Hiding the deer blind you plan to hunt out of is one of the most critical strategies for its potential to fool a mature buck. Unfortunately, hunters have gotten so caught up in following the trends of professional hunters, that they often doom their new deer hunting blind location before the season even arrives by simply placing it like a watchtower over their food plots. In low hunting pressure states like Iowa and Kansas, these tactics may be acceptable. However, in states like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, hunting pressure is much higher. By the time a buck reaches maturity, he has seen it all, and realizes the dangers of a box tower in a field.
One Time to Capture a Buck from Your Blind
If your property is developed properly to gain bucks throughout the fall, bucks will be elsewhere in the summer months. As bucks disperse in late September and early October, they have not had time to grow accustomed to boxy figures in there in their dispersal habitat. Imagine a buck traveling to your parcel for the first time in the early fall and being spooked by a large unfamiliar object on or near a food source that he expected to be a safe zone. It can take that buck several weeks to feel confident enough to travel near the area again, if he ever does! Does and fawns that occupy a parcel can be extremely misleading. They will put up with a lot more disturbance and interference than mature bucks will and have often had much more time throughout the summer to get used to box blinds within their habitat. By breaking up the outline of the blind, you can ensure that bucks moving onto your property will not be spooked by the new blind location. When considering your deer blind strategies, make sure that it looks as natural as possible! If you'd like a better understanding of the annual whitetail habitat shift, and how it relates to mature bucks on your property, check out Jeff's article on The Whitetail Shift of Summer to Fall Habitat.
The video below details how we will be concealing a Redneck Blind on Jeff's property.
Choosing and Concealing a Blind Location
In order to invest your effort, time, and money in a new deer blind location, you should be sure the area is ideal. Access is key! Being able to sneak in and out of your blind without spooking deer on a food source or bumping bedding areas is critical! Masking the blind with natural foliage, can go a long way. In the blind location described in the video above, we will be hinging the box elder to screen the stand and blind so that it will be extremely difficult to be busted by deer while entering, hunting, or exiting the blind. We highly recommend using a scent tight blind, like the Redneck Buck Palace. These blinds are extremely high quality, quiet, and do a great job of holding your scent so that you will not spook deer!
Conclusion
Hunting out a blind can be extremely rewarding! Jeff and his son were both extremely fortunate to harvest mature bucks out of their redneck blind during the late season. Their property does not hold mature bucks in the summer months. By screening the blind with Egyptian Wheat and breaking up its outline, the bucks that took residence on their parcel in October were not spooked by the new boxy feature in their habitat. This season, we will be moving a blind location much deeper into the parcel. By utilizing these deer blind strategies and keeping our access concealed, creating a natural mask of box elder, and using a high quality scent tight blind, we expect to encounter and harvest the most mature bucks on the property out of this new blind location!
By Dylan Lenz
