RE: pop up blinds
I have a Doghouse. This past April, I set it up on a field road between a plowed cornfield and a grass pasture, in the woods, but right on the road. To describe more, there is a tract of woods to the south and east, a plowed cornfield to the north and east, a pasture to the west and south and a finger of woods to the north and west, stretching out into another chunk of woods north and west of my location and I' m in the middle/at the junction of these features, on a road that connects the cornfield with the pasture. I put a decoy at the edge of the pasture in the road, and a decoy at the edge of the cornfield in the road. My blind hindered the view of one decoy from the location of the other decoy, both ways, as the blind was in the middle of the road. The road is only 75 yards long, at most. It was raining. I was dry. When I heard a tom gobble in the south and east woods at flydown, I responded, he flew down and headed my way. A hen and two jakes flew down from the finger of woods to the north and also headed my way. One of the jakes danced around my decoy for five minutes or so, me and my Doghouse blind in plain view 25 yards away, then the tom came into view out of the woods, so I shot him. None of the birds seemed afraid of the blind, though they all did eyeball it suspiciously. Later that week I set up about 35 yards in from the edge of a plowed soybean field in a rainstorm and had a parade of 25 turkeys walk by 65 yards from me out in the field (during the rain). Had I set up at the edge of the field, I' m sure I' d have been able to lace one, as they showed no reaction/response to the blind, at all. My mistake, in my opinion, on that occasion was where I put my decoys--in the grass instead of in the plowing-- and where I put the blind--not close enough to the field edge. Anyway, I think pop up blinds are marvelous, and think they work wonderfully. If you use a bow, they' re indispensable, as you can move to draw your arrow without getting busted.