Elevated Blinds - Ultimate Addition To Your Hunting Experience

The tradition of adding to our number of Elevated blind locations on the Holland Ranch in Dillon continues.  In April Eric “Vern” Strader and myself assembled 2 new Elevated blinds and put one in a prime Antelope crossing the other in a prime Whitetail Deer crossing.  These are Ram blinds, a model that we have not used before but are excited to see how well they hunt out of.

Walker Outfitting started using Elevated blinds in 2017 when our 1st box blind was constructed.  These blinds help greatly with scent control, enabling clear shots – being above long grass that can obstruct a shot from a ground blind, and adding an element of safety with rifle shots having a downward trajectory.  Along with the scent control they also help with sight control as the animals out West do not look up as much as they do in traditional tree stand states.  Another benefit is being able to see animals coming in from a longer distance and being able to see where they go or lay after a shot occurs.

Since the start in 2017 we have been adding elevated blinds to our hunting experience.  We currently have 4 green box blinds that we have built, 3 re-purposed granaries and the 2 new pre-fab shells where we built the supports, bracing and platform and assembled the remaining parts.  Currently in our Whitetail Deer and Antelope area on the lower ranch we have 9 elevated locations.

We have learned a lot during this process with our 4 green box blinds such as enlarging the windows from the original and adding tinted plexiglass that slides to each side of the structure for a 360-degree view at any time.  We have also improved the doors transforming them into barn style sliders as well as the steps making them into more traditional stairs like in a home.  We have also added padding and carpet to all of our blind structures to help reduce hunter noise and add a level of insulation to the cold.

As far as our granary’s that was an example of preserving a bit of history while converting the structure to a new use.  All 3 granaries received new metal roofs that were falling apart and letting the outside in.  We added a floor system with joists, a new door opening and interior steps with a trap door system.  The granary’s originally stored grain such as barley on the ranch where now this is kept in more traditional and the newer technology of silos.  The structures themselves are made of stacked 2x4’s something one would never do today but due to a government surplus at one time a long time ago ample lumber was available to make the structure extremely solid and able to hold a lot of weight.

Our 2 new roto molded pre-fab round style blinds may be the best set-up we have for archery hunters.  The windows are larger and longer and go all the way around the blind and are tinted as well.  The views are the best out of any of our elevated blinds and seem to have the most versatility in terms of quick set-ups and changing situations.  We plan to test them out fully this year!

Our future entails a 10th elevated blind to be added this summer.  This blind is being donated by one of our long-time hunting clients and friends to enable his father to continue hunting for future seasons.  We are going to put this blind in one of our Elk areas this year and use it for the archery and rifle season and see how it works.  The biggest difficulty of using blinds and we do use ground blinds in Elk areas is not being scented.  Elk have a far superior nose to any other ungulate I have ever hunted and scent control is of primary concern when using blinds.  Our hope is that the elevated blind will give us the advantage in this area where we have been busted time and again due to swirling winds etc. in the past.

This year we changed the position of one of our box blinds to reflect recent changes to deer movement due to a new pivot field being placed behind the feedlot.  We believe this change will put hunters in the right spot with improved encounters.  We added skids to our box blinds in the past so we can move them to better positions if necessary.

We are happy to announce all of the changes and innovations we have been following over the last 9 years to ensure a better experience in the field for our hunting clients!