It was last spring, the week of the turkey season opener to be exact, that nasty storms blew through the region and the original wooden blind tower with my Redneck Ghilli Blind atop it got thrown violently down the hill. The damage was enough to total the entire setup, which I detailed in an earlier post. That led me to rebuilding the tower in the heat of summer and spending another couple hundred bucks on wood to boot. Not wanting to spend a lot of money on a new blind, I simply put a pop-up model on top for the 2025 season. It worked, but it wasn’t great.
The old adage of doing something right the first time applies here. What I should have done from the start was purchase a decent blind and a decent tower to go with it. Instead, I tried to save a few bucks and in the long run it ended up costing me an amount similar to a top-end blind anyway. Not loving my setup last season, I took a long look at the blinds displayed at the Great American Outdoor Show and ended up finding one that made sense.
Hughs Products Company out of North Carolina was at the show displaying their blinds and they were selling discounted blinds and steel towers as part of a show special. The Intimidator Blind checked a lot of boxes for me and the combination came in at just over $1,600 with shipping included. It’s a well-designed hard plastic blind with plenty of room, and I can deck it out however I want to. I’ll be sure to post a separate story about the blind once it arrives and I install it, but I think I’m going to be happy with it and I didn’t have to break the bank.
The chore today was taking down the wooden tower that I just put up last summer. It seemed silly to be doing that, but I need to make room for the new blind and I figure I can use the wood to either rebuild the tower in a different spot, or for some other purpose. All in all, the blind came down pretty easily. I had a few stubborn screws that wouldn’t come out, but other than one broken board, a few scratches and splinters, and general annoyance, I pulled off the job in just a couple hours.
I stacked the wood behind the garage and it will stay there until I decide what to do with it. My new blind should arrive within a couple weeks, and I look forward to getting it in place ahead of turkey season so I don’t have to mess with it then, or in the summer once the temperatures get unbearable.