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The past few weeks have been spent traveling, hunting and spending time with family. My mind often wonders while doing these things and I recently had a few thoughts about what a hunting blind really is. I recently sat in a duck blind constructed of 4 posts a plywood floor and some burlap wrapped around it with 3 other full grown men. The blind was situated in about 2 feet of water on Michigan’s Little Bay De Noc. As we scrambled to abandon ship with the whole thing starting to crumble under our weight, I thought of all the wide variety of blinds I had found myself in.

As a boy my father and I would scrounge driftwood and other debris that had washed ashore to make our duck blinds. Each one was different and over the years we saw each as an individual work of art. One year a very large pile of rocks was our crowning achievement. The ducks weren’t quite as impressed as we, but a few fell in front of it all the same. We also used layout boats and a sheet of burlap for a few years. Although extremely effective for luring ducks close, the chill of water running down your waders while laying prone in a leaky old wood boat does grow old during the later part of the season.

As a young man I would scramble up a tree in the fall with hammer and a few scrap 2×4s in hand. I would fashion a crude platform just big enough to hold my 90 pound frame and then don a camouflage shirt and wait with my bow and arrow. I never shot a deer from one of those tree stands, but I watched more deer from there and at a closer range than any blind I have sat in since.

In my early years of riffle hunting for deer we were not allowed to be in a tree. I would sit on a bucket behind a pile of brush. Sometimes I would be watching a run or a swamp edge but most of the time I was watching the squirrels and jays stealing corn and apples from my bait. I have graduated now to roomy enclosed blinds with propane heaters and sliding windows. It is not uncommon for some fellows I know to remove their boots while hunting whitetails. I do wonder if it is really hunting at that point but I must admit I like to warm my hands by the fire every now and then.

They make pop up blinds, roll out blinds, snap together blinds and on and on. But what do these various and widely different devices have in common?

I remember a few years ago being asked by a non hunter what I meant when I said “blind”. I actually had to think for a minute before trying to explain. A dictionary will tell you that the word blind has many, many meanings. The one to which I am most currently referring to is “a lightly built structure of brush or other growths, esp. one in which hunters conceal themselves”. Although mostly accurate, I believe this definition does not do the blind justice. There is so much more that defines a blind. So now you will glimpse into the rambling thoughts of a man driving long distances, hunting (unsuccessfully) and spending holiday time with family.

A blind can be a work of art. The tinkering of a master craftsmen. A blind is often a place to spend time with good friends. To laugh at the missed duck that was sitting 25 yards out and applaud a good wing shot or nice retrieve. A place to get wet in freezing temperatures and to enjoy the smell of your dog when he is wet too. A place to take a nice nap (aka work off your hang over from the night of poker before) or maybe read a book by a small propane heater. A small library of sorts. It can be simply a quiet place of reflection to watch a few animals and learn how they really act without the bars and plexi glass of a zoo. In recent years we have taken to cooking breakfast in the blind. To that end our blind could now be considered a 4 star restaurant. The 5th star was recently removed when the proprietor was caught letting the dogs clean the plates.

It can be a place of worship. If you have never been accosted by your wife, mother or girlfriend over missing Sunday morning church, you probably aren’t a hunter, or else you come from a family of atheists. Next time you catch that look when you are preparing camouflage on Saturday night, just remind the would be protagonist that watching the sunrise with a light breeze to your back (for you duck hunters, to your face for you deer hunters) and listening to the sounds of gods creation, as it wakes to a new day, that you couldn’t be any closer to God. Remind her that the bible says we were put here to rule over his creation and that your Remington is the only way you know to carry out God’s great plan for us. My dad once used a slightly better analogy than this to render a nun speechless after being called out on poor attendance at Sunday mass. I know I have had many a conversation with God while in a blind. God I hope that deer comes closer, God I hope the outboard starts, God I hope my gun fires again after kicking it in the drink, etc,etc.

There is nothing quite like a good blind. Be it small, big, smelly, cold, warm, wet, dark, etc. We love them all and they hold a place near and dear to our hearts.

Sport

www.SportSmithFishing.com

If you’re just getting into Waterfowl, you’ve probably noticed how expensive the sport can become – Especially if you start to turn it into a passion more than a weekend hobby. After picking up a shotgun, waders, jacket, calls, miscellaneous blind gear and a boat or layout blind to sit in, it really doesn’t leave much for the decoys. Skimping on decoys is usually not a wise move, as getting waterfowl to lock into your spread greatly depends on how real and appealing you can make it look to them. (more…)