Three weeks later I returned to Canada for a rifle hunt. My mama didn’t raise a dummy. I pulled that pop-up off the ridge, moved 60 yards to the west, tucked it deeper into the spruce that rimmed the glade and brushed it up with boughs and grass.

Later that afternoon another monster stepped out of the willows and looked my way. “Uh, oh,” I cringed. But he dropped his head and kept coming, muscles rippling and 150-inch rack shining in the sun. My .270 cracked, and the big boy fell 70 yards from the blind’s door.

Those hunts pretty much sum it up. You can either spook a big deer from a ground blind, or sit there and shoot him dead. It depends on where you put your blind, and how well you set it up.

But sometimes you’ve got to get more aggressive and take your game to the deer. One December, I patterned a herd of animals staging in a CRP field and nibbling tender green forbs that had sprouted after a rain. The pasture was dotted with cedars two to four feet high. I cut a few bushes, dragged them to a spot where the visibility and wind were good, arranged a hide in two minutes and climbed in. That afternoon 20 deer strolled within muzzleloader range and never blinked an eye. I smoked an 8-pointer.

It worked because I was able to blend my blind into the surroundings. If you can’t do that, forget about it. If you build a big, new blind out in an open field (or in open woods for that matter) and try to hunt it the same day, most every old deer that approaches from 200 yards away will spot it, slam on the brakes and wonder something like, “What’s that blob, I’ve never seen it before?” Old does will start head bobbing, blowing and running. You probably won’t get a shot at a buck with a slug gun or a muzzleloader, and you certainly won’t shoot an arrow.

This is perhaps the most important thing to remember--cover your back. Stack cedars, logs or brush behind you so that it fully covers your head and shoulders when you sit down to hunt. Background cover with no large holes of air is what breaks your outline and hides your moves. You need only minimal cover in front and on the sides. And don’t get carried away. The smaller a blind and the lower its overall profile, the less chance deer will pick it out.

Sunlight shining onto a canvas blind can light it up like neon. Whitetails might spot that sheen hundreds of yards away. So face a morning blind west and an evening blind east so you’ll be hidden in mottled shadows. Of course your blind needs to be downwind of where you expect to see and shoot a deer. Spray it down good with your favorite odor- killer. Be sure to close the rear door and window flaps so deer can’t look through your blind, see you move and bust you.

Black interior absorbs light, eliminates see-through and results in an indoor / outdoor contrast too extreme for game to overcome, especially on sunny days! The 5 - inch scent / light flap at the base of each wall forms an even tighter seal to the ground to ensure no light leaking in or scent escaping at ground level. Features our unmatched silent window systems, custom fabrics, patented adjustable framework. Available in Predator Deception All-Purpose camo.

The lighter weight (only 12 pounds) and lower profile is achieved by our use of a framework featuring only two hubs and eight support poles. Position the front side with the huge 21 x 52 - inch netted shooting port at the trail where you expect the deer to walk, and get ready! Five additional window openings offer the hunter a myriad of shot opportunities and the ability to track moving game.