building a ground blind for coues

[rclouse79]

The past 5 or 6 years I have always spent my bow hunting time within a 45 minute drive from my house in Tucson. The convenience is nice, but the problem is on a weekday I see more hunters than game and on a weekend forget about it. On the other end of the spectrum, I could count all of my hunter sightings on one hand over the 8 years where I rifle hunt for coues. There is one particular draw that leads up to a saddle where I have killed three bucks, and see bucks every time out. I am finally getting sick enough of the crowds to give my rifle spot a shot during archery season. I was thinking about building a ground blind close to the area I have seen bucks on the saddle. Any tips on building the blind?

[muledeerarea33?]

Build it now and stock it with your essentials. Give it plenty of time to become acclimated to the spot it's in. Or just try spot and stalk this year and set up salt and a blind for next year?

[rclouse79]

Thanks for the replies. I am going to head out the first weekend I can to set it up. It helps that I left some gear up on the mountain I need to try and retrieve. I guess my main question is how high to build the blind. I was thinking high enough to block everything except for my eyes when sitting, but low enough I could shoot over when kneeling.

[100%DIYazCOUES]

Bingo

[mattys281]

I like to build them out of natural materials rather than stuff I drag in. Nothing beats a nice low growing juniper that can be dug-out a little to make a tree cave. I cut a couple of branches out of one like that a couple years ago down in a saddle that I often see deer in and had a deer walk up to within about 6 feet of me less than an hour after settling in. Of course she saw me at that range and took of snorting to high heck, but it was still a pretty cool encounter.

[ready2hunt]

I have killed all but a few coues in the exact same spot.

 

Make sure you know where your wind in coming in and out of. Make sure it's a spot you can get to without disturbing the entire area, better yet if you can get there without exposing yourself too much.

 

+1 to using what's around, it's cheap effective and it dosent attract other hunters. If you have a poorly located blind that you'll use fairly often (even if you see deer consistently) you will change the buck pattern, at least the older smart ones. Trust me, I say this from experience.

[rclouse79]

Thanks for the input. I am excited to give it a try.

[capoeirajosh]

+1 on building blinds out of natural materials. I started doing this simply because I wouldn't have to worry about someone stealing a blind that I left out. Sucks that you can't trust some fellow hunters, but that is just the way it is. Also, I believe that natural blinds actually will help cover your scent a bit.