Mature bucks vs. pop up blind success rate?

[razorsharptokill]

I was wondering how many people have taken mature bucks (or does) from a pop up blind? Do they ever get used to them enough to ignore them? I've got some military camo netting and of course brush I could cut and use to break up the "cube" appearance but was just wondering if it's worth the trouble?

[bowmofo]

I know they work like magic on toms, I'm not so sure deer are so easily fooled. Mike

[702plmo]

I have had deer shy away from them.   You need to really brush them in or leave them there for several days before you hunt out of them.

As far as turkeys,  they pay no attention to them.  

Racoons are very curious,  we just about had a racoon climb into the window.

[gwhunter]

I have seen a mature 10pt close to pope and young, walk 10 yards away from a pop-up that was placed that morning on public land.  They WORK!  But I have also had deer 10 yards from me while I was sitting at the base of a tree turkey hunting.

[wingnut]

They work, but you have to take some time and brush them in.  Remember if you can see it so can they.  A mature deer will not ignore something that is not right in their environment.  So make it right and it will work great.

Mike

[Steelhead]

I have shot a mature buck and doe behind my apache blind.Definatly brush it in very well.I have been picked out by some deer when using ground blinds as well and some of those were just 1.5  year olds.Deer are way more suspicious than turkeys of them in my experience.So you need to use extra precaution in brushing them in and breaking up the outline of the blind!I sew synthetic leaves on the borser of mine to break up the sharp outline around the edges of the blind as well and to give it a more 3 dimensional effect.

[Steelhead]

Background cover as well as foreground cover is also very helpful to complete your setup.

[Scott J. Williams]

We have had great success, in fact we now hunt from pop-ups eighty percent of the time.  We do brush them in if we are going to hunt them right away.  

On our lease, and private hunting grounds we put them up anywhere from six weeks to six months ahead of time.  When you put them up that early, they have no concern of them.

We perfer to have the shoot through netting in place, and leave the window flaps down inside on those window we will be shooting out of.

The other window flaps we leave closed, even though the netting is still in place.  The darker inside the better for deer, turkeys don't seem to care one way or the other.

Leaving in a few hours for the Texas Hill Country, hope we will have a great hunt, now that the weather has cooled, and we hope the acorns on the ground have spoiled.

Hope to have some pop-up success stories on Monday.

[DeerSpotter]

I lost a shot on a mature buck, mb line was not brushed in and it did not seem to matter to him.  What did matter was when he could come far enough around to see the "black holes", just five minutes before he came around I pulled my camouflage screen netting out of my windows.  I was going to pack up my blind and go home.  As soon as he saw the black holes he bolted out of there.  But he came all the way around the back side seen it and not had any trouble, but when he reached the front where the windows were open, he was gone.

I had trouble with my blind before because I was hunting on public land, I brushed in so good hunters walk within about 8 yd. of it before they noticed it was there.  You need to use the 50/100 rule.  If deer can see 50 yd. you need to be brushed in really good.  If they can see 100 yd. you need to leave it in the wide-open.

The other thing you need to be concerned about is what you were in your face and the hand that's holding your bow, I wear black on my face, and both hands, this past time I also wore black fleece jacket.  But it did me no good, the Yahoo is that came within 8 yards, came right at shooting time but a half-hour before sunset.  They were scouting, for doe hunt in that county the next morning.  It was two day hunt.

Another thing that I use with those blinds, is a double bull three-legged stool, it allows me to swivel one direction or the other, it also allows me to get down on one knee or both very easily.  The best thing is it does not cut off circulation to your legs, it is the most comfortable stool that I have found.  Another thing you can do is put bungee cord from your top eye bolt on your roof down to the stake down grommets.  You can use these to put branches and vegetation under them.

Ground blinds are little more work, but they are also a lot of fun when you're looking eye to eye.


Carl

[702plmo]

I set up a blind a few weeks ago on some private ground.   I set the blind up at the base of a cedar tree.   I had not used the blind set up yet and the firearms season opened.   I let my wife set in it opening evening and she shot the biggest deer of her life.   The deer walked within 10 yards of the pop-up blind and never looked at it.   So my point is if you can set it up way before you hunt in it it will be to your advantage.