Brushing In Your Layout Blind

You finally broke down, stepped up to the plate, and smacked a home run by buying a Hard Core Man Cave Layout Blind. You’ve gone through the break-in steps, laying on a thick layer of mud, letting it dry, and then shaking it off to kill the UV glare. Now you’re ready to head out and hunt, right? Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up there. There’s more to it than that.

Camo is a great thing and it really has changed how we hunt. The Realtree MAX-4 camo pattern is amazing (and just wait until you see MAX-5!), but even the best camo pattern in the world isn’t enough to fool waterfowl. You need to do more to hide yourself when hunting and that is why blinds, like the Man Cave and all other Hard Core blinds, have stubble straps built in.

Matching the hatch

I know, that’s a fly fishing term, but it fits very well. In fly fishing, you want to match your flies to the insects that are emerging at that time. The same goes for brushing blinds. You don’t want to hunt a green winter wheat field with a blind covered in cornstalk colors. It’ll stand out like Miley Cyrus at Phil Robertson’s house.

Your blind has a lot of stubble straps. Use them! I start out every season going through and starting with a “base layer” of blind material. I like to use fresh hay from my field. I don’t try to cover the whole blind, but I do try to give a good, solid layer from which to build on when I hit the field.

I used to always try to bush the blind in completely when I was in the field. This never worked right because I never had enough time between setting decoys and drinking coffee. The first year I hunted with a layout, I noticed that as the season went along and more and more brush was added to the blind, the more success I had. Might as well start off that way, right?

So with my base layer in place, I take a good look at the conditions I’m hunting in. Early season, for me, means hunting fresh-cut alfalfa fields and some occasional oat fields. While these two plants look similar from a distance, up close, they aren’t similar at all, so you have to be aware of that. The oat fields come in September, have little white blossoms from secondary growth, and the alfalfa may have small purple flowers, depending upon when it was last cut. Usually my farmer takes his second cutting in early August, so there is quite often some flower growth.

Another factor in matching the growth is the rainfall. You can plan to hunt green fields, but if the rain doesn’t fall and you have a scorching-hot August, you’ll be hunting in a lot of brown, dormant grasses. It doesn’t take much rain, however, to green a field quickly. I’ve started prepping blinds only to have a weekend of rain and sun turn brown to green fast.

One way around this is to have a good supply of artificial blind material with you. Hard Core EZ Grass is available in several color combinations and can easily fill in when local foliage is hard to come by.

Children of the corn

Cornfields are another animal. Hunting corn stubble can be easy to brush, especially if you were smart enough to go and grab enough stalks before they are all shopped up. I’m not above stopping into a local store and buying a bundle of stalk that folks use for decoration.

Blending your blind into a corn stubble field is trickier than you might think though. Sure, you can cover your blind up pretty quick and easy with stalks and be concealed, right? But are you really concealed? Try to look at it from the perspective of a goose: you’ve got this field that looks right. There’s a pile of your friends down there, feeding in the rows of stubble. But what is that big pile of stubble right there in the middle? See what I’m getting at?

Cornfields are planted in rows and have a symmetrical look to them. Don’t break the symmetry! I like to place my blind between the rows as best I can. I line the sides heavily with cornstalk stubble and I try to keep the center of my blind darker, with sparse vegetation. When I know I’m going to hunt cut corn, I’ll often lay on a layer of mud, just like when I was breaking the blind in. Of course, you want to do this well enough in advance so it dries. A trick if you’re in the field is to simply grab a big handful of dirt and rub it into the material.

Tools of the trade

One of the things I’ll do too is take a camera with me when I’m scouting. You should always have a camera with you, right? In addition to taking pictures of birds, deer, and other cool stuff, I’ll take some good close-up shots of the ground to use as a base for starting the brushing process.

Hard Core has a line of tools to help you brush your blind, too. Everything from nippers to ratcheting pruners and even a machete is currently available at a retailer near you. The Hard Core Blind bags are even designed with a pocket for your nippers.

“I designed the bag with a pocket especially for your pruners/nippers because one of the first things you do when you get in the field is touch up the blinds,” said Hard Core’s Mike Galloway.

Snowblind

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the hunting is so delightful…concealing a blind in winter can be easy, right. Hold on. Yes, the best and easiest thing to do is get a snow cover for your blind. The Hard Core Man Cave and Apprentice blinds are available with snow covers, as is the Dog Cave. As for the Run -N- Gunnar blind, well, you’ll just have to see what’s in store for 2014.

Putting on a snow cover is not the end of the discussion though. You still need to stubble the blind accordingly. I also like to pile some extra snow around the blind. Not only does this help blend it in, but snow is a great insulator. When I’m hunting the deep freeze of a late-season hunt, I want all the help I can get staying warm. It’s Not Easy!

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