If you were building a 4x6 blind, what material would you use for the outside walls? Considering you're on a budget, but also want the blind to last as long as possible? Do you use OSB and try to make it as water repellant as possible? Or is there a better option out there?

I'm no carpenter, but, my gut reaction, OSB would be my last choice. 'Course, the "hunters" that were on this place before I owned it used OSB pretty much exclusively. They weren't carpenters either. Some didn't bother to paint it. I hauled them all to the dump and burned them.

There'll be some real carpenters chime in on here soon. Good hunting!

I would use the LP SMARTSIDING 4 x 8 sheets, paint with good exterior paint, especially any raw cut edges. Framing I have always rip 2x4 in half ,cheaper than 2x2, finger joint 2x4s work.

I use T111 siding and a good coat of paint. The stuff soaks up paint, but it holds up forever.

On ground or elevated? Equipment to move it or erect it(tractor/trailer/build in place?
I have a 30 year old 4x4 blind made of 2x4 and painted 3/8" plywood. That said, I'm in Kimble county, dry climate.
My blinds are mostly made from repurposed materials, all 4x4 w/ flat metal roof. PW floors, 2x2/2x4 frame, PW lid covered by metal with a generous overhang. Lightweight, tilt over on a trailer and tie down and move it.
The habitat stores may have cheaper materials but could be seconds, flawed in some way, but certainly enough quality to for a blind.
Build it at home, assemble, disassemble, move it, then screw it together at the landing site. Need to relocate it? Take apart, load and rebuild at the new location.

Sounds like you and I went to the same school of "Build it at home, assemble, disassemble, move it, then screw it together at the landing site. Need to relocate it? Take apart, load and rebuild at the new location". Stands that require trucks and tractors to put up are not what I'm interested in at all.

Those were my thoughts exactly to reduce the pain of building it in the field. We have a tractor etc out there, but would like to prebuild it in the garage then put it back together out there. Probably put it on a couple cinder blocks to get it off the ground a little. What kind of paint would y'all use? Regular oil based paint?

No oil base for me....chalks, fades and cracks. Brown latex exterior.

Just depends on your budget. LP smartside is good. I had 6 sheets of Zipwall left over from a house and used that. Also used 2x3 cedar for the wall framing. Painted all boards before assembling. Everything assembles in the field. Caulked and put a second coat on the outside after it was set up. Six years later still looks like new.

not sure of availability these days, but I found 4x8 sheets of plywood (don't recall grade?) that had a "real-tree" camo pattern on one side. Not sure if plastic but seems to hold up really well for exterior walls. I wanted it to last and I had a bunch of 1.25 square tubing I picked up at an auction, so I welded up a 6'x6'x6'6" frame, used self tapping screws to secure the "real-tree" sides, 3/4" thick plywood floor, 3/8 thick plywood roof then covered with 8' long corrugated sheet metal. It's held up for 10 years now. I have it on 1.50" square tubing legs with cross bracings about 5' tall up to the floor. It's heavy but I use my tractor with forks on my FEL to move pretty easily.

I like the idea of building in panels that can be taken down to transport and then re-assembly on-site. Had a friend do that with a 4x4 and he said it could be assembled on a platform by himself but was much easier with 2 people.

I used CDX plywood. I made 2 5'x5' blinds and mounted them on 4x4 towers that are 15' tall. I built them at home and attached to towers when I loaded them on the trailer. I pulled them up with the jeep. I made a simple gin pole to improve the geometry when raising the blind. It worked well. Verde

This is the second one I built.

^^^Daaang, those are nice. Where'd you get the towers?

Thank you, I bought them from Los Cazadores in 2005 for 900 each. I was told Pearsall welding made them. These are the second blinds I've built for these towers. The 2x2 aluminum angle on the outside corners cover the edges and seal it up really well. The towers are a simple design but they are very sturdy the way they are braced. I've moved them several times, I'm hoping I'm done with that for a while. It was fun building them and the anticipation of hunting out of them was the best part.

Verde

Very nice looking blinds. How much $ do you think you have in it, minus the tower?

The windows and doors are the biggest cost. You can make a plywood door and plexiglass windows. I’ve done that. It works ok. Windows and the door were 550. $325. In plywood and 2x’s. Around 900 total.

I used the flip up windows in one of my builds. I like them the best.

This^^^
I buy game winner windows the 12x24 are 39 dollars

Let's see a pic of yours.

I built my blind using four individual framed panels of aluminum Unistrut. Each panel clamps together at the corners with the Unistrut hardware. Built this blind in 1998 when commercially available pop-up blinds had yet to appear on the market. I was hunting a property in the Hill Country that had numerous canyons that were inaccessible by ATV's. Each panel weighed < 50#. It worked well for its intended purpose.







When I was no longer on that lease, I put the blind into storage. The panels hoisted nicely stacked up to the ceiling in the garage. Eventually, I began hunting S.Texas and decided to skin each panel with 3/8" plywood. I wasn't necessarily in a hurry to get the panels hard covered, but I did not have the time available to have them skinned with aluminum sheet, saving that phase for a future upgrade. It is bolted to the 5X8 mower trailer I grabbed from Tractor Supply on their free finance plan. It tows very nicely behind my Pioneer 700. Though I do not move it around, it can be moved as often as one would like. Having a hinged tongue, I removed the tongue and carried it home.

The blind is 5' X 7' and 6.5' high.

I have a bunch of used tin I bought really cheap, I form them with 2x2’s and put tin on them.
I have built a bunch out of osb and plywood over the years, they always end up rotting. My latest 2 that I built.
I just remodeled an old ply wood box also

My other one