Duck Blind Upgrades

Ive got several large blinds. Favorite ones have camp stoves in them. Like a little oven and two burners, runs off of butane bottles. Bacon popping makes the grey ducks fly. That being said, next one i build will be deeper versus wider, likely 16x8.

IMO when building a big blind the best ones have well thought out shade areas. The shade hides the faces and movement better than anything. So think about putting a trellis or something in certain areas that won’t affect shooting path but creates shade.

After that a cook top and heater are at the top of my list. Anything beyond that is nice but you have a house instead of a blind at that point. Have to decide what your goals are.

12 windows?
*I would figure out a way to cover up the windows that aren’t being used that will still look good from the outside and figure out how to hide 12 frickers standing in a window when you are full.
*Make sure your roof line is back enough to shoot those slow birds going straight up.
* What is your roofing material? We used rubber roof on the last 6 duck blinds we built 5 years ago, and haven’t seen a leak yet.
*If you don’t leave your decoys out 24/7 have a room/area that you can store them in that big of a blind.
*Use some sort of magnet to help hold your guns up so they don’t fall over.
*Make sure the dog box(s) and platform(s) are easily used by any dog. (Hunted great blinds where they sucked for dogs and they made using a dog a pain in the arse because the dogs couldn’t see the birds and then they couldn’t even see hand signals once they were in the water.)
* How big of a hole is it? Do you have problems with cripples getting away? Leave a 10 gauge in the blind to finish them off.
*Do you use automatic jerk/motion rigs that run off 6/12v Batteries? Think about installing a solar panel so they are charged up when you aren’t there.
*have a big trash can with plenty of trash bags so everyone can pick up their trash/empty shells after the hunt.
* I know a guy that hunted the Platte in the early 2000’s and he said they had satellite tv in their biggest pit blind, and instead of benches they used office chairs. (Will try out office chairs in a new pit getting installed this year myself)
* having a little shelf/cubbyhole under the window where you can put water bottles and dump shells for fast reloads are nice.
* For the love of God, have a covered structure that can hide a boat on cloudy days if you have to boat in.

Agreed. Looks like these hunters are going from glamping to glunting.

Notches cut so your gun does not slide. Comfortable chairs so more than likely BYOChair, some place to put the empty beer bottles, and anything you can do to make it not look like a box somehow break up the silhouette

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What are some of the best duck blind upgrades you have done/seen?

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OK, not for Louisiana but a properly camo'd layout blind is a thing of beauty. And also while I lived in Oklahoma, a hunting buddy and I came across some flat, layout boats which were deadly. They weren't ours but the dudes just left them out between their morning and afternoon hunt. Very low and flatish, they were camo'd up with local grasses and nearly impossible to detect. This was at Kaw Lake in northern Oklahoma. Dudes kicked us out of their blinds and proceeded to shoot a limit of mallards in about 30 minutes.
In SW Louisiana, for a couple of years we hunted from for a lack of better description, the fiberglass equivalent of large garbage cans, We dug into the mud and filled them with water sunk them in place. We then built a framework around them to put clumps of marsh grass around them. Oh yeah, we used large auger screws, screwed into the mud about three feet to cable off with turnbuckles to hold the blinds in place. It was a lot of work. The ducks could not see us.

My blind is N/S, so on a NW or North wind they would come up short on the south end, where only the person on the south end of the blind could shoot. Not only can he shoot, but two more hunters can too with the L. Bring your boy next year, I'll reserve the L for the two of you.

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hat should I add to it during the remodel?

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dude...me!...give an ole man a call...

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glunting

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I'm stealing this, not even sorry