Ground Blind Hunting

[TKE921]

I may be hunting for the first time this year out of a ground blind.  The blinds will be set up a week or two before season, with one kept in reserve for a pop up hunt.  My question for the placed blinds is:  Do you have to worry about brushing them in for turkey hunting?  Most of them will be near trees or brush, but one will more than likely be in the open?

Thanks for any info!

[wvlimbhanger]

Not at all. I've put em up in fields  before daylight and killed birds just after fly down. They don't shy away from them like deer.

[jims]

I would think given 2 weeks with no disturbance after setting up you should be ok.  I've set up near roosting areas in Nebraska the day I was hunting and pretty much spooked turkeys completely away from their roost.  It was around the time they were just starting to break up into smaller flocks and the blind seemed to speed up the winter flock break up process.  On the first day there were over 200 turkeys roosting in the trees...next day around 100...and next day around 25.   I never saw many of them once this happened. 

I have a feeling turkeys in different parts of the country don't wander like they do during the spring in Nebraska so it may depend upon the particular bird behavior/spring movements in your particular area and the timing of when you set up blinds.  As another example, most merriams in the foothills and mtns in Colo are known as wanderers so there isn't much use for a blind unless they hold up in a particular area due to food or lack of hunting pressure on a particular patch of private ground.  I have never hunted easterns and they may spend their entire life in a 20 acre area..not sure...but if this is true a blind may not matter as much?

[MK M GOBL]

Never had a bird shy away from a blind, we have set them up right in the middle of a open field and they will walk right to them. My experience has been is if it don't move turkey don't care. Now I would still make sure the blind is completely blacked out behind you in the blind, birds will see motion in the blind otherwise and will spook from that. Also if being left out that long stake them out right or you may be in for a surprise from a windy day...

MK M GOBL

[fallhnt]

x2...The blinds you leave out better be staked down really well. No need to brush. Good luck

[TKE921]

Thanks for the info about brushing them in!.  We put up blinds and leave them out all deer season here, unless they call for 6" or more of snow.  I have 9" stakes for the loops on the corners of the blinds and the same stakes for the lines to keep the hubs tight.  I also use the extendable primos blind support pole in the interior.  We drill a hole in the top of it so it will actually fit completely over the nut on the roof hub.