CONCEALMENT - BLINDS

No matter what game you hunt, take the time to plan and execute the absolute best concealment you can build. From ducks and geese to a trophy bucks, nothing makes a hunt more exciting than close range action. Start with commercial products that can be used to erect a frame or backdrop. Layout blinds, military camo netting and popup blinds re a few examples of commercially available concealment that produce excellent coverage. These products will conceal your outline and movement while providing stubble straps or methods of attaching natural foliage to match the hunt environment.

Once you have a frame to breakup your outline and help conceal movement, take a little additional time and effort to make your hide blend into the environment. It only takes a moment longer to add that polished touch with natural foliage from the immediate area. On a duck hunt it may be bullrushes from the edge of the slough or marsh grass from the immediate area. Or perhaps limbs and branches when hunting flooded timber. On a deer hunt you may select brush and branches or perhaps crop debris such as corn stalks or barley stubble. In any case, a properly prepare hunting blind should provide enough concealment to hide any movement, such as reaching for the shotgun or drawing a bow. And, block sunlight to provide shade for an even better hide and last because objects in direct sunlight, including hunters, will be noticed by wary eyes. Lastly, your hide should blend undetected in the surrounding environment. Because a layout blind brushed with yellow, oat stubble being hunted in bleached, white stubble of a wheat filed may fool a few you birds, but odds of success are greatly improved if you uses stubble to match the field being hunted. Or, a buck that travels a trail daily may be wary of a blind set with "marsh cane" in a wooded environment. The unfamiliar foliage just may be encouragement enough for that trophy to slip off the trail and side-step your location. So use foliage form the hunt area to maintain a familiar appearance for best results.

Plan the hide and work it through for up close encounters on your hunt. Because pulling the trigger is shooting, but strategy, stealth and stalk is hunting - hunt like a pro.

NDC 5.27.18