Had the opportunity to purchase the first boat i ever went duck hunting in when i was eight years old. Started building the blind this weekend. I will be hunting only with this boat this year and may put a copperhead on next summer sometime (or maybe a 23 backwater, i can't decide.) This is where I'm at right now with the blind. I got the wrong size bolts to go any further.

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NICE!! I like the roomy shop space too!

Its nice, wish i could claim the shop as mine! My roomate owns the place and its nice to have access to something like this at home! Would have liked to spend the money on the gatortail rig i wanted, but not having a loan hanging over my head is nicer! Then i was able to pick up this boat which means more to me than any boat i have owned before!

Time to get going to work. I'll glue all the corner seams tomorrow and get the shooting opening cut tomorrow once the corners are glued

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Made a little bit more progress today. Its coming together nicely. I may have to add a bungee cord or two to aid the three already there in springing the top open (once i get the rest if the grass on to with the added weight). Otherwise everything else is working exactly as planned.

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It looks nice. Do you plan on trailering this boat to the hole?

Thats gonna be a heavy ass bitch when you get rained on......

sent from the former Republic of Texas.

Thanks, I'm happy so far! Yes it will be trailered. It all wraps up and folds down to one side. Tarp doesn't hold water.... The grass usually isn't too bad either. I've never had a problem on the other blinds Ive built. Hunted in the rain a time or two in my life...

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Then again I've never built this style blind before....

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The folding up is the tricky part. Gotta figure out what parts to put where. The grass mats are too stiff for the top so I'll have to use raffia grass.

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Finished her up tonight. Had some extra raffia so i took the mat off the bow so it folds easier. I will do the stern eventually (eventually it may all end up raffia, but I've had this grass from an old boat). I had to take a can of brown spray bomb to darken the raffia up a bit. I'm mostly very happy with how this turned out. Podcast is coming over to take a look and help fine tune tune things (if anything) tomorrow night. I'll update if anything changes!

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I also took my time setting it up from the stored position and timed it. Just a hair under 4 minute set up time.

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That turned out pretty awesome man! Good job!

Thanks! The goal was no "black hole" at all. I came pretty close. (Another pic from the other end of the shop with better lighting) think the top (raffia) needs a mist of green spray bomb?

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It all depends on your area.. I don't know your conditions so I can't say for sure but If there's any green shrub at all a bit of green in the raffia would not hurt at all, in fact, it would break of up better.

Well the marsh is somewhere in between the top (raffia) and sides (Avery grass sheets) lol.

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Ive got some green raffia in the shed, just didn't feel like digging through it in the dark.

The blind turned out great. Mine will be a little different but still the folding top like that. I've changed a few things, but I will be able to hunt the blind 4 different ways, and two ways will be extremely kid friendly.

#1 - Will be a fixed scissor style with the back being higher than the front. (teal & divers or right at daylight)
#2 - Will be scissor style & the front of the blind will fall down to the gunnel with the click of a buckle.
#3 - Will be scissor style with a folding top like yours.
#4 - Will be scissor style with the top & and when you click the buckle, the top will fold back and the front will fall down.

#2 & #4 will be great for kids because they will have a clear easy view to shoot, or as an adult you can shoot from the sitting position.

Thats a great looking blind but when it gets wet you will never dry it outunless you have a heated garage.... I'm going with a hard sided blind next time. Those pop ups are very hard on fast grass.

Thanks for the compliments! Like i said, never had an issue with the stuff drying out before, also grass didnt cost me anything because i already had it, will probably end up entirely raffia in the end anyways, just spent too much money in the last few weeks. If it gets wet i can pull it in the shop and pop the bitch up.

I would have made it all fold to the other side of the boat
With all that weight if the blind and you on that side driving, it'll lean like a mofo

Yeah, i kind of had a very late after though on that.....I'm trying to decide if the bow and stern cover parts of the blind would flip flop easily.

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Update. The way I've got my boat set up, loaded with gear, two guys, and a dog she sits level in the water (or one guy and no dog.. Point is i got lucky and its balanced even with the blind folding up on the wrong side). Raffia grass is a bitch to dry out, thank goodness for a dry shop and torpedo heater when its 40° and raining at first light and drops to 27° and snow a few hours later! I wish i had a pic of it in the marsh, but i don't get out of the boat with the bottomless mud.

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