. But it sounded like such a good idea for blind building materials when we started....

[theyallhurt]

I LIKE IT!

[warbirdlover]

The blind looks fine. I think it might have been you that was asking in an earlier thread about what kind of roof it needed. I suggested corrugated tin and still feel that way, but looks like have a decent hide with a serviceable wooden roof. You might want to add sliding plexiglas windows so that you can block the evil cold winds that blow on some days.

I think that my buddy and I built the worst blinds in history. He had some surplus panels from a factory air moving system. The 4x8 panels were sheet tin. We build the blinds out of that - roof, walls, and all. They'll probably last 1000 years, but every time you twitched a muscle in those blinds, the metal panels gave off a bong or clang. And God help you if you accidentally hit the wall with your metal rifle barrel. But it sounded like such a good idea for blind building materials when we started....

603Country

I went the cheap route on the roof. Three 4X8 sheets of 1/2" playwood, braced and roofing paper (sealed) on it. Dry as a bone inside. Brothers stand is sheet tin. But he's now got wood bracing in it and insulation inside so it's not noisy. Wood floor also. The plexiglass is still on the project list. The plywood "windows" and door will be braced up before I get to that. If there's a nasty wind coming from one direction I'll close that window. No deer is going to come with the wind behind him anyway. We're in an oak woods and when the wind blows the acorns come down like rain.... on my brother's tin roof! LOUD!! But the deer are used to that noise also.

[mo84]

ive heard of people useing serann wrap for windows, they just shoot right through it. just a thought

[BIGR]

Nice blind, a great place to be especially in bad weather. At least they did not put an outhouse sign on it....

[Art Eatman]

"I guess the days when hunters hunted are over."

Yeah, well, we all know that some are immortal and never age. However, getting old beats the alternative--and if you live through your foolishness, you'll get old.

And grownups generally don't have any respect for juvenile arrogance. It's considered underwhelming...

[Buzzcook]

Venison tacos, yummy.

[Discern]

WBL,

Nice looking blind, and it is good to hear your brother and SIL have a sense of humor. Maybe your brother could cook your stand food on the tin roof of his blind and deliver it to your blind. One thing that appears to be missing is the smoke stack for your wood/corn burner.

Are mountain lions and wolves protected in WI? Does WI allow coyote hunting at night? If they allow coyote hunting at night, your stand would be a nice place to do it. However, it might create too much hunting pressure in the area and the deer may change their travel routes.

Please do a future posting after you have it painted. If you have some extra time, you can build one for me for my Christmas present. :-)

[rtpzwms]

Still missing the neon "OPEN" sign!

[Kreyzhorse]

I like it. I'm a ground hunter in Kentucky but there are times I wouldn't mind sitting in a well made blind. Considering the temps you guys are faced with up there, I would guess blinds are almost a requirement.

Update some pictures when you get it done.

[shortwave]

I get no respect

warbirdlover, aka... 'the Rodney Dangerfield of Wisconsin'

I'll be building some new stands/re-doing some existing ones throughout the property this coming year. I may call on ya for some carpentry tips.

What kind of heater do ya use?

Kudo's to you for still getting out and doing your thing. Hope you have many more years to come.

Happy New Year!

[warbirdlover]

Thanks all. I've got a 25 gal propane tank with one of those heaters that sit on top of it. I don't use it all that much but when needed it's nice.

Here's one of the bucks I got from the old stand in this same location... I had a six pointer "bed down" not 50 yards from my stand a couple years ago. I now pass on bucks like the two I've gotten (pic below of one of them). Both of those were almost identical and I've let probably four or five like them go. We don't shoot does or small bucks on this land and the size of the bucks and racks are starting to really get huge.

Wolves and cougars are protected in Wisconsin. Wolves might have just been taken off that protected list but the DNR hasn't set up hunting rules on them. I don't know if you can hunt yotes at night but we have shot alot of them during the day (during deer hunting week) over the years! This year no one saw any yotes. We figure the wolves and cougar got 'em all. All I know is if I'm ever threatened by wolves or cougars they're going to die. One of the guys had a "close encounter" going to his blind in the dark. He was about to get in and had something growling and snarling right by him. He turned on the flashlight and it was the cougar not 10 feet away. He couldn't get in his blind fast enough.

[Discern]

Watch out for those big cats and wolves. For a long time where I am originally from, the game and fish dept. denied they existed.

Here is something to consider that you may already be doing - take an adult male when they have an inferior rack. This will help eliminate the genes for a smaller rack from the deer population. It will really help if you can get others in your area to do the same thing.

Any CWD in your area?

[603Country]

Warbirdlover, on the windows that I use in my blinds I have finally gotten pretty good at knowing what I want and building it. You can add the windows by building the window assembly at the house and then easily installing it (or them) at the blind. I just make a open box out of 2X4's and use a table saw to cut two lengthwise grooves (about 1/4 inch apart) in the top and the bottom 2X4's. If the window is 4 feet long, I cut four 12 inch plexiglass windows. Stagger them in the grooves and you can just slide the middle panes out to the sides. Gives you 2 feet of opening to shoot from, and you can slide the panes closed as much as you like to block the wind. Then just take the assembly, which you sized wide enough to fit the front or the sides of the blind and put it in place with screws (through the plywood into the frame or through the frame into the side support boards.

Make the grooves a bit wider than necessary so the panes won't get stuck when the 2X4's get wet and swell. Make the top grooves 1/2 inch deeper than needed so that the panes can be lifted and removed when necessary.

I prefer this method to the 'all open' or 'all closed' type windows.

[warbirdlover]

Watch out for those big cats and wolves. For a long time where I am originally from, the game and fish dept. denied they existed.

Here is something to consider that you may already be doing - take an adult male when they have an inferior rack. This will help eliminate the genes for a smaller rack from the deer population. It will really help if you can get others in your area to do the same thing.

Any CWD in your area?

Discern

If we ever would find a big deer with a lousy rack we would take it but so far the small racks are on small deer that haven't yet grown up. See the pics of the deer that came off this land back farther in this thread. And CWD is still south of us and not moving up very fast yet.

603Country, my brother did his windows exactly as you described. Good idea. Thanks.