Here's my thoughts on blinds:

I will never, with a rifle, handgun, crossbow, or bow, shoot through the mesh. Period. I use the mesh on some of my side windows as a partial wind block and to block visibility looking IN, but still let me see out, but if I might shoot through a certain window, I don't have ANYTHING in my way. I do stick my rifle muzzle through the mesh. But I will never 'shoot through' mesh.

I wear black in my blind, sit as far to the back as I can, and leave the back windows closed. Leaving the back windows open allow deer to pick you out against the background. We have ALL seen deer swing their head side to side, up and down while staring right at us. They do this to help judge distance through parallax (the foreground objects appear to move more quickly than background objects). If my color blends in with the back wall, and am close to it, deer can't pick me out inside as easily. Between parallax and "hey what's that dark figure in that box?", I don't want any light or color behind me.

Sitting near the back wall also gives me plenty of room to maneuver for the shot.

I scrape the ground under my blind to bare dirt, or lay down a blanket. Nothing makes you feel more stupid than spooking a deer by crushing a twig or dry leaf underfoot while sitting in your blind, trying to maneuver to shoot.

I used leave my windows down all the time (the ones that I have down while hunting at least). Then I got tired of having sticks and leaves and critters find their way into the blind when I wasn't there, so I started spray painting my window covers black so they look like they're down, even when they're up. Eventually, I just bought some black fabric and velcro'd it to the front of the windows, so I can change which windows are open/black and which are just camo. A buddy of mine spray painted the mesh black on his, then pulls the Velcro mesh off. I HATE Velcro, even in the early mornings before light. Way too loud.

The idea with leaving the windows down (or blacking them out): It's dumb to think a deer doesn't notice your blind. They know something is there, even if it just seems like a big camo box. The camo, I believe in, because I think it helps them be comfortable with something that LOOKS like it should be there. BUT, if that big camo box suddenly opens its big black eyes and looks totally different, deer will notice.

I look at it this way: Would you put a black 55gallon drum out beside your blind on days you're hunting? A lot of blind windows are about that big. You can bet a deer will notice and avoid a big black oil drum, why would you think they wouldn't notice and avoid the big black holes suddenly showing up in your blind?

I also practice shooting from seated and kneeling inside my blind.

Invest in hangers, shelves, lights, whatever you need inside your blind. Having everything at easy access, and being able to see well enough to get set up is important to me. I don't want to make a ton of noise settling into my blind, don't want to waste time fumbling to pick up my bow, or set down my rangefinder for a shot.