Barrel blind

[woundedduck]

Here you go

[woundedduck]

It hunt's 4 men and a dog comfortably. It's 8 feet long, around 4 feet wide. The blind itself is around 5 years old but was rewelded/touched up before this duck season. The metal drums are new from this year as is the drum bracket. It has a bench that can be moved so you can hunt either side of the blind depending on wind. It has spud poles and spud pole brackets that you set with a 1/2 inch bolt- very simple and very fast. I think the spud poles are 4 or 5 feet long so if you're hunting in deeper water you will want to go buy a stick of 1 inch tube and find a chop saw and make some longer. It has a dog door. It has a transom so you can mount a trolling motor/ surface drive to it. It will move surprisingly well in open water. I took it through a stump field to get it to its resting place in our lake and with some pushing and shoving it will navigate/ float over most obstacles and slides over objects well. Doesn't weigh much and I did this move in said stump field alone.

It doesn't need bungee cords/ ratchet straps around the drums and brackets but I did it anyway. I also used U clamps to connect the blind to the brackets, but again, it sits fine on the brackets as-is. The floor is expanded metal, but you will want to put a couple of 1"x12" boards in the floor if you're running a dog- in case you didn't know that stuff plays hell on a dogs toenails.

On one hunt the water level had dropped several feet leaving the blind suspended on the spud poles about 8 inches in the air. Myself, my dog and a buddy hunted in it anyway like that to keep from damaging the drums. It stayed put suspended with no problems.

It's a solid little setup. It's perfect for hunting sloughs and areas where water fluctuates- just pull up the spud poles (or leave them hanging down so if you can't tie a knot the spud poles will keep it from drifting too far) tether it off to a solid object and if the water rises when you come back to hunt just set the spud poles and you're ready. It drafts a couple of inches empty so it can and has been towed through shallow water pretty easily. The more weight that is in it, the more solid it is, it can be hunted out of without spuds with no problem. But with the spud poles it's a rock solid shooting platform. It's the best way we could figure out to be mobile in the lake we hunt without needing 4 layout boats. A lot of r&d and materials in this bad boy to get it right, but it's right.