Elevated soft side blind

[MarkDarvin]

I started building my own blinds about 4 years ago. I've made some modifications from the original version. I make them out of 2x3's and there is no floor. Once it's stud framed, I just wrap it in landscape fabric, and I make a door out of 1x4, some truss plates, and brass hinges (be sure to pop your hinge pins and grease them with #2 boat grease). Bend some 1/2" plywood over a stood up 2x4 on top and it's a crowned roof.

I then build a soil plateau to set it on. It doesn't get me very high in the air, maybe 2-3', but it gets me above the ground clutter. I then put landscape fabric down on top of the dirt pad, and then put cedar wood chips over that. The cedar is a nice cover scent, a pleasant blind scent, and eliminates all squeaking and creaking and scratching from a platform or climbing a ladder.

The first one was built for $165. It's probably $250 now thanks to inflation. But this works great for me.



This pad isn't maybe 18" high, but it is enough to keep me above the ground clutter, and leaves me with a flat trajectory shot at the targets.

 

[pinetag]

I started building my own blinds about 4 years ago. I've made some modifications from the original version. I make them out of 2x3's and there is no floor. Once it's stud framed, I just wrap it in landscape fabric, and I make a door out of 1x4, some truss plates, and brass hinges (be sure to pop your hinge pins and grease them with #2 boat grease). Bend some 1/2" plywood over a stood up 2x4 on top and it's a crowned roof.

I then build a soil plateau to set it on. It doesn't get me very high in the air, maybe 2-3', but it gets me above the ground clutter. I then put landscape fabric down on top of the dirt pad, and then put cedar wood chips over that. The cedar is a nice cover scent, a pleasant blind scent, and eliminates all squeaking and creaking and scratching from a platform or climbing a ladder.

The first one was built for $165. It's probably $250 now thanks to inflation. But this works great for me.

View attachment 25618View attachment 25619

This pad isn't maybe 18" high, but it is enough to keep me above the ground clutter, and leaves me with a flat trajectory shot at the targets.

View attachment 25620

I like a lot of the aspects of your setup! Cheap, simple, and quiet. A couple of questions though. Do you ever get winded? It seems landscape fabric wouldn’t do much to control scent. Do the wood chips make a lot of noise when adjusting your feet? Also, is this light enough to move if you wanted to? Really appreciate your ingenuity!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Drycreek]

You can’t see much of mine, but I built four of these from cattle panels turned in a circle. Plywood floors covered in I/O carpet, the same on the wall. Camo netting covers the windows. I have three of them on 2.5’ tall platforms and one on a ten foot quadpod. I bow hunted from them for several years and now I still use them but for gun hunting. At ranges under 100 yrds a shooting stick is all I need.

 

[MarkDarvin]

I like a lot of the aspects of your setup! Cheap, simple, and quiet. A couple of questions though. Do you ever get winded? It seems landscape fabric wouldn’t do much to control scent. Do the wood chips make a lot of noise when adjusting your feet? Also, is this light enough to move if you wanted to? Really appreciate your ingenuity!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Never get winded. If the wind isn't right, I won't hunt that spot. The fabric isn't air tight, but it's an improvement over being out in the open.

Wood chips don't make any noise at all. It's crazy how quiet the no-floor set up is.

Moving them is very easy. I just grab some chunks of firewood and prop the blind up so I can slide pallet forks underneath. My blinds are 70 inches by 70 inches (so it'd fit into a skid steer bucket). I would build them, but not wrap them. I'd brace it all really well then load in the skidder bucket, strap it to the roof to hold the front end up, and drive it to where it's gonna go. Then I'd put the fabric on in the woods. I will also rent a skid steer and get pallet fork extensions to move blinds. I don't move mine often, so this doesn't happen too much

You could just as easily cut a hole in the fabric and move it with the bucket like I did before it was wrapped, but you'd have to drive backwards because you couldn't see in front of you. Staple a new chunk of fabric on where you made your hole.

 

[pinetag]

As I prepare for the season, I went ahead and set up my floor on the platform and tied the blind to it. Turned out pretty well I think

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

As I prepare for the season, I went ahead and set up my floor on the platform and tied the blind to it. Turned out pretty well I think

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very nice. I've been using indoor/outdoor carpet in my homebrew blinds. I've been using office chairs and they role pretty smoothly on it. I like the idea of those interlocking fatigue mats, but I'm not sure how well the chairs would roll. I think I have some of those around, I'll give it a try.

 

[pinetag]

Very nice. I've been using indoor/outdoor carpet in my homebrew blinds. I've been using office chairs and they role pretty smoothly on it. I like the idea of those interlocking fatigue mats, but I'm not sure how well the chairs would roll. I think I have some of those around, I'll give it a try.

Yea, those chairs are definitely the go to for large box blinds. When me and my daughter hunted from the ground, we just packed in those little over the shoulder packable chairs so I figured we’d do the same here. Hopefully it works well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Yea, those chairs are definitely the go to for large box blinds. When me and my daughter hunted from the ground, we just packed in those little over the shoulder packable chairs so I figured we’d do the same here. Hopefully it works well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've made my box blinds in different sizes. I'm pretty big. I've tried 8x8, 6x8, and 6x6. 6x6 works well for me if I'm hunting by myself. 6x8 works well if I'm taking out a kid or new hunter. I only tried the 8x8 because the cost isn't much more than a 6x8. I found no real advantage for taking out a kid. I did find that I could shoot a vertical bow better from it as I could back up from window when standing to the right distance. Now that my shoulder won't support a vertical bow and I'm hunting with a crossbow, 6x6 works well.

 

[Drycreek]

I have a couple fiberglass blinds that are 5.5 x 5.5 and I can easily hunt two people, but I rarely have another person with me. I did take my ex son-in-law a couple times and we had plenty of room. (I should have left his sorry behind in the woods to feed with the other pigs, but that’s another story)

 

[ken nikiel]

we used carpet squares i got from work….they were replacing carpet and tossing the old stuff. rubber backed indoor/outdoor carpet, 2’x2’ squares and best of all it was FREE!!

 

[pinetag]

I ended up getting a Primal elevated blind from Sportsman’s Guide for a second setup along the pasture. I put it together last week and it looks like a decent blind, but due to a drill mishap…it cost me a trip to the ER and a few stitches for a busted upper lip. You can see the nice 90 degree cut from the corner of the drill handle. I hope this new setup provides some good opportunities this year to make up for the “pain and suffering”! Lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Ouch!

 

[Drycreek]

I bet that smarts !

 

[pinetag]

It actually hurt more a couple days after than it did that day. It’s healing up pretty good now. Can’t wait to sit the blind in the coming weeks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk