Big boat blinds?

P

Paul W

Well-known member
What kind of blinds do you all have on your "bigger" boats? I find myself want to again redesign or start over on the 18' Lund blind. I don't like not having anything over the top of the boat as cover. Just curious what you all use, I hide in the cattails and have a fixed blind made of EMT that I roll the grass/netting up and strap into place, so I have to work around the frames when picking up decoys. It works, but those flip over blinds sure look nice. out of the way when not in use at least.


paul
 
I constructed a scissor blind on my 15 ft jon boat out of EMT. It was very simple to build and you probably have most of the needed materials from your current blind. My friend had a beaver tail flip over blind on his 16 ft jon boat and i hunted from it a couple times. There are major advantages and disadvantages to both styles of blind. The flip over blind was nice because it was completely out of the way when you were setting decoys and such however you either have to crawl under it or undo it if you need to get out of the boat once it is up. The scissor blind is considerably cheaper and it is very easy to get in and out of the boat while it is up and you have more access to the bow (helpful if you have a front deck) which can help if you are picking up downed birds with another person. The scissor blind however does get in the way a little when setting decoys and takes a little bit of room up in the boat. My personal opinion is if you have a dog that can go and get the birds for you and you dont usually get out of the boat often get a flip over blind (make sure to buy a model that has a dog hatch) otherwise i think you will find it more convenient to have a scissor blind.

If the scissor blind is something you might be interested in let me know and i will write up a detailed description on how to make one and ill try to dig up some pictures of it
 
I constructed a scissor blind on my 15 ft jon boat out of EMT. It was very simple to build and you probably have most of the needed materials from your current blind. My friend had a beaver tail flip over blind on his 16 ft jon boat and i hunted from it a couple times. There are major advantages and disadvantages to both styles of blind. The flip over blind was nice because it was completely out of the way when you were setting decoys and such however you either have to crawl under it or undo it if you need to get out of the boat once it is up. The scissor blind is considerably cheaper and it is very easy to get in and out of the boat while it is up and you have more access to the bow (helpful if you have a front deck) which can help if you are picking up downed birds with another person. The scissor blind however does get in the way a little when setting decoys and takes a little bit of room up in the boat. My personal opinion is if you have a dog that can go and get the birds for you and you dont usually get out of the boat often get a flip over blind (make sure to buy a model that has a dog hatch) otherwise i think you will find it more convenient to have a scissor blind.

If the scissor blind is something you might be interested in let me know and i will write up a detailed description on how to make one and ill try to dig up some pictures of it

I welcome some pictures - maybe your design is better than mine. I made one once for a 16' jon boat, but this boat is considerably more gigantic than most jon boats. I think the beam is 85" and it's 18'6" That's asking a lot of any EMT - to span the distance with no sagging. One of the things I liked the least in that 1648 about that blind was when someone tripped and grabbed it the 3/4" would bend, even with 1/2" EMT inside it to help stiffen it up. I could make one out of 1" or double up with a welded in section. If a fellow can make a scissor blind he can make a flip over I think, just some strapping to keep the different sections spanned correctly, and (EWWWWW) A sewn canvas cover for it.

Does anybody use one of those flapper board type blinds on a bigger boat? If I exclusively diver hunted out of it I wouldn't whine, because longlines are easy to net the first bird on the string and drag the rest in. This is the boat I hunt in when I take someone else out, whether it's early goose or puddle ducks or late season divers.
thanks!! And PS wow what a lot of detail in that diagram! Lots of good ideas there that very may well find their way in to the next installment of the blind...

Paul
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Paul, if you boat has center bench seats, you can add center supports with a "T" on my system.

That is a pretty big boat. But like I said, this system is very adjustable. You can pull the support poles in towards the middle to reduce the size of the top opening. And lower the height as well.

As you can see from the pics, I don't use cerex anymore. I use camo netting from Barre Army Navy. great selection & great prices.
 
Paul, If you are looking for a flapper board blind there are lots of ways to attach them to the boat. On my blind I used copper and emt to make a front flip blind Look under new blind in progress. You might also want to look at some of the boats on the it's a duckboat forum thread currently on the first page. Some of the decked tin boats would be easy to put flapper boards on.
 
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Paul, You have seen the blind on my Broadbill. Why not a larger version of it? We can chat more when we go to "sniper school"
 
Paul, You have seen the blind on my Broadbill. Why not a larger version of it? We can chat more when we go to "sniper school"

I am thinking so Mr Tom! I am still trying to line up a day - we had some pretty serious family stuff going on last week so it kind of went below the radar. Will contact you soon.
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Paul, If you are looking for a flapper board blind there are lots of ways to attach them to the boat. On my blind I used copper and emt to make a front flip blind Look under new blind in progress. You might also want to look at some of the boats on the it's a duckboat forum thread currently on the first page. Some of the decked tin boats would be easy to put flapper boards on.
I am thinking of putting flapper boards on my smaller bluebill. I will check yours out
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We put a Cabelas "northern Flight" style on a 21' Carolina skiff, using 3/4" EMT and homemade pivot/hinge mounted to the hull. The cover was surplus desert tan foliage type tarp.
Easy to set up, easy to pick up decoys, no blind in the way when moving, and worked fine, including Black Ducks and Geese. And it was cheap,lol
 
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