Posted: 7/30/2025 4:04:11 PM EDT
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I broke down and bought a .300 Blackout, so I want to be 50-75 max distance for my shots. Central Texas has few tall trees, and my hunting spot doesn’t have a ton of elevation features. What should my blind setup be? Anyone have extensive use with see-through blinds, or those low mirror blinds? I’ve used regular pop up blinds nestled into the tree line, but never tried putting one so close to their trail and am afraid it will be too obvious. I normally shoot 100-250 yards from my blind in its usual spot. |
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I've been hunting in the TX hill country for the past 6-7 years, usually box blinds at ground level and I have some opinions and tips. No experience with pop-ups or fabric blinds. Sorry if this is all obvious to you already. A little bit of elevation goes a long way. If you can find a cedar or oak mott and put a box blind on a 4-6ft platform, that will help. At ground level it is too easy to silhouette you through the window. If keeping it on the ground, put some "curtains" on the windows to help break up your silhouette. If using multiple feeders, watch out for putting them at 180° from either side of the blind. When setting up and moving around, both windows will be open to see both feeders so it's easy to see your movement. Putting them at 120° or so to ensure the deer cannot see right through both windows. If not using feeders, just be aware of window placement and field of view. Deer at 50yards are much more aware of my presence than at 80-100yd. This makes blind elevation and window/curtain placement more critical, or just be more quiet  . Bow hunters feel free to laugh.I'm shooting hogs in the shoulder (smaller ones to far ~100lb and less) at 75-100 yd with a 10.5" blackout using 110 V-max and having excellent results. I wouldn't have a problem taking a doe or younger buck at 100yd and in. Mature deer it would certainly kill, but I'll have a bigger bolt action in my hand when I'm hoping for the big deer. The 110 V-max is actually exiting these hogs very reliably, only caught 1 out of about 8 so far, but the bullet does flatten out quickly due to the bullet shape. I just bought some 125 SST's I am going to test in a 16" barrel for a little more penetration for larger hogs and potentially deer at the 120yd and in range. |
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I have been using pop up blinds more and more, and really starting to take to brushing them in good. I'm also planning more to really anchor them well, and leave them out at least a few weeks before season. I'm tempted to grab one of the really big ones for more room with my son. Spending $300 on what may be a temporary blind has me holding off though. For now I just have the cheapest ameristep one. The loops on it are really helpful for brushing in. |
| Personally, I like elevation. Bunch of 6-8 foot short towers with blinds on the market. I’m either leaving or entering a blind in the dark. Snakes and critters are a thing around here. |
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Joined:
Apr 2024
Posts:
2419
EE: 100% (4)
SD, USA
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I used to use ground blinds as a day hunt thing, but they are just too much work for too little reward most of the time. The one exception I make is for bear hunting, and that's only because there's a good chance bears would tear them up if you left them on a site near bait. I use blinds as much, if nor more than ever now, but I try to put them out as far ahead of time as possible. Given enough time, animals will get used to anything, but I understand that most people may not have the ability, or want to put out a blind months in advance. Basically the shorter time it is before the hunt, the less they will tolerate. I see a lot of people who just plop a blind willy nilly out in the open near some brush, never bothering to put a single second into brushing them in. Those same people often swear ground blinds are the problem when they get busted. It's no different than putting a tree stand 8' up on a completely bare pine tree shaft with nothing to hide you. What did you expect to happen? Ground blinds give you a lot more options for placement, but it's no different than hiding yourself, you need to hide the blind a little. That's not to say they need to be invisible, but they need to be somewhere brush would be expected. I've seen plenty of people have great luck setting them right next to a hay bale out in a field. The most obvious way to place a blind is near thick brush, and then you brush that blind in so it becomes a part of that brush. Don't underestimate how much shadows can effect things, having some overhead shadow can really hide a blind well. Some of my best blind spots have been tucked up underneath some tree branches, and they become just about invisible that way when coupled with very minimal brush work. This is what I try to get most of the time. I find flat country is even better for blinds than hill country. With hills you are kind of at the mercy of the terrain. In flat land, you can almost always find somewhere that allows you to see really well, yet be hidden. Some less conventional things I've done is hide a blind in some standing corn. Get back in a few rows, then break off only in front of the windows. It takes a little trial and error, but you figure it out. Then brush the blind, especially the top in with corn stalks. This was just a one off thing for me during harvest. If you put a blind on a straight edge of corn, you wouldn't be able to see anything out the sides unless you set up right on the edge, which I would not try. Deer do not tolerate a something big showing up in corn like that, you really need to hide well. I have also done something similar in tall grass, which we get plenty of more in the north east part of South Dakota, and western Minnesota. Some of the grasses can get more than 8 feet tall, and the cattails even more than that. This is a little harder to pull off since everything is so tall, it can be hard to see unless you find just the right spot. The other problem I found is the tallest grass tends to grow in the wettest areas. Just because it's dry now, doesn't mean in a month you won't find 6" of standing water in your blind. Long story short, you can put a ground blind pretty much anywhere in the right situation. There are way more possibilities than you can get with tree stands, ladder stands, or even saddles in open country. Around here most of our trees are shelter belts planted in the 30's and 40's, many aren't great for hanging from, and 9/10 the good ones aren't where you want to be. I've used a number of blinds, pop up style, hub style, a frame, as well as plenty of natural blinds. My favorite by a wide margin is the 2 man gun blind by Lucky's blinds. They are super durable, I've had one out on a farm for like 3 years now, they hold up and nothing else on the market will. All those poly blinds like double bull turn to shreds if you leave them out any amount of time, and up north here, just the snow alone will crush them even if you don't leave them out long. Cheap ones like the very common Ameristep Doghouse tear apart in the wind no matter how well you anchor them. Luckys blinds are heavy canvas, and steel frame. They are still not that heavy though, I think like 25 or 30 pounds, same as a double bull. I've carried them over a mile with no issues in their bag. Luckys blinds also have the steel frame across the windows, so you have a built in rest to shoot from. I have used a tripod inside of them, but for shorter ranges like I do most of the time, shooting rested on the window is a happy tradeoff for a lot more leg room in the blind. As for being seen, if they don't see the blind, they probably wont see you unless you move way too much. In general I find ground blinds allow you to get away with more than a lot of tree stands. I mean you have to be realistic, your head is what will be seen, so don't move that, but you can fidget your hands and feet all you want where you might get busted in a tree stand, you will be fine in a blind. Doing things like standing, stretching, or peeing is way easier in a blind. Even from a scent perspective, I truly believe a blind better conceals your scent than being in an open tree stand. Best of all you are as protected from the elements as you can get without having windows. Even then you can get a Lucky blind with windows. I've been out in some nasty blizzards, sleet, rain, blinds are super nice for that. With a properly brushed in blind, you can get ridiculously close to animals, consistently closer than any other method I've ever found. It's nothing unusual to have deer 5 yards from a ground blind provided the wind is in your favor. By 50 yards you are all but invisible. One thing I forgot. If you get a Lucky's blind, get the sliding mesh windows, I love those things. |
Joined:
Sep 2022
Posts:
2423
EE: 0% (0)
TX, USA
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Been hunting the TX hill country since I was 14 years old, and the most luck I’ve had is in a box blind on ground level with multiple shooting lanes. I’ve hunted from pop-ups and tripods a couple times, but never got one from either. The places I hunt don’t have much elevation, and sight lines are short because of all the damn cedar. So something that is in place that the deer are used to seeing seems to be the way to go. |