Today’s advanced blind technology will make you vanish in any hunting environment, and keep you dry and comfortable in the worst weather conditions.
by the HuntDaily staff
As hunters, we spend a lot of time and money on not being seen. Heck, there are very few items in our arsenal that isn’t sporting some form of camo pattern. The goal, of course, is to blend into our hunting environment as best we can to avoid detection.
This melding with the natural world, however, often has practical limits. You can dress from head-to-toe in camo, but once you crawl into your blind, the walls around you and the legs that support you determine how well you’re hidden. Often, to keep costs low, hunting blinds are built using materials and construction methods that lead to boxy forms and unnatural right angles, resulting in structures that can look out of place when plunked into the woods. Even when a box blind is placed beside the obscuring silhouette of an oak tree, the compromised location may not be the optimum spot to take advantage of the best game trails or watering holes.
The more portable pop-up blinds, brush blinds, and tripod stands draped in camo netting have their own drawbacks, not least of which is what they look like after the first storm blows through.
The solution, of course, is rugged and realistic 3D blinds that look so natural that even hunters don’t know they aren’t real at first glance. For an example of just how thoroughly you can conceal yourself, take a tour through the lineup from Nature Blinds.
The company’s series of American-made blinds are shaped like tree trunks, with realistic bark textures designed to integrate into any environment in North America. Unlike a lot of blinds, they can sit anywhere—even in an open field—and not be out of place.
The largest of Nature Blind’s offerings is the HERO™ model. With an interior diameter of 64×66 inches and an 84-inch interior height, this is a blind that can easily accommodate more than one hunter. It has multiple black-out windows, providing several vantage points for shooting with a firearm or bow, and featuring a wide angle of view. The HERO is an ideal choice for introducing new hunters to the sport, being that it is insulated and carpeted, and thus a more comfortable initiation to hunting than shivering in a conventional exposed or fabric blind. You can even add a small heater to make the space extra toasty.
A big part of concealment, of course, is silence. If you’ve ever clambered into your “make-do” blind and cringed while opening or closing the windows as the shriek of hook and loop fasteners ripped through the pre-dawn stillness, you can appreciate the HERO’s silent windows that operate via pullcord. The insulation that keeps you warm also dampens noise from restless young hunters that might spook game.
Not all hunting situations are similar, of course, so Nature Blinds offers realistic blinds in a variety of sizes. The SOLO™ model is a slimmed-down alternative to the HERO, with a 57-inch interior diameter and an overall height about 3-1/2 inches shorter. It also is carpeted and insulated, with multiple vantage points. At only 250 lbs, the SOLO doesn’t require extraordinary muscle to be positioned out in the field. Both the SOLO and HERO boast a large, lockable access door that makes it easy to enter the blind while loaded with packs and hunting gear.
Many times, however, you want the open-air experience, and for those hunts Nature Blinds has the HideOut™ model—a modular two-piece system that provides 180 degrees of coverage (or even 360 degrees if you combine two of them). Like the other Nature Blinds, the HideOut has an exposed trunk/bark surface. The HideOut has three shooting rests and is perfect for those situations when you want to leave a fixed position to stalk. It breaks down easily for transport in a truck bed or ATV.
If you need to travel even lighter (like only eight pounds), Nature Blinds has the Larry Weishuhn Signature Series StalkingShield™.
When you need to lure the game to you, the company offers the Big Oak Feeder™, a dead-ringer for an oak tree stump. The feeder holds 200 pounds of corn or feed of your choice, and can sling it out to 20 yards. Set it near your stock tank or pond and the realistic feeder can also be used to feed fish during the off-season.
Given its price and size, the handmade Nature Blind HERO isn’t for everyone, but the rest of the lineup hits a variety of price points, and financing is available. If you regularly hunt over green fields, active field edges, established deer funnels, or have property that gives you the flexibility set up in choice locations, the HERO and SOLO are your answer to hunting in stealth and comfort for many years to come.
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article copyright © 2016 HuntDaily.com; promoted by Nature Blinds
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