Duck Blind Help Needed

Get Bit · 07-06-2003, 08:08 AM

IFISH Hunters ,

In the process of planning a floating Duck Blind for the upcoming season. Our dilemma is what to use for flotation ? Have had suggestions ranging from pipe that is capped at both ends,barrels, old hot water heaters welded together, to traditional foam. Whaat do you guys think ? Any info is greatly appreciated.

Get Bit

Tilla · 07-06-2003, 09:12 AM

Kinda depends how transportable/permanent you want. Logs are durable but heavy. Some of the floating home builders have some large foam blocks left over. Modular plastic docks are manufactured and sold in boater supply mags, Jetdocking.com.

Lured In · 07-07-2003, 08:05 AM

How about old 50 gal drums?

You might also check to see if you can find an old "party barge" style pontoon boat. As long as it floats, you will have a stable and 'built' platform for the blind. Maybe see if you can find a boat junk yard or something to check out.

Good luck and let me know if you need help testing it out during the season.

:grin:

Blue Tip Spinner · 07-07-2003, 12:39 PM

i've hunted on floating blinds with plastic 55 gal drums. it worked great! very stable shooting platform, but it needs to be set up right. metal frame used to hold the barrels in place.

duck-boy · 07-07-2003, 03:21 PM

hey bit

we have several floating blinds, i would be glad to show you how we do it. you do live close to me and our lake is 10 minutes from here. if your interested e-mail me at moe315@earthlink.net
with your number and i'll be glad to show you some of them. we have built several for other lakes too and you wont have to worry about rusted drums or mice chewing the foam, oh ya there very easy to move too.

[ 07-07-2003, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: duck-boy ]

gottafish · 07-10-2003, 11:29 PM

Plastic berrals work awsome and the metal fram is a must, you wont be sorry. I use to hunt divers on the great lakes on a setup like that. cheers Rich

riverrat · 08-01-2003, 03:54 AM

an alternative to barrels would be HDPE pipe filled with foam. you can make your shooting platform any size since the pipe gets fuzed together making the joints leak-proof even at high pressure. you can check out familian, a company in washougal that will be able to customize your float. they have experience with building docks and rafts....if you need any help in contacting them feel free to e-mail me....tom

Beaver93 · 08-01-2003, 07:40 AM

We filled two 55 gallon plastic drums with spray foam and then cut them aprt. We mounted Simpson stong ties on them to attach to our frame. Then we encapsulated each half barrel with epoxy. It seemed to be plenty of floatation for our design.

Some background for you...

We sunk pipes in the ground on the bank of the creek and attached our blind similar to a pier attached to pilings. The guy on the next property down used our blind design, but attched his using some type of a screw-in eye-bolt and attched his blind to cables. I felt much more stable in ours' than in his. It worked great the two seasons I hunted out of it. Unfortunately I had to move and haven't used it since.

Corey