Ground Blind

How a pop-up ground blind works

A pop-up hunting blind is a fabric cube on a spring frame. The frame runs through hubs: one in the middle of each wall and one in the roof. Push a hub out and it locks, pulling that panel tight. That's the "hub style ground blind" you'll see in listings.

One maker's setup sheet shows how simple it is. Set the folded blind down with the corners up, let it unfold, pull the roof hub up, then walk around and pull each wall hub out. Stake every corner. Then run the tie-down ropes from each wall hub loop to a stake, for wind.

Taking it down is the same thing backward. Pull the stakes, push each wall hub in from outside, push the roof hub down, gather the corners and slide the bag over. If a hub won't let go, something is still staked or tied. Don't force it. (The fold is the part that makes grown men talk to fabric. Do it twice in the yard before you do it in the dark.)

The table on this page lists portable ground blinds with the tallest center height first. It shows style, capacity, center height, floor footprint and camo, and flags see-through walls and silent windows when the maker or the listing says so. Weight appears only where the maker states it. For how hub, panel and soft-sided box blinds compare as a whole category, see the hunting blind page.

What to look at in a portable ground blind

Center height decides whether you can draw from the chair

Center height is the inside height at the middle of the roof. For a rifle hunter it's comfort. For a bowhunter it's the whole question.

Bowhunter's ground-blind tips say the ceiling has to clear your bow limbs at all times, while drawing and while shooting, and that traditional archers need to check this hardest because their limbs are longer. Big Game Treestands puts a standard two-person blind at 54 to 64 inches of standing height. That range is the difference between drawing from a chair and drawing from a crouch.

Jess's take: "The top limb goes up before the arrow goes out. Measure from the chair, not from the floor." She's right, and she said it twice to make sure.

Quick check before you buy: sit in the chair you'll actually hunt from, have someone measure from the floor to your top limb at full draw, and compare that to the center height in the table. Leave a few inches to spare.

Hub width is wider than the footprint

The table's footprint is the floor, width by depth. A hub blind is wider up high than at the floor, because the walls bow out at the hubs. On the one maker page I read that lists both, the width at the hubs runs well past the floor size.

That extra width is where your elbows and bow limbs live. Bowhunter says to put your chair near a back corner and make sure your elbow clears the back wall at full draw, and to keep any chair armrest clear of the string. The footprint tells you if two chairs fit. The hub width tells you if two people can shoot.

Window height has to sit below your arrow, not your eyes

Here's a mistake that shows up only at the moment of truth. Bowhunter points out that your arrow travels three or four inches below your line of sight. So you can see the deer clearly through the window and still put the arrow into the bottom of the window frame.

Set the window bottom well below your arrow path when you're seated. Big Game Treestands likes elongated corner windows for bowhunting for this reason. Realtree's version is shorter: check the arrow's path before you touch the release.

Chair height matters as much as window height. If the blind came first, buy the chair to fit it. The hunting blind chair page covers seat heights.

Weight is what you carry, so get it from the maker

A portable hunting blind is only portable if you carry it. Shooting Sports Retailer calls portability "always an issue" with full-size blinds, and Big Game Treestands says some hunters find blinds simply cumbersome to carry in and set up. A hub blind with a backpack-style bag, which some makers include, carries easier than one with a single strap.

The table shows weight only when the maker lists it. Store listings for blinds have been badly off, and a wrong weight is worse than none.

Danny learned weight the hard way, at the beach. Renee's rule: whatever he carries from the truck to the sand, he carries back. A ground blind works the same way, except the walk back is uphill, in the dark, with the blind wet. Weigh that before you weigh anything else.

Lightweight ground blind choices come down to style. Big Game Treestands says spring-steel blinds are the lightest and hub blinds the most durable. A panel blind with no roof is lighter still. Rule of thumb: the longer your walk, the more you'll forgive a light blind for being small.

Hubs and sides change the shape inside

Most pop-ups are four-sided cubes, and some makers build five-sided hub blinds. The table shows the number of hubs or sides only when the maker or the listing states it.

Count the windows against your shooting lanes. Every extra side is one more window to manage and one more wall to brush in. Pick it for the lanes you have, not for the count.

Water resistance means only what the maker wrote

The table shows the maker's own words for water resistance, word for word: "waterproof," "water resistant" or a fabric note. If the maker says nothing, neither do we. A waterproof ground blind claim covers the fabric, not the windows you leave open in a sideways rain.

Rain causes another problem too. One maker's instructions say rain or snow pooling on the roof can damage the blind permanently. Don't let water sit on the roof, and the same sheet says to store the blind only when it's completely dry and clean.

Few blinds come with a floor

Ground blinds with floor panels are rare, and the table marks one only when the maker or the listing says so. That's fine. Bowhunter's advice is to clear the inside to bare dirt, and Union Sportsmen's Alliance says the same about leaves and debris. A floor is just one more thing to crinkle.

How to set up a ground blind

Where to set up a ground blind

Most good blind spots aren't clever. They're a bend in a trail with something to hide behind: a blowdown, a cedar clump, a fold in the ground. Find that first and the blind is half done.

MeatEater's advice:

• Set up off to the side of the trail or food, not in front of it
• Tuck the blind 5 to 10 yards back into cover, not on the open edge
• Pick a spot where deer can't easily get downwind of you
• Clear dead leaves, vines and branches that could spook a deer

Add two more from Bowhunter and Realtree: account for the prevailing wind, and keep the sun out of your main shooting window. A sunrise in the front window means you're blind in a blind.

Stake it at every loop

The stakes in the box are a start. Bowhunter recommends swapping thin pins for large tent stakes or bending rebar into an "L," and anchoring at every loop along the bottom. With nothing to tie to, drive stakes about 6 feet from the blind and run the ropes down at a steep angle. Where there's an overhead limb, tie the roof peak to it.

Union Sportsmen's Alliance puts it in one line: always stake or tie off the blind if you expect any kind of weather. In Pennsylvania in November, expect weather.

How to brush in a ground blind

Brushing in means breaking up the blind's square outline with cover from the spot itself.

• Use what grows there. MeatEater warns that limbs in a grass field or grass in the woods stand out.
• Pick limbs that hold leaves. White oak, scarlet oak and any evergreen keep their foliage longer, per MeatEater.
• Cover the corners and roofline. Those straight lines are what don't belong.
• Keep brush off the fabric. Bowhunter says branches that rub in the wind wear holes.
• Mind the open window. Union Sportsmen's Alliance suggests a sapling in front of an open port to soften the "black hole."
• Brush it even far off. The same source says brushing can matter at 100 yards from the shot.

Do it when you set the blind, weeks ahead. Brushing in on opening morning is like squaring a board after you've cut it.

Inside the blind: dark, quiet, still

The blind hides you only if you let it. MeatEater says to keep as many windows closed as possible, especially behind you. Realtree adds that pitch black isn't the goal either; let in just enough light that it isn't completely dark, and hang a camo cloth on the back wall.

Bowhunter's list for inside:

• Dark, quiet clothes, a dark glove on the bow hand, a face mask or headnet
• Gear around the edges, nothing in front of the window
• A bow stand instead of hanging the bow from the roof
• Pack zippers opened before you sit down
• Drink lids cracked as soon as you get in
• Phone dimmed and silenced

A blind does not hide sound or scent. Shoot On notes that blind interiors are usually dark, so bowhunters may want a sight with longer fibers or a legal lighted option. Seeing your pin matters more than seeing the deer.

Ground blind vs tree stand

This is the question that never leaves the cabin table. Here's how it actually splits.

Ground blind wins when there's no good tree, when you shouldn't be climbing, and when you need to move in a hurry. Union Sportsmen's Alliance's point is the simplest one: you don't have to climb a tree. Shooting Sports Retailer notes that older hunters, hunters with injuries and anyone afraid of heights often prefer the ground. The NSSF calls blinds a good fit for young hunters.

Tree stand wins when the right tree stands over the right trail. MeatEater's honest drawback for blinds: they put you at deer eye level, and deer notice them. Height takes you out of the deer's line of sight. A ladder stand or a tree stand is often the better tool where cover is thin and the trees are good.

If you do go up, the harness comes first; the tree stand page covers it.

Safety in a ground blind

During firearms seasons, hang orange on the outside of the blind, on every side. The NSSF also suggests keeping orange inside to wave out a window if another hunter comes close. Orange and blind rules vary; check your state wildlife agency.

Don't run fuel-burning heaters or anything that makes fumes in a closed blind. One maker's instructions warn that fumes can cause carbon monoxide poisoning and that the fabric will burn.

Who should skip a ground blind

If you hunt on the move and change spots every hour, a full pop-up is more blind than you need; a light panel blind or a natural blind made on the spot fits better. If you can't get in weeks ahead to set it up and brush it in, expect deer to stare at it. And if you already have a stand in a tree that the logbook loves, don't fix what works.

A ground blind rewards the hunter who puts it out early, stakes every loop and sits still. That's all there is to it. The deer do the rest, eventually.