Budda huts, what ya got ??

[Al in Mi]

this one been a couple years in the planning and thanks to a little beer fueled push by my bud Mike (also the builder of it) it became a reality a couple weeks ago.

5x7 spacious enough for two and gear. Just need to stain up the legs when it dries out around here, but hasn't seemed to bother the deer or turkeys as is.

[mcb]

That looks pretty fancy for a deer blind. Does it come with a kitchen and staff?

[Al in Mi]

not yet, but I have a buffet shelf to lay out goodies!!!

[plant_one]

most of ours are 5x5's designed for a single shooter, although we're building a 5x8 for my cousin to hunt with his kids over at his brothers 37 acres in jackson right now.

one thing i will suggest, move your windows to open internally. its a lot easier to manage them. we've been building these things since around the time i started hunting 27 years ago and have 2 dozen of them scattered across our property so we've had a bit of time to work out the engineering bugs .



this is one of our newest, and also the highest - most are only 5-7' to the floor, this one is just over 9' since dad found some 12 footers on the clearance rack

i do think dad gets a little carried away with the awnings though


we built it in the barn, the neighbor came over with his manitou and put that one on the poles fully assembled for us

https://youtu.be/LzrhXqwzGP0


did some upgrades last year on mine, including adding a couple shelves and a heater vent :X
convection gives a nice warm push coming out of those holes which is awesome on a frosty morning.


yes, that burner top doubles as a way to heat up some soup for lunch. so yes i installed the kitchen too


we use spring loaded cabinet hinges to keep the windows up on the inside


i will highly suggest filling any gaps, cracks, or crevices with spray foam - this will help reduce mouse nests from being built in inconvenient places - there's screen behind the foam in between the upper studs didnt fill the whole thing with foam heheh!

[Al in Mi]

borrowed son inlaws telehandler



the shutters he put paracord pulls on inside, then there are 1/4" plexi glass windows that slide up and down, also pulled with paracord.

she's sealed up pretty good, but mice and bugs still seem to find a way in!!!!

[plant_one]

ya... we've gotten them fairly well critter free these days... but it took putting bottom latches on the doors so they dont flex, etc.

we still get occassional bugs even in the well sealed ones simply because you cant make them airtight, but most of the blinds these days stay mostly rodent free. we've got a few more to seal up, but all the ones that get regularily hunted have been modernized. with 2 dozen of the things to keep up with, it can get expensive making updates.

the year we did our window hinge conversions cost us around $900 between hardware and plexiglass for the ones who didnt have clear windows yet. before then we had about 5 or 6 different window configurations that worked with various degrees of success. sure is nice to be able to flip that front window down and still see thru it if you've got a cold breeze blowing in your face.




never was a big fan of rope pull windows like that... we tried that early on in our designs.

its too easy to have that rope slip if you're wearing gloves on a cold morning and then you have a stupid loud *BANG* as it flaps shut on you. been there, done that, burned the tshirt - and we werent even using something as slippery as paracord



we stole the cabinet hinge idea from a blind we looked at up by jays- right off the highway there where that amish market used to setup. probably one of my favorite upgrades we've done over the years besides the addition of strategically placed shelves. the front shelf in my blind not only serves as a coffee holder and heating vent, but it also makes a nice shooting rest!

[mcb]

Man I I though I was living it up when I put a pad on the seat of my ladder stand and hung some camo burlap around it.