I'll start, had a grand idea on blind material, went to a bunch of 2nd hand shops and bought all the artificial Christmas trees they had. Thought I was on to something till I realized how heavy a bunch of those rascals are, needless to say the family had a good laugh and so did I. Cost me more to take to the landfill than to buy.
Butch,I now use a small magnet on a metal handle to help pick up my steel shotgun hulls.Always looking for ideas that are quick,fast,and in a hurry. Got mine at a auto supply if memory serves.
Butch, I got a good laugh out of your post. This reminds me of this doctor I hunted with who lived in Maryland. He came out here for two seasons and loved the idea of me brushing up my blind with evergreen bows. This was back in the very early 1990's so when he went back to Maryland he bought a bunch of artificial Ficus trees to use in place of evergreen bows. I don't know if you know what Ficus trees are but they use them for accents for interior designers to soften up the surroundings of a home or office. They have a real tree trunk perhaps 2 inches in diameter that they screw holes in so they can put artificial branches & leaves on the tree so you never have to water it.
So this doctor tells me about his idea and I mentioned to him that I thought those artificial trees would not hold up very well dragging them in and out of the vehickel for a whole season. So he buys roughly 6 of these trees that are not cheap and after using them on only two hunts he could finally see what I was talking about and like you he headed to the county landfill with those damn Ficus trees.
I remember one of our first hunts together he was insisting we setup in a spot he thought we would do real well in. I said you are the guest, but in my opinion I think we should be about 400 yards east of here? Well for the whole hunt that day almost all the birds were flying way east of our position perhaps 1/2 mile or more. At the end of the hunt he says to me "Bob, this is what you get when you listen to a damn know it all" I never will forget that hunt!
Good ideas fellow hunters! But originally I was wanting the stuff that didn't work as well as you wanted it to or was just a plain bust (lol) But a good idea to share the good stuff too! I've got a few on both sides of the fence. Amazing how many artificial Christmas trees you can buy for less than 30 bucks and it will suprize you what they will weigh (lol)
Butch
Bob,
I can relate to the Dr. I thought cutting blind material days were over! WRONG (lol)
Out here there are plenty of cedar trees so I cut new bows every four to five weeks. I haul my evergreens with me so they dry out in the back of the truck with in 4 - 5 weeks.
The doctor from Maryland did not have any good places to cut a bunch of greens so he was looking for a substitute in the Ficus trees.
I use about 60 feet of 550 cord with a lead duck anchor. I hook the anchor to the cord and toss it. Then take the anchor off and hook up the decoy and run it up into the tree and tie it off on a small branch. Very small and fast setup. I can quickly have both my sentries posted and get on to spreading my decoys. On the downside it was a little costly to set up since i was trying so many different ways to accomplish this.
I average cutting 3 times a season, cedar is great and works best for us. Most of the time we don't have to add anything but on occasion we utilize vegetation that is site specific, (corn stalks, etc)
Had a buddy hunt with me last fall. He shows up with his 12 gauge with his turkey choke in it. I laughed my butt off. He was a pretty good shot and did kill quite a few but he missed LOTS.
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