Building the Ultimate Legacy Duck Blind

one of the things I like most about waterfowl hunting is that silence in the early dawn that comes before the morning flight the distant quack of the first bird the splash the first fish or the slap of a beaver tail on the water then the fireworks of the sky magically appear as the low angle the Sun illuminates the clouds into nature's most spectacular artwork it's like my soul being roused from a deep sleep and for all this I have a front row seat for the past 14 years we've hunted on my small private lake in Upper Michigan we built a simple 4 foot by 8 foot plywood box blind and the transition zone between the lake and an active wood duck roost in a marsh directly behind the blind having built the blind just a year after I purchased the property we only had a year's worth of experience hunting the lake behind us and not all the best decisions were made unfortunately moving a duck blind anchored in mud just isn't very practical it was built out of wood some of it treated some of it not the required repairs and constant attention each year it was like 90% of most of the duck blinds out there built from scraps with the mindset of just making it through the next season we added a boat hide after a few years we also extended it an extra eight feet unfortunately it was in the same spot and suffered the same trauma year after year the water level in the lake would change annually posing yet another problem my friend Craig suggested we lay the old lady to rest put the time and effort into a comfortable new blind it fixes all of our ills so onward to the design of the new blind being able to raise and lower the deck of the blind was necessary due to the change in water levels it would also accommodate being a good way to hide our boat underneath the deck of the blind we decided to construct a welded sea channel steel deck frame the head corners made from a sleeve of three and a half inch square pipe these four corners of square pipe would move up and down before support posts made of slightly smaller three-inch square pipe each corner would have an independent come along attached to it to be raised and lowered independently of the other corners we could basically raise and lower the blind to any level we wanted we would also make it from materials that could not rot deteriorate over time such as steel roofing panels in composite decking trust me it will become a little bit more clear once you see the photos don't be fooled I could have never conceived or done this project on my own without the skilled help of Craig as a master carpenter he's equipped with the most important tool in the toolbox the can do anything attitude here we pick up the steel from the steel supply house and Craig goes to work welding the frame now we need to get this behemoth out to the lake now that we have the frame out on the ice we cut holes in the ice so that the support posts can be inserted into the frame here we face our first unexpected challenge the vertical posts that will support the frame dock are made from three inch square pipe in their 24 feet long the way close to 200 pounds each picking them up isn't impossible with two people provided you do this horizontally trying to lift these vertically and lowering them into place was an impossible task Craig designed a tripod system made of sister 20-foot four by fours with a block and tackle to raise the bows up and into place I thought this would be an impossible task but was soon proven support posts were connected via rope to the block-and-tackle which distributed the weight to an ATV which was used to back up in order to raise the posts although the water levels only about four feet deep in this location the support posts went down about thirty feet before they hit a final resting spot inserts were made the couple to posts together it was a great feeling to finally have posts inserted and attach to come-alongs teach in the corners and raise the platform for the first time next I needed to haul materials how to install the floor joists this spring was approaching and the ice would soon be melting spring finally arrives and things start to look very very different and in what seems to be the blink of an eye summer arrives now all materials come in by boat now it's back to work as we start to frame in the rest of the blind took a sample of tree bark from one of the dead trees in the marsh to the paint shop and color matched our paint to the tree we used a Wagner spray gun connected to my generator and sprayed the entire blind the decking of the blind is all composite benches are made from three-quarter-inch treated plywood wood should be robust enough to last many years underneath the bench and I wired the blind with a 12 volt battery which when charged is enough power to last more than the entire season it powers lights and USB charging ports which I placed in three charging positions in the blind these little green strip lights set me back about ten dollars in Ron 12 volts I also invested in plastic gun boots and 34 pound magnets which hold and keep her gun safe when not being used now that everything's crushed in it's time to hunt as they get older I wonder what impact I might have after I leave this earth much of what I've done in my life will crumble and disintegrate shortly after I'm gone this makes one look closely at the things we do from a different and analytical perspective no matter how big or small your ambitions may be doing something right all in all with the tension to detail and perfection becomes a priority any look to leave behind a well provisioned trust account or perhaps a valuable car or maybe even an heirloom gun as an avid waterfowl hunter there was no better gift to give my children than to share with them the gift of the natural wonders that surround us this blind is the venue in in many ways the Genesis and culmination of this project you

Channel: Michigan Backwoods

Views: 13,153

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: duck hunting, ducks, duck blind, ducks unlimited, hunting, mallards, wood ducks, blinds, outdoors, duck commander, phil robertson, duck dynasty, waterfowl, waterfowl hunting, wildlife biology, michigan outdoors, duck hide, waterfowl blind, camouflage, camo blind

Id: kTL5b-SuiWw

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 10 2019