I have been working on an octagon bow blind. I planned on elevating it but I found an awesome place at one of my favorite spots on the ground. Its also one of my favorite rifle hunting spots so I have concerns about messing up my spot. My octagon is set up to only shoot from the front 3 "sides" while I remain well back from any windows.

Anyone have any experience on hunting ground blinds up close? It just seems like a ground blind at 25 yards from the feeder, even well concealed, would attract to much attention.

Killed a deer at about 8 yards out of my pop up and it was not nearly as concealing as you can get out of a permanent octagon. I would say your overthinking it.

A new blind that is put in when a new feeder goes in is just normal to them. My biggest concern was the amount of time I spend in one set location. The blind really needs to be airtight to keep you scent inside it. Paint the inside black also. Tint or cover the windows. If someone can drop you off and pick you up to use a vehicle to run the deer so they do not associate you with the blind will help. To much foot traffic and scent around the feeder day after day thru the season is not going to be a good thing.

I think you'll be just fine. Like ranchman said, limit your time and ALWAYS keep in mind wind direction. It never hurts to experiment with a ground blind, but if you have a good deer coming in on game cam, you don't want to hunt that area until conditions, (wind mostly) are right.

Thanks guys! I do tend to over think things sometimes.

I typically set up a lot of bow stands and only hunt them once or twice during bow season. I think Ill give this spot a try.

The sooner you get the blind setup the better. I would also tuck it into the brush for better concealment.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for ya.

I hunt out of pop up blinds. Some deer are more skittish than others on new set ups but most of them seem to get used to them after a week or two.

Was hunting out of one 2 years ago with my son and had a doe come in about 20 yards. Just as I got to full draw my son decided to start talking and spooked the doe. Good luck out of pop ups just not while taking the kids.

I think with the permanent blinds for bowhunting its all about getting them out and getting them used to them. For big bucks my experience has been to get them in close range of a well built permanent blind they need to grow up around them.

Nothing wrong with a ground blind, I typically hunt out of them in West Texas. As was said before, hunt the wind!!! Pressure is more detrimental than anything and set it early so the deer are used to it. Good luck

see em doing it on t.v. know a guy who takes a bucket ta sit on an does petty good..

Heres the one i built last year. 6x6x6 with thick tarp sides. One man can move it. Great for the family..

Here is a picture taken from a game camera of a hunt from my ground blind. In this picture, I am in that blind with my bow drawn. That buck on the right is about 2-3 seconds from having a complete pass through double lung shot.

I live in Longview and generally bow hunt from tree stands - I prefer them over ground blinds any day, especially during early bow season (hot in one of those ground cookers).

Anyway, this hunt was on my lease in Baylor County. Notice in the first picture I enter my blind at 4:47. The bucks enter the picture about 6 minutes later and at 7 minutes I take the shot. This was the quickest hunt of my life. I call it my "TV hunt" because it was so easy just like on TV.

To make it even better, I sat in the blind for an hour, then got out and walked up to my buck that was dead about 30 yards from the shot. I could not see where he layed from the blind.

So yes, it is possible to hunt from a permanent ground blind. But no, I don't prefer to because of the heat and claustiphobic conditions.