Creating my "Over the Top" Deer Blind

[EddieWalker]

I've never been to South Carolina, and it's on my list of place I want to see. Especially after seeing some of the pictures from you guys who live there!!!

The floor is 8ft off the ground. I had thought that 12 feet would be where I wanted it to be, but then I didn't want to deal wtih a roof that much higher. Six feet would have been plenty, but I figured for simple math and using standard lumber, 8 ft would work. The view doesn't really change a heck of allot at any of those heights, and even from the roof, it's not a big difference from inside.

Robert had a comment about a friend who built his 20 ft up. That seems to have created all sorts of problems, and in the end, didn't add any advantage with the extra height.

Eddie

[Tororider]

It seems like a pretty good height to me. My buddy built a tree stand in a tree about 35' up that was not enclosed. I went up in it once while we were pushing some property and I spent more time hugging the tree than looking for deer. Needless to say I didn't go up there again, and I am not afraid of heights.

[dave1949]

Where I lived in Germany, the Jaeger Meister (Hunting Master) built very high hunting stands. I always assumed it was to keep the bullet trajectory at an angle that pretty much guaranteed no ricochet and the round goes to ground quickly. The village was was within an easy rifle range of the stands.

Dave.

[EddieWalker]

Opening day is in about ten hours. My food plots are in and there's nothing I can do about them. I have a new solar cell on my feeder and it's working great. Unfortunately, the acorns are still dropping and the deer prefer acorns over corn. Luckily, the acorns seem to be very few this year. Not nearly like it's been in previous years.

The first two pictures show my food plots.

The first pic is a road that I have a good view of from the blind, so I planted clover and rye grass. The rye is coming up nicely, and about 2 inches tall. I've read that some people have good luck with rye grass, while others say the deer never touch it. I've also hear dhte same with the clover. Some swear by it, but I'm not so sure. I have two months to see what happens.

The second picture is of my main food plot. Last year I planted bob oats with terrible results. It just grew and grew, but I never saw a deer in it. Of the few tracks that I saw in there, they were just walking right through. In the spring, I planted peas. That grew in very nicely and I saw both deer and hogs in there. Not allot, but at least something was eating it.

This year, I switched to wheat. While researching what to plant, I came across a few threads on here that said turnips work good after a freeze. You can see the turnips in the front of the wheat.

The other pics are of my new coat hooks that I put behind my door. I wanted something to keep with my theme, and found these on ebay. I think they were $7 each, plus shipping. Since I really wanted them, the price was more then reasonable.

My chairs are super comfortable. I sat in every folding chair, at every store that I could think of. I found these in the Walmart garden center, and have never found a more comfortable folding chair.

And the last picture shows my supply. I figure that I'll be out ther awhile, so I might as well be fat and happy!!!!

Eddie

[Tororider]

Eddie,
Looks like with that supply we won't be hearing from you for awhile. Good luck!

[Robert_in_NY]

Thats a nice setup. I have been wanting to set up a supply in my stand as well but unless I keep it heated 24/7 the drinks will not last. I am not sure what to do about that yet but will figure something out even if it means packing water with me everyday. I would like to find a solar powered heat pad that I could put in the bottom of a cooler and help keep the supplies above freezing. I might just take a cooler out there and try it with a bottle of water and see if it blows up or not as I am hoping the stand will be able to hold some heat overnight till I light the heater the next morning.

I have even thought about keeping my Mr. Heaters pilot lit overnight as my stand is sealed up very tight and if the water is near that it should stay warm enough.

The only experience I have with deer and rye is when I harvested rye for someone and he had too many weeds in it for me to get a clean enough sample. I unloaded my harvester out back and spread the seed all over for the critters to eat. The deer didn't touch it till the rye started growing and when it was a few inches tall we always had deer there eating the green shoots. Even set our camera up to see what was coming in. The turkeys loved the seeds also.

Clover is a sweet, high protein plant that the deer do like but around here they can eat it everywhere so it is just a regular food for them. The deer have been eating my corn for a couple months now. They will ignore the turnips till they freeze then eat them. We put in all different types of food plots just to see if anything is better then another and for the most part every year it is different with the deer. So we just keep planting all sorts of varieties on our food plots and figure the deer and turkeys will be well fed regardless.

[jimmyj]

Happy hunting!

Eddie, I had no idea you liked chips so much!!

[jinman]

Eddie, of all those pictures, I think I liked your coat/hat hangers the best. Though, if they were mine, I'm sure I'd hear them laughing at me as I sat hour after hour with nothing to shoot at.