I'm sold on ground blinds

After hunting from a ground blind most of this season, I don't know why I didn't try one long ago. I bought one before last season and decided to use it this season to overlook a food plot that I have always hunted from a tripod. With the area around the food plot now overgrown so high that it would have required placing a tripod too close, I opted to put up the ground blind back in the brush but still close enough that I could still see the entire plot. While the deer still appeared somewhat wary of it, I ended up seeing a lot more deer than during those earlier years when hunting from a tripod. It really seemed to blend in to the surroundings much better than myself sitting in an open tripod.

Dog House Deer Blind

They truly work.
I have hunted out of them for years.
This year I built an elevated platform and tied down the ground blind to the top.
It was awesome! Great views and much cheapier than purchasing or building a box blind.

Bugs eat me alive. Really, for whatever reason, they will fly past everyone else and chew on me. I've found that the Thermocell / ground blind combination will allow me to hunt almost anywhere without fear or undue suffering. I'm sold on them too.

Will the thermocell repel wasps? My ground blind was covered in them until 2nd week of dec.

Ground blinds are usually my go to except when I'm bow hunting. I've even bow hunted out of them a couple times.

I used my ThermaCell just once in my ground blind this season and would swear it left some residue on the inside surface of my blind that continued to work for days if not weeks afterward.

One thing I do with ground blinds is put cedar branches all around them. Does two things: 1) conceals the blind and breaks up the "square" appearance 2) covers scent to a degree...especially when you have two people in there. Don't get me wrong, you still have the hunt the wind, but cedar is very effective on those light to no wind days.

Thanks Dan.

I've always preferred ground blinds over most I do love my towers but I hate tripods and tree stands unless I'm bow hunting I like to be on the ground like God intended man to be. Plus I can take my 5 & 3 year old daughters with me in a ground blind I'm not comfortable with them climbing into an elevated blind yet.

We have several of each, but I honestly prefer the tripod

I will use one if I have to, but it honestly drives me nuts not to be able to see but a small slice of what's going on around me. Plus I believe treestands are much more stealthy/unobtrusive.

agree, and drawing a bow on ground level with game within 20-25 yards can be very tough, hope for some good hard wind.

No argument there. Still, most ground blinds have windows on all sides that can be opened for watching all around you.

I must admit that I was a liitle wary this season of what may have found crawled up in my ground blind when opening it, especially on a dark morning. And then, thinking that having a 300 pound boar standing a few feet away and not knowing it can work on the nerves as well. That is, when you know all that separates you is thin cloth.

I only use them occassionally bowhunting. To have any hope of killing a deer from a ground blind in east TX, only one window can be open so they will not catch you when you draw. That means you can't see an animal until they are right on top of you. If they are on the move at all you can forget it. They are a huge handicap.

I am thinking about using them a little more during rifle season in a couple of spots where I don't have blinds. If I do, I am going to put them out well before the season so as to let the deer get used to them.

I hunted out of one most of this year and I liked it. I always take the "fresh earth" scent spray and spray it down real good before I hunt out of it and I hang a couple of the fresh earth wafers inside it while hunting.

Sound drives me nutz as much as sight.....I have a hard time hearing what is around me inside the ground blind. Lots of draw backs, but many upsides...as stated above, I hunt out of one with my daughter a lot. I have taken several does from them, but never a buck.

I had an 8 sneak up on me, never heard it.... came up from a blind spot, when I peaked out of the window to check things out, he was about 20 feet away from me. Startled both of us and off he went!

I love both my ground blinds and I also have a spot or 2 I sit on the ground
elevation has it advantages though and in some cases its even a must

Those ameristep ones are garbage, in my opinion. Last about a year and start falling apart.

Must be rifle hunting, you might have a different opinion if bow hunting, it could get very tough.

I have a Midwest Haybale blind and love it. I have set it up in a location where the deer can only come from in front of me. I only use one window and it has worked great for me so far. I always have corn out in front of me and use a road feeder to let the deer know it is there. I bow hunted and use my x-bow out of mine.

What do the cows do if anything? I think one of them would work better than a popup if there is round bales in the area.

I do not have cattle right now. They would destroy it if they could get to it I would think. You would have to keep it in an pasture that had not cattle or the cattle could be fenced off of it. I have never had any round bales on this place since I have had but sure my neighbor to the north has fed them so cattle know what they are. They adapt very quickly to mine. I put it out and had deer eating corn within 25 yards of it in 2-3 days. My setup was good with S, SE, NE and N winds. I never got winded by any deer and did have a deer two or three times detect movement or hear the chair squeak. They did not bolt, just stared me down and none of them run off with most of them staying till the corn was gone.

Kinda what I figured.

When I get cattle I will put it in a pasture with no cattle in it during the hunting season or put up a temporary fence around it.

Best type blind depends on the environment where your going to hunt. This year setting up a camo tarp/w chair on game trails seemed to work best for me. Box blinds at feeders didn't work as deer just let corn pile up. Tripod stand good for does and coyotes. Always being mindful of wind direction.

I use them but they are all back in the treeline up on a platform 14 feet off the ground.



Platform is 8x8 with a 2 foot wide L shaped walkway on 2 sides of the blind. Platform also has a swing out lift and winch for getting gear and coolers up and down. Very comfortable and easy to spend an entire day.

I have a Doghouse too, they are nice, I use mine when I bring my kids with me, most of the time I use my aluminum climber, I hunt the tall pinywoods timbers of east Texas. Got to get above the thicket lines and brambles.