There are lots of tower blinds down in Texas that are set on metal supports and I never heard of anyone getting zapped by lightning.

i'd worry bout that rust at minimum. other than that looks ok.

6ft into the ground will be fine, I would grind the rust off the embedded portion and apply coal tar epoxy to said embedded portion and then you should be good to go. the poles taper at a rate of .14 inches per ft....that will help you determine your tip diameters. Don't remove the bearing plates on the bottom of the poles, they are there to keep the poles from spinning or pulling out of the ground.

we are a building and electrical contractor and at first my thought was ...good idea but tons of work for a stand. Then I started going through the structural process...cross bracing is a must...10 feet high is plenty to base of platform. Why not make the poles part of your four corners? Build your blind within the four poles not on top. still bracing 1/2 way up would be required. Secure 2x6 through bolted into pole as a frame (or box beam) around four poles and place floor rafters with hangers 16 o.c..... if your poles still have the mounting bases attached they can be bolted to a sonotube , concrete poured and have threaded rod (5/8" min) and just bolt them to your poured sonotube 36" deep minimum...48" if you want to beat the frost...Last and most important item...brass bolt mech connection or weld or thermoweld a ground wire #6 copper from each pole without cutting the wire and connect to 2- 8' ground rods (5/8" ) $12.00 bucks each...so it runs as a complete circuit to the first ground rod then to the second ground rod...no breaks in the wire! Rods are driven straight down flush with ground...
Wow lots of work...what if this stand location is NG...hope you though of that :)

Sounds like some expensive stands too. I'd only put something like this up for a club where liability is an issue and even then I'm pretty sure something like this requires a build&zoning permit. Round here those are required for a structure that's permanent and this thing is definitively that.

Saying that, it should work well, way over kill. I'd scrape the steel and build some less permanent ones out of wood with the money. Lighting is definitively a concern. Things elevated and made out of steel.

not that it matters (because his poles are embedded not anchor bases) but 5/8 bolts are not acceptable for the poles he has. If they had anchor bases on them a minimum anchor bolt size of 1" dia would be required.

lmao at a permit to build a deer blind...someone call the electrician :hit:

It's not a deer blind, it's an obsevation tower. A deer blind would be just fine, this is a tower, like a water tower. Powerful structure.

Just trying to get some perspective out there on what this "little" project is becoming. This is no blind. What about it is blind to anybody anyways. :)

i dont think he is actually puttin it 33' in the air?

!8 feet plus the height of the box makes it close to 25 and up isn't the issue it's down in the ground, 6' in the ground. What blinds do you use that must be sunk in concrete 6' in the ground?