# Deer Hunting Shack



## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

A few more finishing touches and the blind will be ready for deer season. Bullwinkle and I fashioned it with modular sections and then assembled it on site. Measures 5 x 7.5 feet with a back porch. Will be heated with propane. All 5 windows work independently with inside controls and utilize a 180-degree view.

Best part was that most of it was made with free wood, although I had to buy the roll roofing used on the roof and for siding and some paint. But, all the plywood, platform structure and, framing material came at no cost.

My pal, MT, works at a shop that builds engines for the military Humvees and race cars for the likes of Big Chief on the TV show, Street Outlaws. Anyway, engines blocks are shipped to his shop on 42x48-inch plywood 5/8 and 3/4 thickness with the 4 corners cut off. They toss them in the dumpsters and consider the dunnage as waste. I picked up a truckload a while back and always seem to find uses for the stuff. Stock is getting low, so I'll get another load shortly.

This blind was built on a neighbor's property and overlooks a travel route over a culvert on a creek.


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Looks awesome, only thing missing is the wheelchair ramp & some critters.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Very nice. Good timing too. They'll be used to seeing it by the time season rolls around.

Wish I was closer, I'd keep some of that plywood out of the landfill.


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Yeah. If they keep their distance, in their own short-sightedness, they fell safe. They don't understand how we can reach out. The deer hunting rules have drastically changed this season - extremely liberal, because of CWD, although none has been found in our county.

However, we are an adjoining county to the dreaded disease, so relaxed rules apply to us. For example, in "muzzleloader" season, we don't have to use muzzleloaders anymore. Anything that's already legal during regular firearms season can be used. So, I'll be toting my Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster, and from the looks of it, I'll never use the muzzleloader again.

CWD is not going away; the DNR hopes only to slow its imminent spread! Doe tags are $12 and we can purchase 10 of them, if we are so inclined. (I'm not!) The DNR may even extend the season, if it determines not enough animals are killed. Lots more new regs and no more baiting at all in the entire Lower Peninsula beginning next year - another thing I won't mind seeing gone. For bucks, antler point restrictions will be removed, too. It seems all we've worked for to allow deer to mature has been thrown out the window, but there are no better options than to severely reduce the herd.

If anyone wants an accurate .54 caliber Knight Revolution muzzleloader, I'll let mine go cheap. I'd expect many more Michiganders will do the same shortly when word spreads.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Good idea ! Sell it before the flood hits the market and it's not worth anything. A damn shame that the CWD is there to stay. Do they have any idea why it started ?< (or has it always been around) I've not read as much on the subject as I probably should have


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Nobody knows how it started but it was first discovered in western states. Those states that didn't react quickly or properly have suffered the consequences.

Michigan, on the other hand, has learned from others' mistakes and is doing everything possible to minimize its spread and is following a well-defined strategy. Dang shame, that's for sure but the prions are in the soil and last for decades. We know how it spreads (nose-to-nose contact, and through feces and urine) and the only science known to slow it down requires reducing the herd. That's why baiting must be banned, because it congregates animals unnaturally. It was the worst possible news to learn of the first case in a wild animal.

Not only are muzzleloaders going to be a dime a dozen but the same thing has already happened to slug guns. Why? Because the law that I helped pass by giving testimony at a Michigan House hearing is now law and allows us in the Lower Peninsula to use straight-wall case cartridges. It really took off - especially with the advent of the Rugers in .450 Bushmaster.

I no longer have to shoot shells costing $3 each, don't have the recoil, and have more effective range - even though my accurate and tricked-out NEF single-shot took many deer. I'm done with it and now it just takes up space in the safe. Ain't worth much in Michigan anymore. Same thing's happened in other states.

Not complaining, but I have a case of Barnes tipped 12-gauge slugs and one fine firearm that's about as useful as titz on a boar hog.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Good info. Thanks Glen.


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