without a beard, does you no good

haha Ive always thought putting a mannequin in my bow blind during the off season would be smart... this is actually a great idea as well.

I had a very nosey hunter hunting the property next to me that was a boyfriend to the landowner neighbor. He was spending a lot of time coming by camp wanting to know what I was seeing and what we were killing and driving a 4x4 up and down the road where my gate is. We had exchanged numbers in case one of us needed to track a deer across the fence. 4 years ago I left during bow season to go fishing at the coast. I left my main tower stand windows open and placed a ball cap on top of the back of the office chair in my blind. From a conversation the day before he knew I was going fishing and no one would be on my lease hunting. Sure enough I got a call from him that he thought someone was hunting my stand and wanted to know if I wanted him to go check on who it is. I asked him why he would think that and he said because he noticed the lock on the gate had moved. Of course he obviously was trespassing or poaching and saw the open windows and the ball cap made him think someone was in the blind. When I got back he came by camp and around the campfire in conversation with beer involved I tricked him by mixing into conversation telling him I had just forgot to close the windows and that was why he thought someone was in the blind when he went over there and saw the windows open. He rolled with that last underlined statement it and he suddenly realized he was talking about himself trespassing. While I was staring at him he got quiet and left and has never called, texted, or been seen again. I now have that stand and feeder covered with working game cameras and the woods around the area I put up all my old non working game cameras in random places. And the stand stays locked. So there is an even better reason for a mannequin in a blind.

As stated, a ball cap addition would help. I've used a ball cap on a 3L soda bottle in the old blind on the pipeline to mess with the wounding, silly, Louisiana bow hunters' minds next door. I'm not sure they understand the concept of property lines.

Or, you could black out the back windows? curtains? mesh?

Had a buddy that painted a face on a two liter bottle and hung with twine. He said it didn't help much, it was the movement that got him.

Masking your movement is the key to keep the deer from noticing you. I always have some type of screening material (towel remnants) and clips to cover openings.

^^^^This, and much shorter windows would hide you more.

I put two of those in a blind to keep some nosy neighbors guessing. Seriously doubt they have any effect on deer. Not in this photo but I also put up camo netting across the back to mask movement.


However, they definitely didn't discourage this owl.

I also put a game cam on the front of the blind and have some priceless pics of dumbfounded cowhands staring at them.

Smaller windows, dark inside paint and mesh stapled on the inside. Stand back 20 yards and you see nothing be a black hole in a box. I get deer at 10 yards very often