Couple of weeks ago I purchased the blind shown below.
It is a pop-up and works great (after I almost hurt myself perfecting the system to fold it down so it fits in little napsack) floor 5' x 5' , hight 5' 6" .
1. It STINKS, the factory smell of new fabric. I sprayed it several times with two kinds of scent eliminator - fresh earth and neutral, I left it popped up outside for few days, put some leaves, hay and even cow pancakes inside and out - it still has the original smell.
I am about to wash it with soft brush and baking soda, is it a good idea?
2. I' m planing to hunt a funnel app. 60yds wide, the deer travel west along the northern edge in the morning and the prevailing wind is west and north/west, so the ideal blind positiom for morning hunt would be app. at the middle of the open funnel facing north . There is very little cover at that point. Should I risk putting it at that spot and add some old branches to the existing cover, mind you I can' t leave it there for few days, I would have to pop it up well before first light and hunt.
Is it workable?
3. What is the lowest teperature that you can shoot a modern compound without risking any damage to the equipment or injury to yourself?

Like always any helpfull tips and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

as far as the smell you will probably just have to live with it for awhile. set it up in the backyard to air out. usually the blinds are better in the field if they are in place for some time to give the deer time to become accustomed to it.

I have had mine out for a month and the smell went away finally. And the thing will stay right where it is at. It is like yours and for the life of me I cant get it folded up again. It will just rot where it is at. I' m sticking to the natural brush made blinds from now on.

I bought a blind on Friday and I thought about the same things. They do smell right out of the box. Luckily I have a nice wooded area on my property. I took the blind into the woods and set it up. I threw a couple scent wafers inside. I figure I' ll let mother nature beat on it for a while.

If you need to use yours right away your best bet is to play the wind. If you can' t leave it for a few days in the area you' ll want to make it as invisible as possible. Put it near some trees and add some natural cover around it to help breakup the outline.

As far as temperatures go ... the coldest day that I can ever remember bow hunting was around 7 degrees farenheit. This was during the late bow season here in PA. The bow will definately tighten up with the colder weather. But I can' t say that I have ever experienced a problem with it. I just made sure things were clean and lubricated. Never had a problem with freezing or cracking.

Definitely continue to leave it outside for a few more days. The smell will eventually dissipate though I do not think it would hurt to scrub it down with baking soda either...as long as you rinse it and dry it thoroughly.

As for temps with a bow.....I have hunted in weather down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit without any ill effects to the bow or to my accuracy level with it. Beyond that I cannot comment.

I would also definitely recommend brushing in the blind when you set it up. Though I think they work well enough when the foliage is thicker, when it gets colder I think further cover is required.

Thanks everyone for taking your time to share your experience, I love this site.
I like the blind design (hey, I can even fold it down, hurray!!) and I' m itching to put it to work, so I' m declaring chemical warfare on that smell, I will fight the power, even if at the end I' m left just with the frame[8D]
Seriously, I must agree that they would perform way better with some foilage still on trees and bushes, now there are no leaves and we had first snow.