Using Military Netting on Blinds

noweil Mike

noweil Mike

Well-known member
We have been getting boats and blinds ready for early goose and teal season. In the early season I often use a blind frame and drape military netting over it. This also has worked well in the regular duck season when the are still leaves on the trees. I have been building blinds like this for 30 years. I always hang the netting without any solid backing behind it. I want the light to shine through openings in the net and look like leaves. I have had lots and lots of ducks and geese land or swim right in front of me while sitting behind the military netting peeking through the holes.

This year, a couple of guys have covered their boats and boat blinds with this military netting. Nothing else, no other vegetation. They point to the fact of how well the netting works on my blinds, but none of my blinds have a solid backing behind the netting. I just drape it over a frame work of posts and wire or rope.

One blind is a big jon boat blind with solid backing right behind the netting and the others are a couple of marsh boats with net just draped on them. They look like a big solid objects to me. I have no confidence in using the netting like this. I could see using the netting to attach vegetation to the boats, but these guys are not planning to add any vegetation. I look at how the military hangs the netting over things, not draping it right on top of solid objects. What are others experience? I am thinking about distancing myself from these boats while hunting.

Mike
 
I guess it depends on where the boats are sitting. Ff you have them backed against a tree lined bank or tucked against the marsh edge, I don't think it will make a difference unless the color of the blind vs the background really contrasts.
If the boats are sitting in open water, then I think you need to have some native vegetation around it no matter what kind of netting you use. Even when I used fastgrass, I still stuck cane around my boat blind when hunting open water.
 
Interesting theory. I had a 14' jon that I made a conduit frame for and flopped military camo over. It seemed to be super effective everywhere we set up. We had geese fly in even while we were standing up..(the frame was chest high when standing) . The open frame works great in early season when it's hot out. I think it works better open so it moves in the breeze like the surrounding cover.When we were in cat tails or weeds, we would weave some of them into the camo net.
 
Interesting discussion everyone. I have been considering going without the fastgrass on the big boat this year and using a camo net setup instead. Probably end up with fast grass though since its always worked in the past.
 
I use fast grass on the upper blind part of my TDB in the grassing loops and military netting around the hull and allowed to hang down into the water. I have it trimmed just below the water line so it floats and moves a little. I'm still working on a good way to disguise the motor. I'm thinking of adding extensions to the rear of the blind to carry that line back to the motor to break up the "outboard look".

I agree completely with the theory of having the netting loose and light coming through. Not applicable on my rig but on temp blinds I've set up I like this method.

Gene
 
I've never been too worried about the motor looking like a motor. I think we give the birds just a little too much credit when it comes to stuff like that.
I never camo painted my motor so I use a simple motor cover made from camo burlap. Basically, I cut a peice as long as the motor and twice as wide as I needed it. I folded it over & use hot glue to glue the top seam and about 8"s down the open side. I just drape it over the motor. I've used the same one for 10 years.
[inline MotorCover.JPG ].

View attachment MotorCover.JPG
View attachment MotorCover.JPG
 
It because of the superior engineering, design & construction!
No drawing, 1 pair of old scissors, $5 roll of burlap, 5 cents worth of hot glue and 15 minute of time!
 
I use camoflage burlap on a conduit frame on my 16' flat bottom works fine when up against a bank. Throw some branches, cat tails from the area on it etc, your good to go. I have used it in more open water with native vegetation on it. My boat has a marsh grass paint job on it so I have even left the blind down and sat still in the bottom of it and popped up when ready to shoot. A couple of my buddies have used the military type camo over a solid canvas. This is really nice on those cold windy days.
 
Lou,

That looks like similar material, but it looks much more 3-D (stands up better) on your boat than on the jon boat blind my buddy put it on.

Do you still have a picture of the boat you covered with visqueen? If so could you post it again? I have used that trick on a few different boats in recent years. The first time I covered a Fiberdome Bluebill on an icey river late in goose season. I chopped ice at the ramp to lanch and pulled the boat up next to the ice that came out from the bank about 4'. I had mallards dropping into my goose decoys like they were blind to the boat covered in plastic. To bad duck season was over. Then I had a narrow 14' jon boat covered with it for hunting along the icey river. This last season I covered a 10' aqua pod with 2 layers of visqueen and duct taped it in place with silver duct tape. I hunted the middle of a lake that has some vegetation sticking-up out of the water a couple of feet. The geese would come to the decoys out in the middle of the lake right next to that little boat covered with plastic. Even if they would not land with the decoys they would swim in.

Mike
 
story:

Birds coming in. Dog was settled and quiet all day... this time however, she jumped the gun... so to speak.

She just sat there and was completely paralyzed because she knew she was in big trouble... hoping maybe that I couldn't see her. Of course you can't look at that face and not laugh, so I took a pic.

Morton you were there that day...

View attachment sunnynet.JPG

View attachment sunnynet.JPG
 
That's the picture Lou. The 10' aqua pod in a little bit of low vegetation in the middle of the lake was just lethal last year covered with visqueen. I plan to use it again, in about 17 days, on early season geese.
 
I like to use ghillie (spelling?) grass bundles on my blind material from Cabelas. To make the bundles even more effective I dusted them with camo paint,mainly tan, on the bundles to lessen any sheen. If you can get your boat up against the bank you will look like an extension of the ground. I've had very good success with this set up.
 
Netting alone may work at the top of the flyway, but it certainly doesn't work down South. We use camo netting on our blinds and then cover that mostly with "Cedier" bushes. I don't really know how to spell Cedier, its pronounced CDA. Those bushes loose their leaves after a couple of weeks and have to be replaced. (but live bushes that don't loose their leaves sprout from the branches you shoved in the mud later in the spring) If you hunt a blind where there are leaveless bushes, and just twigs and camo netting, you will kill only teal, maybe a dos gris, but nothing else.

Ed.
 
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