Best Site for Your Hunting Blind

You can own the best quality blind, be an accurate shooter, and be in an area that is known to hold a lot of animals, but if you don’t site your blind in a good spot, your chances of success are slim.
So what is involved in finding a good site for your blind

To maximize your chances of success, you should start with pre-season scouting. The aim is to find out where the deer bedding areas are, their food sources, and their travel routes in-between the bedding and food sources, in the area you wish to hunt.

Once you have this information, you are in a great position to determine some sites for your blind.

A key point in hunting is that almost all animal activity revolves around food and water, so this is a great place to start. Look for the food sources in the area you are going to hunt, with your focus on protein rich foods if you are hunting deer. This may include agricultural crops, fruits or stands of oak trees. In wooded areas it is more difficult to determine their food source but may include aspen, aster, red-osier dogwood, clover, and red and white cedar. If it is difficult to determine what they are eating, focus on their travel movements.

Travel corridors are often located in low areas where they can move without being seen, such as creek bottoms and draws. They can also include funnels, converging hub [deer trails come together like spokes on a wheel], brushy fencerow separating two fields or woodlots, a bench on a ridge, a strip of woods or thickets connecting two woodlots, the edge where two types of vegetation meet, a strip of trees alongside a creek which connects two lots of woods, inside corners or double inside corners, or timber between two clearcuts.

Bedding and hiding areas are often in dense areas or elevated so that it is hard to approach without alerting the animals.

Where you place your blind will be determined by whether you hunt with a bow or a rifle.

If you are using a bow, your shooting lanes will extend out to about 30 yards, so your blind will need to be placed downwind of where you expect to see the deer, but no further than 30 yards.

If you are using a rifle, your distance can be extended depending on the visibility and your accurate firing range. With clear cuts or clearings, you may extend up to 300 yards.

When you set up your blind close to heavily used trails, food sources or water, wherever you can, your chances of success increase if you can set your blind in position up to a week before you intend to use it.

The locations of blinds will not usually produce well right throughout the deer season as deer patterns usually change between pre-rut, peak and post-rut.

The greatest predictor of success will be the amount of information you have before sitting your blind. The more information you have from walking the area, studying aerial photos and topographical maps, and talking to locals and experts, the more knowledgeable you will be about the best sites for your blind.