So you are out on your hunt, and although it seems there is tons and tons of game, you really just can’t find anywhere to find cover? You look and look, and it is just an impossible task, so you give up and go home. Ok maybe you don’t go home, but did you know if you had a hunting blind it would make things fifty times easier! Maybe you don’t even have the money to pay for this expensive luxury.

Not to worry! You can build a hunting blind and we’re going to show you how. Building a hunting blind is a great way to truly make it your hunt. Anywhere you want and at any size you want anywhere in the woods. The great part about it is its all natural. All you will need is just some equipment and a few tools. Let’s get started.

How to build the hunting blind:

Step 1: Tools to get

Along with your normal hunting gear list, We will need some tools to break up wood and tie them together. I will say anything that is strong enough to cut through wood, and keep it tied together will suffice, but here is what we recommend anyway:

• Pliers
• Machete
• Hatchet
• Baling wire and or any type of strong string
• Small snips
• Measuring tape

This will be enough to help you naturally build up your blind so it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to get these tools together. So now, let’s build!

Step 2: Find your hunting spot

We want to find a good spot to set up our blind. Where ever you think you’ll have the clearest and best shot will do. Also, make sure there is enough room for you to set up your blind so that everyone in the hunting group can fit. It would be a shame if you build it up and only two out of your three person group is able to fit in the blind!

 Step 3: Find saplings

The next part, while always taking the size of our blind into consideration, is finding long saplings about 2” thick in your surrounding area. When you find a long enough sapling, take out your hatchet and start chopping down however much sapling you need.

Always cut them a half a foot longer than needed for good measure and stability of your hunting blind. Each sapling length will be a side of your blind.  We will also need sapling lengths as tall as you want your height of the blind to be. Really, your blind doesn’t need to be that tall. We recommend building one the same height as you. This will be good enough because we will be crouching most of the time anyway.

Step 4: Building walls

First, we want to place the four vertical sticks by sticking them in the ground, of which you may have to do some digging. Each stick should be located where you want each of your four corners of the blind to be. For each corner it may be a good idea to place two vertical saplings in the shape of an upside down “V” and tie them at the top.

This will take 8 vertical saplings in all and it will give you a bit more sturdiness to your blind. The next thing you will want to do is collect the horizontal saplings and place them horizontally connecting each corner of the blind. At the ends where the horizontal saplings connect with their corner post saplings, tie them and secure them with your wire or rope so that each end is stable.

We will want to do this three or four times for each wall of your blind. This will create a sort of fence where we will have 3 or 4 saplings parallel to each other on each side of the blind.

The first wall will be the trickiest because there is no stability to your blind just yet, but trust me it gets easier. Also, make sure that you can get in and out of your blind without breaking it or ruining it. It’s best to build one of the walls a little higher so that you can make a little crawl door to conveniently get in or out.

Don’t make this wall the same as your shooting side wall. Try to build your blind to optimize flow and convenience while still maintaining sturdiness and usefulness.

Step 5: Covering the sides

So now that we have the framework and walls put up, it’s time to cover ourselves from the eyes of our prey. This may be very easy, or very hard depending on what season, and what type of forest and hunting environment you find yourself in. What we want to do is ideally find fallen tree branches that are laying on the ground. Make sure you gather up anything you can find.

We want branches with as many leaves as possible, which can be interwoven into the walls truly masking our outpost. We may want to add a sapling or two that run vertically with the corners of our blinds, just to make it easier to weave in some more leaves and branches.

Also, keep in mind that we want one side to have clear shooting lanes. We don’t want to cover these up with too many branches and leaves in order to get some clear shots off. Jump into your blind every now and then and test it out. See if there is sufficient amount of space for your shooting lanes or not.

Step 6: Finishing up the inside

Now, for the finishing touches, get on in your new stealthy blind and sit in it for a minute or two. Take your snips with you and inspect the sides. Trim away any loose hanging branches or unneeded brush. We especially want the sides of the inside of our blind to look clean and fresh. The last thing we want is to brush up against a free hanging brank, and scare that pretty looking doe away when we are just about to shoot it.

Enjoy!

 So now you have your first all-natural hunting blind! Hop in and get comfortable. This blind, if built properly and with enough attention to detail, has the potential to be long lasting and incredibly useful.

This is a great skill to have for any hunter, because let’s face it, hunting can be downright scrappy and very unpredictable, and we don’t always find an ideal spot to post up and wait for our prey. Since our hunting blind is sort of make shift, we may need to make some adjustments during our hunt, but no worries. Make sure the insides are always clipped and looking clean, and that there are no loose hanging branches.

We need to be stealthy as possible when behind this blind! Also, if made properly, we could even move the blind to a different location simply by picking it up, so there are more possibilities than we may have thought. Enjoy the hunt, and let us know if you have any questions, and post some of your home/forest made blinds to the Hunters Wall for everyone to check out!