anybody use em? look durable enough, and nice to pack it up and take it witchya

I have 2 Ameristep Doghouse pop ups work very well. Pops up in seconds, keeps movements concealed well and your out of the elements. Take down isslightly longer but after a few times it is a snap. It is light and packable.Durablity is good but up here when the temerature plumets I found out how important it is to clear the sharp brushes from the base of the blind. We had some high winds causing the a few small tears where the branchs and thorns were touching the very bottom on one of my blinds. No function lost.

I leave my blinds up for deer in the same area for a couple of months, as such I use longer tent spikesvs the small ones that are provided to secure it downto ensure it stays well planted. When away I stick a centre brace in case of heavy wet snow so not to collapse the centre supports(just homemade with 2x2's and wrapped with a t-shirt to ensure it doesn't wear through the material of the roof). I place an old sleeping bag on the ground inside the blind to keep my feet off the frozen ground and eliminate some of the noise. This advice is of course just when you plan to leave it for extented periods, obviuosly as a pack in and hunt you don't need nor want these additions.

Their are better onesI am sure but at the price of these were i have been very satisfied.

FYI, A pic of one of blind set up

I have the Ameristep Outhouse for gun hunting , it's a real blessing when the wind is blowing or a sudden shower catches you unaware . I also had a larger hub style blind before my grandkids decided that it would make a fine playhouse . [:@] Pop-ups are great for the mobile hunter , you get weather protection and camoflage in one neat package , so you can set up on the fly nearly anywhere . They also help to reduce your scent signature .

I have a Double Bull T5 , it's 6 x 6 x 6 theres plenty of room inside to draw a bow and it sets up in less than a minute .
Take down in seconds and pack up real nice , not heavey at all .

I just bought the doghouse blind. It does pop up quite quickly, takes a little time to get the poles in place in the middle, but they're right...if you're going to leave it for a while it's better than sitting against a tree with rain on your head!

My question is what do you gun hunters do with the mesh material? Do you pull it out or pull the corners open so you can get your barrel through? I guess it's not to safe to fire sabots through the stuff? This will be my first season with a blind so looking for some help.

I unzip the top flaps instead of the shoot outs, just enough to see and get my barrel out plus see the entire target image through the scope. I don't sit on the ground in the blind so the shoot thrus are too low. If you do sit on the groundI'd just take the meshoff completely and unzip the main opening instead to whatever is required. I mainly use my pop up in the ML zone here, so a little more air flow is nice when you pull the trigger(gets a little smokey inside)!

I had deer last week pass in front of my blind @ about 10 yards. One of the trails comes out directly head on at 120 yards, the deer have a fence to contend with and often will stand just on the opposite sidelooking right at me in my blind, never had a problem. Though I do't start waving at them either!

Thanks! I think I'll tack the center of the mesh and let the rest of it hang. It seems to give more break up and maybe a little more cover. How do these things hold up in the wind...seems to be a concern with my hunting buddy.

Like mentioned before I leave my blinds set up for 2 months at crack and has endured lots of wind. The top rope off's are the most important, so either rope them off to decent base of trees/shrubs or find some 10-12" steel tent spikes to use in lieu of the provided ones. The first year I used them at the bottom 4 corners putting 2 inea spotand then rope off the top as I mention. No problems accept the small branches and thorns makes some wear marks in the material once the temperature got below 0.

As far as concealment you could also wear a face net or maybe even cut a msall hole in the mesh screen to poke the barrel out(just make sure the mesh doesn't cause problems with your sight picture or scope, so before cutting it just climb in the blind and look through the mess). I don't like velcro it has a tendacy to give at the worst possible times, so it would bemy last resort.Like I mentioned I haven't had any problems with deer becoming spooked my presence in the blind with the larger compartments open at the top. The biggest thing is gross movements,. I hunt on the groundmostly and many times don't employ the blind. I look for backing to break up my outline and pan with my eyes vs entire head, when a deer/game approaches I try not to get in a stare off with them as you don't usuallywin and move when they aren't directly looking at me. It can take awhile but eventually they'll direct their attention elsewhere to allow you to get position on them.

Any way good luck and enjoy

I have three, they are great. but if I don't take them up after season rats eat the bottum up.

Skeet: Thanks for the great suggestions. I've got one more week until I head to camp for opening weekend. I'll definitely take a look at cutting some shooting holes in the mesh. We've got 5 guys hunting the same land and we like to move around and mix things up---that just means I have to take into consideration rifles with scopes, shotguns, open sight rifles. I'll just big enough for all three to be comfortable.

Oh and the longer stakes are a great idea.