About Elevated Hunting Blinds

Elevated hunting blinds offer hunters an advantage over the animals they pursue, and most commonly are associated with deer hunting. But such stands are an option anytime hunters have to outmatch the keen senses of sight, smell and hearing that many game animals possess. Hunters using elevated blinds are above their quarry and concealed by a wall or other object.

Function

Elevated hunting blinds are designed to hide hunters from the game animals that they are hunting, whether in a forest or open landscape. Whereas deer quickly would spot hunters sitting on logs, for example, the deer would stand less of a chance of seeing hunters sitting 10 to 15 feet high in a tree. And because hunters in an elevated blind are surrounded by wooden walls or camouflage fabric, animals are not able to spot movement that likely would alarm them.

Types

Elevated hunting blinds can take a variety of forms. Some feature a wooden box that sits atop wooden legs. These types, used most often in open landscapes like fields or prairies, allow hunters to move as much as they want since they are completely enclosed. In other cases, blinds are little more than fabric that hunters use in conjunction with their deer stand. In that case, hunters climb into their stands and the fabric, usually on small plastic or metal poles, is placed in front and on the sides of them.

Size

The sizes of elevated hunting blinds range from blinds that conceal only hunters who are sitting down or standing to those that allow full freedom of movement. Some of the largest blinds have heaters, chairs and tables in them. Most, however, are not much larger than the hunters themselves and serve only to conceal them from easy view of the animals.

Misconceptions

Most of the animals that hunters target have keen senses that are far superior to those that humans possess. While elevated hunting blinds help to reduce animals' advantage over hunters in that regard, they are not a silver bullet in ensuring a successful hunt. Even hunters in blinds must be cognizant of keeping noise to a minimum, reducing as much as possible the scent trail they leave, and being as still as possible.

Expert Insight

Hunters must consider their overall strategy and animal movement when they decide whether or not to use elevated hunting blinds. Since blinds themselves are large objects or attached to trees, hunters lose mobility when using them. That is fine in some cases, such as when blinds are located near known feeding or resting areas, or other places hunters know animals to be. But when hunters are hunting in new areas, or the animals are moving and not regularly coming back to the same areas, using hunting blinds actually can be detrimental to success. In those instances, hunters are better off determining where the animals are and how they are behaving before using an elevated blind.