Blinds ,what's your choice

A

anthony m coons sr

Well-known member
Hunting ducks or geese is a great sport and there many ways to do it. Whats your blind of choice? Over the years I have hunted ducks and geese just about every kind of way. Layout blinds , floating blinds , boat blinds,sink boxes, pit blinds, stick blinds, there all good and if you kill birds their great. For me I love the boat blind. I can take my blind any where I want where I hunt. I'm not saying its the best but it is for me. Stick blinds are great but not where I hunt. I have built and help built many over the years. But on the Hudson River and in its bays. High tides and ice take them out every year. I have seen some wonderful blinds take out. It make you cry if you built them. Floating blinds are a great blind also you can take it almost any where . I have hunted in them with a full kitchen, bunks a bar. Really great things to have. I had one the Mother of all blinds. Twenty or so foot long four bunks bar stoles ,stove, heaters. But guess what !!! some jack ass shot it up and put it to rest on the bottom of the river. Just because he didn't have what I had. Layout boats are really cool if you like hunting that style . I was always to big to do that . So I tried it and moved on. Sink boxes are really nice but here in New York you can't use them. And trust me on the river you really don't want on. Pit blinds are really rally cool. The birds are in your face and eye level. If they are coming into the field your hunting. I like all of these kinds of blinds but for me the boat blind is the best. How about you? my youngestView attachment IMAG0343.jpg
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I hunt solo 90%


1.Barnegat bay 12ft Sneakbox tucked in tight bow first up in the frag.

2. Rogers layout blind in field

3. A big comfy blind or boat with my buddies is always a good time
 
Good morning, Anthony~


Having grown up on Great South Bay and learned to hunt just one way - laying on my back in a grassboat or Scooter - such a hide will always have a special appeal. My many years in Sneakboxes brought a storehouse of memories....


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And - like you - I have been fortunate to have pursued ducks and geese from just about every hide known to the sport (no battery or sinkbox yet...) However - living here in dairy country where brief walk-in hunts are my norm - this simple folding stool - situated amidst a patch of natural cover alongside a beaver pond or stream - requires only that I obey The First Rule: Don't Move!


I bought this stool from L.L. Beans when I was 14 - and have replaced the seat twice....



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All the best,


SJS

 
Steve

Stood many of days in a patch of wild rice or cattails and sat on the mud many times. Your way is the best if the ducks are there. Being ill and getting fatter buy the day keeps me in my boat. But I'm happy with that. Just seeing and feeling nature is fine by me. Thanks your a credit to this sight. God Bless and stay safe.
 
Ross

All great ideas ! and all great ways to hunt ducks. Hunting in a big boat with your buddies is a wonderful way also. There is no wrong way, I killed most of my ducks over the year in a boat. But back when I first stated hunting. It was just me and a pair of hip boots and a untrained dog. I got wet a lot and the birds got up way to early because of my dog. But some how I always came home with ducks.
 
anthony m coons sr said:
Ross

All great ideas ! and all great ways to hunt ducks. Hunting in a big boat with your buddies is a wonderful way also. There is no wrong way, I killed most of my ducks over the year in a boat. But back when I first stated hunting. It was just me and a pair of hip boots and a untrained dog. I got wet a lot and the birds got up way to early because of my dog. But some how I always came home with ducks.
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I am the dog, worst part about not having a dog! I have to push off and motor out to pick up every bird I drop. That makes hunting a labor intensive endeavor.
 
Ross

Some of the best dogs I ever hunted with ! where men just like you and myself. Nothing better then having your boat on mud and have to push it off to go get a cripple. Nothing wrong with that. No need for the gym. Oh ya we can't go to the gym lol. Thanks
 
Anthony,

Like so many others, I have gotten to hunt from lots of different blinds: field blinds, pit blinds, layout boats, big huge fixed boat blinds, sinkboxes and I guess everything else would be called "natural vegetation" blinds in some form or another (boats...big motorized ones to kayaks and everything in between, float tubes, stools, just squatting in the water sometimes, sitting against a tree). There are certainly pluses and minuses to all of the different blinds.

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I think my favorite would be a natural vegetation blind of some kind. If the blind gets destroyed...no biggie...go cut more palmettos. Here in FL there is no shortage of blind material available and the only specialized equipment you need is a good set of cutters. You can often just shove the boat up into it and fill in gaps with palmettos. Or take your bucket/stool into the brush and sit down on it and shove a palmetto into the ground in front of you. Then when you are done with that place, you don't have to deal with wet burlap or canvas or other blind material. You can leave it or take it with you but it dries super quick.

Dani
 
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I'm with Dani. Natural cover--maybe a few cut branches to cover the thin spots. I think cover behind me and overhead is far more important than in front of me. Works well for a one or two plus a well trained dog when all of them can sit still. Not a good choice for more social hunting.
 
Jeff Reardon said:
I'm with Dani. Natural cover--maybe a few cut branches to cover the thin spots. I think cover behind me and overhead is far more important than in front of me. Works well for a one or two plus a well trained dog when all of them can sit still. Not a good choice for more social hunting.
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I agree.


VP
 
We had a nice goose blind back in Ohio. Rubber roof to keep the rain off ,Used concrete mesh for walls with branches woven in. sat three guys comfortable, on the edge of a corn field.
Good times
Ken
 
for years we used finisher lay down blinds in the fields. the last couple of years we have added the tanglefree panel blinds they work well if you have a fence line or waterway to put them in.

for the water, we have small one boats, here in the North central states; we call them pumpkin seeds. we used to run the OMC 3 hp or 4 hp weedless lower unit outboards on them (some of us still do) but a lot people have gone to the small mud motors; the PPF Woodduck. we also all have big blind boats. Mine is an 18 ft with 60 hp outboard and a permanent alum skin hi/lo blind on it.

I just picked up a 1448 alumacraft semi-v john boat with a Beavertail pop up blind on it. I decided that I needed more room for decoys(I like large spreads) and the dog. the 12ft pumpkin seed was just too small. I just ordered an 18 hp Copperhead short tail mud motor to put on the 1448. it should work well; especially since we are in a drought situation here in the Midwest. marshes will be dry or very low. unless of course we get some serious Fall rains but the long range forecast is not showing that.
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Dani

First of all thank you for showing these wonderful photos. Your take great pictures and I am always happy to see them. Your blinds are all good choices. Natural is always the best I think. But I always say : if your killing ducks and geese out of your blind. That blind is the best blind around on that given day. As you get older like me walking in the mud or sitting in cattails isn't the way to go anymore. I enjoyed those days more then you think. Was nothing better then taking my dog out in a bay at low tide or in a swamp. Being right in the ducks face up close and personal. Now days a blind or a boat is the way to go for me. But I do understand every ones point. Some of us like carrying big spreads of decoys. Some love layout boats, and all the rest. Your all right there is know wrong answer. Be happy in what ever way you do it. Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Roy

Get pictures, Any kind of cover that works for you is the best. When I was younger I loved hunting on the banks of swamps or rivers. After I got my first pair of waders I loved standing in cattails, As I made more money I loved building blinds and getting there in a boat. As I got older blinds got bigger and had stoves and chairs that was great for sleeping when there wasn't any action. Then I went to all boat hunting, then I knew I needed a bigger boat. So I know just about every way there is to hunt duck. Rule number one my friend , ducks in the boat matters. So Behind a tree, in a blind , in a boat, pit blind, sink box, what ever works. God Bless you for loving this great sport. Thank for the photos.
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Jeff

Cover is the key to any blind, I agree with cover behind and over head. Duck have great eye sight and will spot a dot out of place. I also think putting the natural blind cover going the same way as it is in the spot where your hunting. Sitting still is hard for a lot of people trust me. I have stopped taking more then one friend out over the years. Hey I love moving and talking and eating with the best of them. Just not when the birds are coming around and or in. Just me. Thanks
 
Ken

Those kind of blinds I love. When I go snow goose hunting my friend have on blind like that. I have a floating blind like that myself. Watching geese coming in to a corn field and knowing they can't see you. It does not get any better then that.
 
Derek

I also love big spreads of decoys. I think you up grading is a smart Idea. But don't forget your other ways of hunting. Water can be low some years so you might have to go old school. Thanks for the pictures.
 
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