Have any of you ever had a problem with pop-up blinds spooking birds? Do birds seem just as comfortable around blinds. In my own experience I have never noticed a difference.

Lking, I had my doghouse brushed in this past spring. called up a hen, and she didn' t pay my decoy any attention at all. all she was interested in was that dang blind. she putted and walked all around it very curious. I beleive if I' d been in a wide openin there' s no way that hen would have stayed there as long as she did.
I think it depends on the turkeys your huntin. private land turkeys that are seldome hunted, I don' t beleive would be as spooked of the blind as would be turkeys on public land or land that' s hunted a lot.

now, I called up a big tom about 2:00 one evenin, and I was in an old home made blind that I had set up 2 weeks before season opened. he was not a bit spooked of that blind, because he was used to seein it there ever day.

I' m not convinced that a big smart tom will not pay a pop up blind any attention, even if it' s brushed in. I' ll beleive it when I see it.

I set my Ameristep blind up out in the open and not brushed in, about three days before the season opened. The first day I hunted I took a nice 22 lb Merriam. I saw a lot more birds from the blind than I ever had before. Yes some of the turkeys would eye the blind but none showed any fear of it.

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.

New memeber here, but I wanted to comment on this topic:

I had several experiences a couple of weeks ago while using my new Double Bull blind that convinces me that the birds definitely do notice and will be leary of it if it' s setup the morning of the hunt, brushed in or not. While I also believe there are exceptions, I' ll be setting it up at least 3 days before I plan on using it!

Good luck to all.......

J

I don' t have a lot of expierence here...but, last week I set up a Double Bull under an oak tree in the middle of a pasture & within the hour had a 2 year old Tom with 20 yards.....

We srt up a Doghouse blind in the dark. At 5:30 we called in and killed a nice eastern at 15 yards . He never knew ...