elevated box stands

[JD338]

The stand I have in the woods has that exact issue. I made it years ago to take the kids out with me out of left over steel from my shed. Several years later I decided to fully enclose it. Well it’s a little tight to get a barrel out the window without making enough noise to wake the dead. Lesson do not make a stand out of steel.

If you put some blue foam insulation on the inside, it will keep it warmer and dampen the noise.

JD338

 

[jimbires]

I think the noisiest one I've hunted out of , is the plastic drum . they are bad , about like beating on a drum . these get very hot too .

 

[truck driver]

From a mechanic to a carpenter, good looking woodwork. I see your putting my money to good use.

 

[KinleyWater]

we are not going to insulate them to start . we are going to see how they work out first . we will put a buddy heater in each of them when it starts to get cold and see how they do . I'm worried about bee's getting in the insulation , or between the insulation and plywood . nothing worse than being cooped up with a bee's nest .

do you have an idea how big you're going to build ? the reason I ask is , I have pics of 4' square I'll gladly post up if you think they would help you . these are stands I've hunted out of in N.Carolina . they don't have windows , but could give you an idea .

I'd welcome any ideas, thank you.

I'm thinking of building on the larger size for my wife and I. I know I'll want to be able to insulate it, but I may want to be able to remove the insulation, hence why I was thinking the foam-board type stuff. Maye use velcro tape (sorry, I meant: tape, fastener, hook and loop... anyone?) so I can rip it out at the end of the season and put it back in after bow the next year.

I have one of the buddy heaters, which we used in a weather pinch a few years back to keep chickens alive in an uninsulated coop. They work amazingly well.

 

[jimbires]

From a mechanic to a carpenter, good looking woodwork. I see your putting my money to good use.

I'm spendin club money on this project .

 

[jimbires]

I'd welcome any ideas, thank you.

I'm thinking of building on the larger size for my wife and I. I know I'll want to be able to insulate it, but I may want to be able to remove the insulation, hence why I was thinking the foam-board type stuff. Maye use velcro tape (sorry, I meant: tape, fastener, hook and loop... anyone?) so I can rip it out at the end of the season and put it back in after bow the next year.

I have one of the buddy heaters, which we used in a weather pinch a few years back to keep chickens alive in an uninsulated coop. They work amazingly well.

I'll dig around and post up what I have . I hunted N,Carolina last year , these stands are all they use . I knew we were going to be doing something on our lease so I took some pics so I had an idea how they were built . I've hunted with three different outfitters and they all used stands that look the same . someone nearby sells them I'm guessing .

 

[JD338]

Here is the blind I made. It's 6'x6'x6'. The roof pitch isn't much because I used 2x4" studs on 24" centers and 2x10x12" for the trusses and cut in half. Then I found the center at 3' and snapped a chalk line outward to the end which was 1 1/2" creating a solid truss. Minimal waste this was on expensive lumber. Cost ended up being around $700.
We also have a couple of Amish made blinds that are the same size. These have metal roofs and tinted plexiglass windows.
Each one has a Buddy heater with a 10 lb propane tank in the blind. These are $500. We have another one coming in May.

JD338

 

[jimbires]

JD , the one that's getting painted , is similar to the ones we got prices on . peaked metal roof , the walls are planks with strips . yours has nicer size windows than the ones we priced . . I tried to get the pics and prices off my phone but it won't let me . yours look great . that's a bucket full on the tractor .

 

[JD338]

Jim,
Those Amish made blinds weight 1000 lbs. Tractor has beat juice ballast in the rear tires and I had the box blade on for additional weight. Although the tractor weighs 7000 lbs, I'm a little nervous lifting one up to put on a 6' platform!

JD338

 

[jimbires]

JD , I know what you mean . if something starts to go wrong , there is no stopping it . the shed weight is out in front of the bucket , so it's multiplying .

I figured out a work around . LOL it's called a camera . dang smart phones always showing me who's smarter .

 

[Dr. Vette]

Jim,
The blind looks great. I built one and bought two that were Amish made. Even with the current lumber prices that have come down, I can't build one for what I'm paying for the Amish made blinds.
Post pictures of your blind with you get it raised.

JD338

Where did you get them?

There are a couple of guys building them in our area, but the ones I've talked to won't do any modifications to them.

 

[jimbires]

I'd welcome any ideas, thank you.

I'm thinking of building on the larger size for my wife and I. I know I'll want to be able to insulate it, but I may want to be able to remove the insulation, hence why I was thinking the foam-board type stuff. Maye use velcro tape (sorry, I meant: tape, fastener, hook and loop... anyone?) so I can rip it out at the end of the season and put it back in after bow the next year.

I have one of the buddy heaters, which we used in a weather pinch a few years back to keep chickens alive in an uninsulated coop. They work amazingly well.

the guys in N.Carolina don't dig holes for the legs , these just set on top of the ground , and they anchor them . the legs are one board from the ground to the roof , 14'. this makes the floor about 8' high . the seat is a plank that rests on a board on each side . the plank can slide to get you closer or farther from the windows . the seat set up is this outfitters idea .

problems with this stand ;
the ladder is straight up , since they used one of the legs for the ladder
the side plywood is 4' high making the opening way to high to shoot from . so they raised the plank seat so it's easier to shoot out of . but the seat was so high my feet didn't touch while seated .
should have closed the top of the walls down some . the rain blows right in .

 

[JD338]

Where did you get them?

There are a couple of guys building them in our area, but the ones I've talked to won't do any modifications to them.

Black Dog Farm
Blanchard, MI
Dave
C 989-944-3907

These blinds are heavy duty. You will need a flatbed trailer and forks to get it off the trailer

JD338

 

[JD338]

the guys in N.Carolina don't dig holes for the legs , these just set on top of the ground , and they anchor them . the legs are one board from the ground to the roof , 14' . the seat is a plank that rests on a board on each side . the plank can slide to get you closer or farther from the windows . the seat set up is this outfitters idea .

problems with this stand ;
the ladder is straight up , since they used one of the legs for the ladder
the side plywood is 4' high making the opening way to high to shoot from . so they raised the plank seat so it's easier to shoot out of . but the seat was so high my feet didn't touch while seated .
should have closed the top of the walls down some . the rain blows right in .

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I thought about doing something like this but the blinds are too big/heavy and my loader isn't high enough.
My builder has a sky lift, maybe I could get him to bring it over.

JD338

 

[jimbires]

this stand is 4' off the ground , and 4' square . the outfitter told me a lot of his clients don't want to get in the higher stands . I might have a good pic of the outside on my phone. this was a nice comfy stand . nice steps too . it's just setting on the ground and anchored .

I'll put a part 2 with more pics

 

[JD338]

That might just be my best option. Our blinds sit on top of ridges so we already have vantage point. An additional 4' would be advantageous for visibility into the swamps we overlook.
Thanks for posting these pictures Jim, very much appreciated.

JD338

 

[jimbires]

part 2 , I'm going to do a part 3

corners at , mid , floor , roof . you can see they are not concerned with snow load on the roof






this shows the corner , and on the right side of pic is the door edge .





looking out the door window . the top of the door .

 

[jimbires]

part 3

only problem I see with this stand is there is nothing under the metal roof . it condensates and drips on the hunter .

pics of roof inside





underneath floor

 

[jimbires]

I think these are built cheap so when they start to rot they toss them and get another . you can see there's not much floor support . the roof is just kind of nailed in .

a couple of thoughts ;
a comfortable distance between the window bottom and seat top is 16"

I made my door 30" wide . it will be easy to get in with heavy clothes .

 

[JD338]

My door is wide too, easy in/out with a backpack on. The Amish built blinds are narrow.

JD338