The Duckforce is Done...

Last summer without much time to spare, I converted an 18 foot Lund Alaskan from the traditional dark red boat into a pretty sweet camouflage duck hunting machine. However, I still needed to drum up a boat blind that would be reasonable in price, maintain a sense of functionality, and help better conceal the hunters who may be anticipating that eider bouncing in like a beach ball. Time got past me and I found myself rigging up a fixed blind out of conduit pipe, some fittings, and some green painter's canvas at Home Depot. I anchored the blind with some dressed up wooden supports that were tapped to accept the conduit and everything looked decent. But, the wood cracked and the blind was dismantled in the spring for other types of recreation...

For those of you who don't know, I am the type of guy that leaves a trail of chaos and destruction behind me. For some reason I can't maintain any order and cleanliness to my day. However, when it comes to duck hunting, my ducks figuratively and literally are all in a row. When it comes to this duck hunting noise, I don't screw around...

So the very first thing I did was assess my situation. The boat needed to be cleaned out, vacuumed, and washed while the blind materials needed to be brought out for inspection. This was the easy part...





Then I found myself into the wonderful world of engineering and fabrication. I decided to use some hinges that I had downstairs just in case a need popped up and now was the time. The hinges were screwed into the side bunks and then I tapped two holes into all of the conduit legs and bolted them in securely. Then I used my 90 degree and three way connectors to construct a frame to which the canvas was strewn. After that I fixed the pieces of blind material to the boat with screws and washers. This is when I discovered that once piece of my canvas was about 10 inches longer than the other. I assume that it must have shrunk or something, but I intended to install it irregardless of my dismay.




When all was said and done, I'm pleased with the blind. After several trips to the hardware store and one search throughout Home Depot, I feel confident that the blind will suit whoever draws a shotgun onto an eider well. I'm already thinking about next year and I believe that the conduit frame will be replaced with galvanized flanges, pipes, and a more expensive type of canvas such as army duck. It isn't much different in terms of looks than last year, but structurally it's a better system.