Western Hunting Journal, Premiere Issue whj001_premiere | Page 80

TECHNIQUE
photo
Pictured here are several examples of blinds that are well placed and built
correctly.
erything else. Decoys and call-
ing can draw geese to where
you need them most of the
time, and we will cover those
techniques in future articles.
Nearly all field seams or edg-
es have at least a few clumps of
taller grass. If there are fence
posts, or an irrigation head, so
much the better. You can build
your hide starting at this foun-
dation by bringing in larger
clumps of grass. The key is to
not over-build. You could build
a giant clump that would hide
your blinds perfectly, but now
it’s a giant clump of grass that
casts a huge shadow. Take ad-
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WESTERN HUNTING JOURNAL
vantage of lowering your blind
fronts and add just enough
clumps and cover to make it
look like there are just a few
taller clumps at this location.
Don’t add much to your blind.
Instead, add more beside your
blind and taper the clumps to
the sides up to 30 feet beyond
the sides of the blinds.
HIDING THE FRONT EDGE AND
all four corners of your blind
is just as important as cover-
ing the black hole where your
head lays. A sharp spade shovel
is your most important tool for
great hides. In a pasture, I use it
to cut an envelope that the front
of my blind can slip into and dis-
appear. After the hunt, as you
pull the blind out, it lays right
back in place without causing
any damage. When building
your hide in a spot with lean
cover, such as a single post and
a couple clumps of taller grass,
you might not have the luxury
or angling your blind. To make
a smaller footprint, and to keep
your blind lines consistent with
the geometry of the field, you
may have to face your blind di-
rectly toward the field or even
at a 90-degree angle.
If there are literally no posts,
or taller clumps, or anything
sticking up higher than the
surrounding area, you are still
better off the “create” this type
of area from scratch, rather
than just laying grassed lay-
out blinds down in a flat field.
Once again, we will want to do
this at any kind of field seam:
crop changes, directional crop
row changes, color changes of
any kind. Geese know that lay-
out blinds in plain sight equals
the boogieman. Just a small
amount of cover can effective-
ly conceal a group of blinds,
so make that cover yourself.
Pound in a few fence posts,
bring in some clumps of grass
and scatter them over a 30-yard
width, but in a straight line, like
a fencerow. Many farmers put
white buckets over irrigation
heads. Or white PVC on any-
thing they don’t want ran over
with a tractor. Bring your own
posts and buckets; anything
that creates a break and looks
natural. We joke that no goose
is going to believe a hunter
would purposely place a white
bucket next to him, which is
why it works so well.
Creating a rough edge out of
nothing can be done the morn-
ing of the hunt, but if you have
a few fields that you love to
hunt and have marginal cover,
go create these areas ahead of
time. The longer the birds have
to get comfortable with them,
the better.
Most of the time you are
still best off to have some space
between blinds. This just looks