![]() Unless the hunter can visually spot birds and get a reasonable shot at them, the blind isn't fulfilling two of its most important purposes. And, most important, the blind should not be a problem to see out of and shoot from. In addition, the blind should not be difficult for the average person to enter and exit. ![]() A portable field blind should be truly portable, that is, easy to transport in a vehicle (whether pickup truck, SUV, station wagon or van), easy to hand-carry into a field (for moderate distances) and easy to assemble (and disassemble) once in a hunting situation. If purchasing a blind from a sporting goods store, make sure you test out these features on the showroom floor.ĬONVENIENCE When purchasing a field blind, another thing that should be taken into consideration is convenience. And the more comfortable you are, the more likely you'll be there when the birds fly over. If the hunter in a blind is cramped, cold, wet, wind-blown and dirty, he will probably go home early. Just as plausible, however, is the contention that the shadows cast by a too-tall blind are what set it off in the field.ĬOMFORT A hunter in a portable field blind needs to be comfortable so he (or she) can stay in the field long enough for a successful shooting experience. Besides, good camouflage overcomes profile problems. An argument can be made that a high profile doesn't matter in field blinds because waterfowl in flight are up high looking down and therefore don't notice the profile of a blind. It's especially important in a field blind because a blind with too tall a profile can sometimes cast a shadow making itself conspicuous in a way that doesn't look natural to the birds. PROFILE Another major consideration in blind criteria is profile. Patterns are available from most of the major camouflage manufacturers- Mossy Oak, Realtree and Farmland companies are just a few providing the most widely available and popular of camo fabric products. Colors are varied and come in several types of material and fabric. Most commercially made field blinds come in several choices of camouflage designs and patterns. "Camouflage" determines how well the blind blends in or otherwise naturally fits into the field where it is located. There are two main factors to be considered when discussing the concealment qualities of any commercially available blind: camouflage and profile. This sounds simple enough, but all of us who have ever dealt with blinds know that a good blind, one that does what it is supposed to do, can often be a complex engineering project. Well, this finally happened-and not just once, but several times with many different types of modern-day, commercially built portable field blinds.ĬONCEALMENT The main purpose of a field blind is to effectively hide the hunter so that the birds are none the wiser and get within range. Somewhere and somehow, there had to be a better way. They were bigger and less prone to wetness, but we could barely move them. Later in life, my friends and I built what we thought were "better blinds," made of canvas and wood. Some of my sharpest memories from this period of my life were of being too cold to shoot easily, or at all, when the ducks and geese finally came into the decoys. If the weather was wet and cold, so was I. Out in the fields, I would lay on the ground right on the dirt or in the mud, covering up with the burlap and surrounding vegetation. As a kid, my field blinds were often no more than a gunnysack made from a hunk of torn burlap and a few clumps of weeds or grass.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |