[fabes468]

hey everyone, i have been wanting to build a blind in the swamp i hunt in, and i was wonderin if any of you intellegent folks know any good blind construction websites or ideas of your own that you would like to share with me and anyone else who might like this kind of info. it can be either portable or permenant blinds. any info at all would be helpfull. thanks

 

[duckdog]

Don't hunt much out of blind's but make sure you use the vegitation that is in your area for your blind. Seen alot of guy's use brush for a blind, and hunt the cattail's, it really stand's out, and look's bad. I made a portable one out of rerod, and wire mesh, put cattail's, and switch grass, tied together with zip strip's. Very light roll's up into a bundle, and easy to carry.

 

[Quackcephus]

If the water level fluctuates through out the year I would build a floatin' blind, that way it would never be underwater. Plus you could move it around some if you need to. :thumbsup:

 

[kiwismakebetterhunters]

keep it simple, strong and sturdy. Not too high for shorter mates and make it only as big as nessary and if it looks good youll be a pro...Its all about looking profesional .Another good idea is to lay chicken mesh on the floors to avoid slips and accidents. :thumbsup: [/img]

 

[RedDog]

We made a classic "piano blind" a few years ago, and it works great in the bog. It's the basic shape of an upright piano. We built a 5'(wide)x6'(long) deck, with an 18' high bench along the back wall. The back wall is 4 1/2' high, and supports a 3' wide slanted roof. The front 2' of the floor is the shooting area, with enough room to stand up and clear the front of the roof. The front wall is about 3 1/2' high. The whole thing is wrapped in chicken wire for camo. We put the door on one end, and a covered dog area and dog door on the other. Here are some pics of it, partially camo'ed - and one in full camo. Hope it helps. :salude:

 

[fabes468]

great pics reddog, there are a few trees in the middle of the area i hunt that i plan to build arround, to make it look a lil more realistic and the trees will add extra camo....hopefully. i think the wire mesh and chicken wire with vegetation wrapped arround it is a good idea. for some reason there is a lot of bambo that grows arround the swamp...strange, yet its good to hide in. this year we just sat in it, but it is hard to sit in for extened period of time becouse your legs would start to tingle from kneeling so much and its hard to quickly stand up in waders

 

[Rat Creek]

You can draw up your own plans. It is easy. Just follow normal framing standards. (16 or 24 inch centers) For a portable blind, I suggest you use PVC or some other type of plastic pipe. For a permanent blind, use treated wood.

A recycling center (like for cans) might have some materials you can buy for cheap. We bought an old aluminum pool skirt for an above ground pool for next to nothing. We covered two of our blinds with this and then camo painted it. Additional fresh material is added before the season.

We built a few permanent blinds two years ago. I highly recommend you build them in your garage or on your patio. Some place level with access to power and a refrigerator.

We built each wall individually and bolted them together. Once satisfied, we removed two nuts and bolts from each wall join, stacked the walls flat on a trailer and took them on site. When on site, all that was required was a couple of socket sets, and everything was back together in about an hour. It is very important to use a sharpie marker and label each wall. You may think it is obvious which wall is which, but once you drill holes for bolts, you better know which wall is which and which blind it goes with.

I don't think you can build blinds big enough. We store our water pumps, decoys, trap thrower etc in our blinds in the off season. During the season, we have enough room for all the gear, plus a dual burner camp stove. Two of our blinds are 12W x 8D. The other is 10W x 8D.

We didn't build benches. We let everyone bring their own chair, and have quite a selection from stools to camo sling chairs to a small church pew. In one blind we have two old recliners with camo covers. Everyone teases us about that until mid day when the hunting slows down and then they fight like dogs to get one of the recliners.

 

[RedDog]

Good point about disassembly / assembly, Rat Creek. We built ours in the driveway. I'm a fan of the nail gun, so we used that where possible - then used long screws (3") in the bottom plates of the walls, and in the corners, etc, for disassembly.

We put the stacked the walls, roof, and floor on the gunnels of the boat (we actually split the load between two boats), and headed for the swamp. Once there, all we needed was a pocket full of screws and a cordless driver.

We chose the size for ease of transport, and so it's just big enough for two guys and a cribbage board...

 

[Gooseboy]

dunno any, sorry but good luck! :thumbsup:

 

[texan68]

I just use 2 wooden pallets together sits 3-4 hunters. Make and attach a wooden bench, then make lattice walls. Then either weave grass in the lattice, add blind fabric, or in my case staple on palm tree branches.

 

[cursmello]

When I was a kid we would take a shovel w/ us to the marsh and dig a hole up to your knees. you could sit on your ass in the shallow water and surround your self w/ any vegitation that was gathered from 10-20 yards of your immediate vicinity being careful not to trample too much of the vegitation close by. The most important thing is don't move. haven't you ever been pickin up dekes and stopped, stood really still, and shot those ducks that were sneakin up on you? This works in warmer climates with short vegitation or flooded rice.