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Turkey Hunting Ground Blinds | What Makes A Good Blind?

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Considerations for Good Turkey Hunting Ground Blinds

 

The warm spell the country is currently experiencing makes it feel more like April than about a month before the official first day of spring! A false sense of spring is the perfect time to consider what this spring gobbler season may look like. One consideration is will this year be the year to start using ground blinds for turkey hunting?

 

Reasons Why Ground Blinds Make Sense for Turkey Hunting

 

Hunting turkeys from a ground blind are effective because a blind offers many advantages that allow you to get close to birds. Unlike deer hunting where scent control is typically your biggest challenge, movement when turkey hunting is what gets you busted time and time again. A portable turkey blind conceals movement, provides more comfort and opens up more opportunities in spring turkey season.

 

The two best reasons for using a pop-up turkey blind this spring are the concealment and comfort they provide. As opposed to sitting on the ground, hunting turkeys from a blind hides almost all movements you may make during those critical moments when a long beard is approaching. Rarely does a gobbler come in perfect, which means you will need to probably make several last second position adjustments. Hunting blinds conceal movements allowing you to move when birds are close with the confidence they will not spook unlike when hunting on the ground where even the slightest movement can alert a gobbler.

 

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In conjunction with being able to move more when hunting turkeys from a ground blind, a blind also makes for a more comfortable hunting experience. We are all familiar with birds coming in silent so when on the ground you really cannot move much at any time when hunting turkeys. In the blind, however, you are free to reposition your legs and stay comfortable the entire day. Ground blind accessories such as seats and gun rests can be added to increase comfort while hunting, making them ideal when hunting with kids or rookie turkey hunters.

 

Another important aspect of using ground blinds for turkeys is the fact that ground blinds can “make” a hunting area on both private and public land. For example, long beards may be working a particular area but that area may not have sufficient places to set up at. A blind can be used to ambush birds and create a concealed turkey hunting setup, right where the birds are.

 

What Makes a Good Ground Blind for Turkeys?

There are several characteristics that make a good blind for turkeys. These are things you want to look for if you are considering purchasing a ground blind for the first time or are looking to upgrade to a new turkey hunting blind.

 

The best hunting blinds have good windows. Of course, all blinds have some form of windows, without them would make it difficult to hunt otherwise, but good windows relate to the number and type the blind has. Good ground blinds have multiple windows on each side of the blind to give you different angles to shoot incoming birds, especially important when a bird may come in unannounced. Windows that are various sizes and shapes, such as diamond and triangle shape, give you greater ability to shoot from. Larger windows are good for those who are archery hunting from blinds for turkeys and also make it easier for kids to be able to see and shoot from.

 

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Another factor in a good portable turkey blind is weight. No doubt blinds are large and heavy to carry compared to the equipment you need for hunting on the ground but some are lighter and more compact than others. These are the best ground blinds for hunting. With deer hunting, a larger blind is fine because you are typically set up in an area (food source, trail, etc.) and probably do not need to move the blind often. However, turkeys can be in one area today and another tomorrow so having a lighter, more compact blind lets you easily move it several times a day if needed with ease.

 

Additionally, ground blinds that are built tough are a must. Again, you are most likely going to be moving your turkey hunting blind setups at least several times this spring so you want a blind that can take repeated put up and tear down without fault. Look for a blind made of high-quality fabrics that increase their longevity and shed weather well. Also, blinds with rugged zippers make for continued smooth operation and will keep windows and doors working day after day and season after season.

 

Features to Look for in Ground Blinds for Turkey Hunting

 

Along with the factors that make a pop-up turkey blind, there are a few features to look for when buying a blind for turkeys. First and foremost consider the camo pattern. Most blinds feature camo fabric to make them blend into the environment, but the camo can vary and should be considered based on where you are hunting turkeys.

 

  • Eastern birds in the early part of the season will be hunted before leaf out so camo patterns that have more grays and lighter tones are better to blend the blind into the natural environment. As the season progresses into late May, more vegetation and thus more greens in the camo is important.

 

  • Southern birds will have more vegetation present so ground blinds with more greens and vegetation contrasts will prove effective in matching to the habitats your hunting these turkeys in.

 

  • Hunting western turkeys in the spring from a blind should have tans, grays, and greens mixed in the camo pattern to match mountainous terrain coupled with conifer vegetation.

 

Ground blinds are different than clothing in that there are significantly less camo pattern options available, which leave few choices to match your hunting area like discussed above. The solution is to pick one as close to your environment but also add vegetation and debris to it to enhance its concealment specific to your location.

 

To do this, some blinds have added straps along the sides and on top of the blind. These straps are a feature to provide a means to attach vegetation to make it blend in better. So, for example, you may have a leafy camo pattern on your blind in the early spring season in the northeast but you can add branches and other natural structures using the straps to break up the blind better.

 

Finally, with hunting turkeys in spring, the weather can be unpredictable. Spring winds and rains can come at any day. The nice part of a portable turkey blind is that they keep you protected from the weather but you need good stakes, and plenty of them, with your blind to make sure you can secure it from high winds and weather. Blinds with “cheap” stakes can have your blind blown over and damaged in these spring weather conditions.

 

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If you have not hunted turkeys from ground blinds before or are looking to upgrade your existing blind, there are several good reasons to buy one now. Look for certain characteristics that make for a good turkey hunting blind along with extra features that will improve your spring gobbler season this year.

box blinds bow hunting | Big Game Tree Stands

Big Game Box Blinds For Bow Hunting and Deer Hunting

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Box Blinds For Bow Hunting | Everything You Should Know

If you’ve ever looked into box blinds for bow hunting, you might have immediately thought, tightly enclosed space, just from there you probably know how the story goes. A deer comes in, finally presenting a great bow shot. As you maneuver to draw your bow back, it feels a bit cramped, but you think you can make it work by crouching down. As you release to let the arrow fly, you hear a loud clanging noise and feel the bow almost jump from your grip. You watch helplessly as your arrow sails off over the top of the deer you’ve been waiting for. What happened? Then you realize the bow limbs must have ricocheted off of the blind when you fired the bow, causing your arrow to fly off-course. Cue depressing music and lots of head shakes! Is this common in box blinds for bow hunting? Not always!

Whether this scenario has happened to you yet or not, it doesn’t have to be your destiny. There are ways you can make box blinds work for bow hunting. It might take a little more work, but the benefits of being in a box blind far outweigh that. For example, you can sit in an enclosed blind through almost any weather, with the exception of really bad storms. If a rogue rain shower shows up, you won’t get soaked. When you want to bow hunt late season whitetails, you can stay warm inside (especially if you bring along a small heater). Your scent typically stays contained better since you’re not exposed to the wind currents. And you can also get away with more movement since you’re fully concealed. Obviously that’s useful since it ultimately helps you avoid detection longer. But it also makes a box blind a great way to introduce kids to the outdoors, since they can fidget around and stay comfortable while you wait for the action to start. Finally, elevated bow hunting blinds are generally more effective than ground blinds for archery because of increased visibility and because the steeper shot angle produces better blood trails.

But there’s a big difference between rifle and bow box blinds. When you’re hunting with a firearm, you don’t need much vertical clearance, and you can get by with a pretty narrow shooting window. Bows on the other hand, need more vertical room for the limbs to flex and for your arms to extend when you draw it back. You’ll also need to position your box blind closer to where you expect deer to move when you’re bow hunting, since it requires closer shots than a firearm. So let’s jump right into the specifics when it comes to box blinds for bow hunting.

How to Position Box Blinds for Bow Hunting 

After setting up a hunting blind, positioning will be critical to make it work for a bow hunt. Ideally, the blind windows should be perpendicular to (facing the) trail you expect deer to use, which will allow you to see as deer approach from either side and offer a broadside shot. Having multiple windows is useful since you can quickly adjust if the deer moves too far one way or the other.

box blinds bow hunting | Big Game Tree Stands

The best location for deer hunting blinds will depend on when in the season you plan to hunt most often. Try to find a reliable travel corridor between feeding and bedding areas for the best chance of seeing a mature buck in the early season months. Bucks are still in a summer feeding pattern during this time of year and can be a little more predictable. While that location could also work throughout the season, spots near doe bedding areas may be better during the rut, since bucks will be scent-checking these spots frequently and chasing does every waking hour they have. But this approach requires strict attention to detail and discipline to pull it off (more about that below). If you’ll primarily hunt the cold late season months, food is the best place to be. At the end of the season, rut-weary bucks need to really put the calories down to build their bodies back up enough for winter. Set up a box blind for bow hunting on the edge of a standing agricultural field or food plot, and you’ll be amazed at the deer activity.

Invisible Box Blinds for Bow Hunting 

For the locations discussed above to really work effectively, your box blind should be as hidden and discreet as possible. This is obviously true for all hunting stands and blinds, but it’s especially important with the solid blocky shape of an elevated hunting blind. Though deer can get used to seeing a large bulky shape in the sky, mature bucks usually don’t fully let their guard down. So if you’re hoping to connect with one of them, you should take any precaution you can by camouflaging your blind.

box blinds bow hunting | Big Game Tree StandsThe Vertex box blind offers a great camouflage pattern as is, and comes with 12 large side windows and 1 roof opening to offer multiple shot angles. It has 61 inches of standing room and a 48-inch square platform, which allows you plenty enough room for a kneeling or seated bow shot. Before each shot, make sure to leave several inches of clearance in front of and above or below your bow limbs to make sure you don’t contact them. This combination makes it one of the best box blinds for bow hunting.

But if you want to take it a step further, add some more natural camouflage materials to hide it. Here are a few ideas if you’re wondering how to camouflage a hunting blind. First, locate your box blind among and around existing trees with lots of vertical and horizontal structure to break up the bow hunting blind outline against the background. Then use twine or zip ties to attach cut limbs and branches to the platform’s steel poles and rails. To make it look as natural as possible, step back often to see how well it blends in. While it should go without saying, use similar branches from the area so that it disappears with the surrounding vegetation. Ideally, you should attach branches all the way up to the blind, so it looks like a hedge or clump of trees. Though you can build your own wooden deer blinds and camouflage it with paint, homemade bow hunting blinds aren’t as reliable and safe as an engineered one.

box blinds bow hunting | Big Game Tree Stands

Make sure to get all this work done well in advance of archery season, so the deer have time to get used to the new trees that mysteriously sprouted up overnight. Going through this work will keep you more concealed in your hunting blinds but it will also hide your ladder access, which is a good segue into the next topic.

Access Trails to Bow Hunt from a Box Blind 

Assuming you’ve followed the deer hunting strategies above, you’re off to a good start. But you can quickly throw your luck and hard work out the window if you have a poor access trail. What exactly is a bad entry and exit route and how can you tell? Well, if you can’t get to your bow hunting box stands without alerting deer in bedding or feeding areas to your presence, then you’ve already failed. With more mobile tree stand options and deer hunting ground blinds, you can easily move when the deer bust you. But with all the effort that goes into installing box blinds for bow hunting, you need to be hyper-vigilant about each detail of your hunt so you can make that location last as long as you can. Thinking of them as permanent hunting blinds switches your frame of mind, so that you’ll take better care with hunting them until the conditions are perfect.

The key is to not let the deer pattern your behavior and movements. Make no mistake, if a whitetail starts to hear and smell a hunter going to the same location each morning, they will avoid that area pretty quickly. Try to plan your access trail to approach from a downwind location that doesn’t cross any major deer trails or go too close to a food plot, agricultural field, or known bedding area. Another part of hunting intelligently is to play the wind at all times. If your box blinds for bow hunting are upwind of a food plot one morning due to shifting conditions, just stay out of them. You’ll probably only spook deer, and you could make that particular box blind location useless for seeing big deer again during the season. It takes a lot of discipline to do this, but dedication is important.

Whether you are looking for a box blind for bow hunting or a tree stand for bow hunting, before you purchase, you need to have clear strategies in place. For example, if you’re hunting near a bedding area, make sure you approach very early before sunrise to allow deer to filter back in when the sun comes up. Or you can approach very quietly during daylight, moving at a stalking pace for the last 100 yards. Bedding areas can be hot spots, but you need to only hunt them when the situation is right. If you’re hunting near or on a food source, however, you need to enter it only during mid-day since deer should not be feeding during those hours. But this poses a problem, since deer will enter the feeding area again in the evening, just before you need to leave. If you were to just get down, they would spot and hear you and know to avoid that area in the future. A smarter method is to use a buddy system, where a friend or family member approaches the plot after sunset with a vehicle or ATV. This bumps the deer off the field, allowing you to get down, all while not educating deer to the location of your bow box blinds.

In summary, box blinds for bow hunting are really useful tools as part of an overall hunting plan. They allow you to stay warm, dry, and concealed from a deer’s senses, which means you can hunt longer and have a better chance at putting a mature buck on the ground. Using the tips listed above, you might just be successful this season.

spring food plots and tree stand and hunting blind placement | Big Game Treestands

Plan Before You Plant! | Spring Food Plots and Tree Stand Hunting Strategy

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Spring Food Plots and Tree Stand Hunting | Planning Food Plots According To Your Hunting Blind and Tree Stand Placement

It Is March and once again the silence of winter slumber is broken by the sound of the tractor firing up. The feel, smell, and sight of dirty hands, diesel, and fresh dirt can be addicting to us, just as much if not more than turkey or deer hunting. It gets us excited and brings us satisfaction. There is nothing a hunter and manager would rather do more than climb up on the tractor, wipe the dust off the seat, and break open fresh ground, but is that really your smartest move? While it might feel like you are doing something positive you might want to think again, give it more time, more planning, and as a result, better execution. Don’t make the common mistake of creating a hunting strategy according to your food plots, when you should be planting spring food plots according to your hunting strategy!  Implementing the latter of the two will create more opportunity, better hunting, and more success.

The first question to ask yourself is why are you planting the food plots? For nutritional purposes or for hunting in the situation of the “kill plot”? You can bet on the majority of hunters that plant food plots, are doing so to create hunting opportunities. So which of the following situations would make the most sense?

Option 1: Going to a chuck of timber or an old field and clearing it, breaking the ground, and planting beans or clover just to find out there isn’t a single place to put a box blind, tripod, or ground blind that a deer wouldn’t bust your wind or your entry in.

Option 2: Strategically mapping known deer movement, tree stand or blind sites, and previous observations,  then taking that information to determine where, what type, and when a food plot would make sense in that area.

The choice is obvious, we understand that…and we know that if your planting a food plot you are already putting up stands or blinds in your mind. The problem lies in the fact that this thinking (not even enough to call it planning) happens when you are sitting on the tractor, or waiting for rain after planting. True, successful, well thought out plans for a food plot will only come from enough time being devoted to a map, scouting, past hunting observations, and more often than not, research on the subject. Here is some information that will help you out with your spring food plots, ensuring you are maximizing your efforts, time, and hard earned money.

Maps, Scouting, and Observations

Hopefully you took some time to shed hunt this winter, and took some notes down when you were out and about. Shed season was the perfect time to scout, you were not negatively impacting your deer season next year with the pressure, and deer sign was still fresh from November and December. Marking scrapes, rubs, funnels, highways, and bedding areas down on a map and coordinating that with hunting season observations give you a great idea of the daily movement that takes place on your property. When it comes to installing and planting food plots this spring, human pressure, staging areas and bedding areas are your biggest concern. Where are the deer, more importantly bucks bedding. Once a known bedding area is marked, next figure out when, where, and which type of food plot would make sense in the area. This is by far the most tedious part of effectively planning food plot strategy with your hunting strategy.

“Which type of food plot seed” depends on your “when”

The best advice in the situation, before diving into researching the when, where, and which type of food plot to plant, is to think about when you hunt, and what food sources are available during that time around the property. Are you a turkey hunter, a land manager, or a just a deer hunter? When you deer hunt do you hunt with a bow in the early season, or are you a gun hunter waiting on November and December? Each situation has its own, where, when, and which type of food plot you need.

  • Turkey Season

If you’re the turkey hunter, the ideal food plot set up is creating a food source and strutting zone that you can effectively hunt with a ground blind. In these situation size isn’t as much an issue as what type of food there is. In the situation of turkey hunting in the spring, the best candidate for turkey hunting food plots in the spring is clover and alfalfa. Clover and alfalfa explode in spring, making not only valuable spring forage for deer, but dynamite feeding and strutting sites for turkeys.

spring food plots and tree stand and hunting blind placement | Big Game Treestands

  • Nutrition and Observation

Late spring and summer are months of nutrition and observation. Does drop fawns, and bucks are just starting to develop some substantial velvet growth. During the lactation and antler growth stages of the year for deer, protein is valuable. Both pastures, hay fields, and food plots with substantial alfalfa and clover and large bean fields provide the protein and attraction deer need and want. These food sources also give you a great opportunity to sit up in an elevated box blind, a ground blind, or tree stand some distance away from the food, to observe and scout the bachelor groups.

  • Early Bow Season Attractant

Planting food plots in spring, in order to hunt over them in September-October will either take place in the form of the two best attractants of the season, beans and clover. Sure their might be some room for opinions, but staging areas in the form of small clover ( white clover) plots, adjacent or on the way to a larger food source like standing beans are dynamite locations for an early season sit. Deer will still be or just coming out of their early season patterns during early bow season, meaning they are unpressured in those small clover “kill plots”, and on the edges of large bean ag fields, or food plots Planting clover by frost seeding or drilling, disking, or tilling, in early spring during decent rain, will work for small food plots. If you want beans for the early season you will need either at least 5 acres, or install a food plot electric fence to avoid deer over-browsing the plot.

  • The Opening Day and Late Gun Season Attractant

Opening day of gun season is a holiday (at least it should be). Nothing is better than lifting a buck onto the tailgate during that weekend, so which food plot will give you that, or any weekend after until the close of the season? Beans, corn, and brassicas are the favorited in the November-January time period. Brassicas are planted in the late summer/early fall period before the season opens, so you can delay planning and planting that food plot until later in the year. Planting beans and corn however takes more time and precision. Cut corn fields make for some of the best rut hunting in November in the Midwest, but standing corn and beans in late November-January can’t be beat for attraction.

Design and shape

Size is important when it comes to which type of food plot seed you select, depending on the browse resistance of the species, but the design and shape of the plot can really start honing in hunting strategy, and working together with your hunting blind and tree stand placement.

spring food plots and tree stand and hunting blind placement | Big Game Treestands

  • Long rectangle

This is the most popular standard food plot shape and design, whether you are a firearms hunter or a bow hunter the rectangle is your friend. The length gives you the acreage and the long shot potential when hunting with a rifle or muzzleloader, but the width creates less pressure, stress, and creates more security for deer. It also happens to create a great location for a fixed position tree stand for close encounters for bow hunting.

  • L shape

The L shape puts a right angle in the rectangle this does three things better than the rectangle. It creates an elbow, a staging area, and creates more security. Creating essentially two different sections of the plot, while keeping the width relatively small creates the same acreage, but separates the field of view creating less stress for feeding deer, and more movement to see what’s on the other side. The bottom or smaller end of the plot basically serves as a staging area in this scenario. The smaller (potentially different food source) creates a smaller area for deer to stage in before entering the large feeding area. Both of these advantages gives rise to the third advantage, an elbow. The elbow is creates an ideal box blind, tripod, ground blind, or tree stand location, creating a funnel and views of both areas of the food plot.

  • Crows foot

Taking the idea of the Elbow to the next level is the crow’s foot. This obviously serves as an extreme advantage for firearms season. Strips of beans, cut corn, or strips of clover all sprawling out from a central location gives you three shooting lanes, and potentially different buffets for your deer herd.

 

Hunting Strategy

Now knowing your “when” and “what”, you will know exactly where to put it. Obviously a larger bean, corn, or brassica field will go wherever the acreage is available, but the smaller clover/alfalfa plots can be strategically placed. Creating these small opening, “kill plots”  n heavy timber, adjacent to thick cover and bedding areas, or as staging areas before a larger food source are successful food plot tactics.

The one thing above all else when creating a food plot is knowing how you will hunt it, and if it will work. A food plot that is not hunt able is not ideal, although it does have its place on some properties. A food plot that creates hunting opportunity is a key goal. Planning a food plot effectively means, safe non disturbance entry and exits, multiple tree stand, box blind, tripod, or ground blind locations for different winds, and a food source/hunting opportunity that is completely free of human pressure.

As you can see food plots aren’t a walk in the park, but neither is deer or turkey hunting. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be near as enjoyable. Studying, researching, learning, planning, and executing are all a part of the process…the resulting failure or success are both enjoyable, but success feels much better! Take these spring food plot and hunting strategy tips seriously over the next months, and hopefully you will reap the benefits of your hard work.