Does anyone make a one man one dog field blind?
- Thread starter tod osier
- Start date
I think I've seen these in the past somewhere is some catalog. But you are a pretty handy guy, and if you built yourself a lightweight aluminum frame that folded up, Diane could make you the outside and you would have something nice that will last until you aren't using it. I would think about a half hoop design. You want something you can have together in a couple of minutes without fasteners, the frame should do that for you, like a backpacking tent, hoop poles go into an inside corners and one down each side using something like an eyebolt attached to the floor, one without thread that pops inside the aluminum stock pole, then one down the center from the closed end that locks to the center top of your hoops and ends at the open end (top) to lock the frame, everything stays inside when you take it down and you zip it closed. C'mon Tod, you need to do this. You didn't move out there to watch tv.
I'd want the dog behind me, so it would have to be a long solo layout blind! Maybe a double blind?
I use a small dog blind which can be placed beside my personal layout blind. Maybe not as convenient as both of us in the same structure but it has worked well for me. Sorry the photos I have do not show a complete view of the pop-up dog blind.
Last edited:
I had a field blind that was marketed as having room for the dog. I'm not sure if it's still in the shed or not, There is a entry/exit at the foot of the blind. Aside from shooting over the dog, it's quite roomy, large enough for the big, well known, breeds of retriever such as dachsunds and scotties. I generally bring a mutt hutt similar to Daves. Dave's marsh looks to provide awesome natural cover, no need to grass a blind there.
I dont like a dog necessarily being in the blind or that close to the gun. They do weird things sometimes or curl up weird when it gets a bit slow. Also, I like being able to place the dog behind shooters, just in case of a break from excitement. Ive seen a breaking dog get shot. This is by the far the most dangerous hunt for a dog because we are shooting on their level. A breaking dog at ground level shooting is a recipe for disaster. The dogs head is always behind my shoulder but lots of times we place the dog blind between two layout blinds and blend it all together with brush. I really like the tangle free dog layout blind. I have an old school layout blind that snaps up and folds down kind of like a tent. Not even sure who makes it anymore, but it becomes so small folded up that I can store it in my layout blind when carrying into and out of the field.
noweil Mike
Well-known member
Tanglefree Solo 360 blind. The dog can be in the blind with you and there is a doggy door. I had 2 dogs in the blind with me last week and still had room to shoot.
noweil Mike
Well-known member
For those that have a breaking dog, you need the Dakota dog blind with the spring loaded door that latches closed. 
Thanks guys for your collective thoughts... let me reply to everyone in one post. What I'm looking to do is to hunt a open area that makes the cover in Dave's pics look lush - there is literally no cover within several hundred yards, no rocks, trees, etc... The birds are extremely boat blind shy, but they are not shy of the shore or decoys at all (leave the decoys to chase a cripple in the boat and there are birds in the decoys on return).
I do have a field blind and used it along the coast in CT for similar purposes as I want here, I've been successful using it on a sandbar with no cover. The blind is in CT now, so I was looking for a little retail therapy to fix my decoying problems ASAP. What I did with my field blind is that I put a skirt on the back at the height of top of my head and then staked the skirt out so it smoothed the abrupt transition at the rear of the blind. Pete was a big lab and once he was trained to get in there, it worked really well - his head stuck out over my left shoulder and could watch birds work. Beaver would love to be IN the blind on my lap, but it seems like there could/should be a blind that used and expanded the space behind the back/headrest and had a port for his head near the left shoulder.
Agree with all that was said about wanting the dog behind me, no worried about breaking, but I get it.
I ordered some camo mesh that I can use as a cover up as a test.
I do have a field blind and used it along the coast in CT for similar purposes as I want here, I've been successful using it on a sandbar with no cover. The blind is in CT now, so I was looking for a little retail therapy to fix my decoying problems ASAP. What I did with my field blind is that I put a skirt on the back at the height of top of my head and then staked the skirt out so it smoothed the abrupt transition at the rear of the blind. Pete was a big lab and once he was trained to get in there, it worked really well - his head stuck out over my left shoulder and could watch birds work. Beaver would love to be IN the blind on my lap, but it seems like there could/should be a blind that used and expanded the space behind the back/headrest and had a port for his head near the left shoulder.
Agree with all that was said about wanting the dog behind me, no worried about breaking, but I get it.
I ordered some camo mesh that I can use as a cover up as a test.
If it were me.... take a shovel, get one of these and dig it down with a shovel and lay it in there so when the blanket drapes across, it looks like a small mound. you can easily put some decoys around you. Find the lowest profile dog blind you can and dig it down about 6-8" a well. Again, i think with enough decoys or silos, you can hide yourselves pretty well. We have had to get creative like this in dirt fields and we have even laid in the ruts from pivots in fields to get lower profile.
It sounds crazy.... but the other option that would likely work just as well is to get taller. Get an a-frame style blind, brush it real good and sit in it. Sounds ridiculous, but we put one in a dirt field with absolutely nothing around it. Thought for sure we were flaring birds all morning, and they were decoying to 10 feet. We have used it on water edge where there was literally 0 cover and its worked equally as effective. We had 2 a frame blinds attached together on this hunt and hunted 7 guns. 0 issues decoying birds.
Attachments
Good stuff. I agree a high small blind might be fine if that isn't something they see and get shot from. This is ducks I'm talking about, btw - high flying puddlers (the bastards).
We have pelicans and swans too that would be great to hide a blind, I don't know how long they will hold out here - they were here at the season start and are still here (shifted from mostly pelicans to mostly swans now). I'd think body booting, if I was young and the bottom wasn't so soft.
Do you have a recommendation of a large goose full body (quality with long lasting paint), I don't have any here in WY and haven't bought one in 20 years (bigfoots). If I had a few, I think I'd hide better.
Last edited:
A frame style might be an issue if you dont have over head cover then. Geese are easy as they rarely fly over the top of blinds from waters edge. They just come in and lay down into the decoys. Some on land and some in water. But rarely make big circles if they have lots of water to fly over to get to the decoys. On ponds, its a little different story. Ducks do all kinds of crazy things and over head cover in panel blinds is certainly an issue.
There are also decoy companies that make decoys for putting on blind doors and sit on a spring for when doors open the bend to the side. you can get a few of these and put them on layout blind doors or on the dog blind to break up the hide as well.
If I had to buy decoys, I would buy Avian x. I like the square base a lot. Dave smiths are the best one can buy and at one point we ran 30 dozen of them before my buddy moved and took them with him. There is absolutely nothing wrong with big foots and I still have a dozen I throw around every so often. I dont mind them at all except they dont bag very well. Geese are pretty dumb imo, and if you are where they want to be, they will come. BIG spreads when running traffic and small intimate spreads when on the x is kind of my go to mindset. Dont discount silos to get started either. Just make sure they are flocked, otherwise when the sun hits them right, they look like a for sale sign out in the middle of the field. Im on a mission to make my own any more. I have lots of ideas and was supposed to get to that project this last summer, but played parent for my parents all summer and life was just atrociously busy. Between my dad getting a divorce after 27 years and bullet coming through my mothers in law roof when she was asleep and having to get her moved out the city, I barely got my ducks made for this season.
Honestly tod, I have 20 dozen silos that are fully flocked and ive killed so many geese in fields and waters edge, its ridiculous. In my years of hunting geese on big waters, I have 2 dozen goose floaters and then I run the bank with my silos and its lights out. When in a field I set some full bodies in the kill hole (1-2 dozen) and string out those silos behind the blinds and as long as they will spread. Just make it look big and ive killed so many limits doing that. This has kind of got pretty big though, and what im finding as of recent years, geese are liking small intimate spreads again. instead of setting the trailer, i started setting 12-18 in a field and doing just as well. I think the dive bomb industry made the idea of monster spreads a norm and I went the opposite direction after a few years of going super huge, and started decoying birds better.
Cool, thanks for your thoughts. I'm hamstrung by not having all my stuff in WY, both tools/decoy making stuff and just basic hunting stuff (layout blind, for example). I guessed at what I'd need as good as I could, but I purposely left goose decoys back in CT due to size.
If I had my tools here and all set up, I could bang out silos of any species (goose, pelican, swan). I'm just trying to learn as much as I can and kill a few birds at the same time. Pretty excited about what I've found here for birds.
Welcome to the west. Just remember, west is best and with these full moons and southern winds, the last few nights, we should be getting some migration, despite it being overly warm for this time of year. I test my theory this weekend, but migration moon last couple nights should of filled us up. Shoot me a DM if you need anything or have any questions. Always willing to help. I need a good hook up in the great state of WY
