eiowaarcher
Member
I know there was a similar thread going on last year but just curious what some of you guys have built or used for your box blinds. Set-Ups you really like and of course things you won't do again.
Here's a little something I threw together on my farms, I think I have ten of these all together. Nothing fancy but they work ok!
Awesome!! How do you control your scent though with all those windows?
Don't forget about the orange on all 4 sides if using it during shotgun seasons. That is what those "U" shaped brackets are below each window in the pic of my blind. I open the window when I get to the blind and insert the orange square made from wood into the brackets and when I'm done hunting they are easy to remove.
I think the orange is there for the smaller pop up camo ground blinds that also get brushed in. Some of those are hard to see at 75 yards and you can't see the orange the hunter is wearing. To each their own on building or buying a blind. I have $300 in mine and would hard pressed to find a store made one that would even come close to comparison at that price.
I bought the brackets for $85 on the internet, windows were $20 each on sale at Menards, side panels were free, most of the 2 x 4's I had from other projects or by brother had. I will admit if I had to go and buy everything at the lumber yard new, I would have a couple more hundred easy. I didn't have to paint anything due to the panels are already painted, had several pieces of those carpet squares a guy gave me, shingles left over from another project. I did have about $30 in metal trim a friend here in town made me, he has a metal shop setup in his garage.Seriously curious... How can it be close to $300? I just got done building 4 and using the cheapest material I could find & it was no where near that. Those brackets you have the 4x4's stuck to are like $100 per blind or something like that (I can't remember, bro got those but something like that). Windows, all I could find, the cheapest were still somewhere in the ballpark of $30-$75 each & I had $200+ into windows alone. Then buying all the screws, treated lumber (4x4's, 2x4's, 2x10's, treated panel or plywood), paint, hinges, carpet for base, staples, caulk, roofing (wood, then tar paper then metal), etc, etc, etc - things get way more $ into them than I wished - not even in the ballpark of $300. If you have some ways to save some serious $, I'm open for sure.
here's more detailed on what I have into mine, I'm missing a lot of things, I know & I may be off a little/ballparks. I'd really like suggestions on saving some funds for sure.
per blind:
- Paint, $30 per blind
- Windows, $200 per blind
- Hinges, $20
- Caulk & foam, $20
- All roofing from wood to tar tape to metal, $60
- Treated 4x4's & 2x4's & 2x10's - $125
- treated plywood, $150
- Deck screws, $30
- Brackets for base to raise to attach 4x4's - $100
- foam strips for sealing things - $15
- Carpet $20
- Staples & fasteners for roof, etc - $20
- Misc extra costs I'm missing & all the other things I didn't plan for $50
- Time, 10-12 hours per blind - FREE
TOTAL: $840.
In all honesty, I did upgrade a lot of above items to nicer things on 2 of the blinds, better carpet, better wood, some custom things, blah blah blah and I have another $200 but most folks would never do those things, so I'm over $1000 but $840 was about as cheap as I could do it or did one. If I billed myself for time, electricity on tools & my building, wear on tools, etc - oh man.