Tips for Ground Blind Hunting with CROSSBOWS

Hi, I'm Chris with Afflicted Broadheads, and today we're going to be talking about four things that you should know for hunting out of a blind with a crossbow. Stay tuned. All right, so today we're going to talk about the four C's of hunting out of a blind. It pertains to anything, but today we're going to get really specific with the crossbow. So whether you are a seasoned hunter or a beginner to blinds and crossbows, there should be some good pointers in here for you. So let's talk about clearing the ground first. This is really important because in a blind, of course, you can get away with a lot more movement, especially movement that is below this window with your legs, your feet, and you will. You'll get cramped in your chair, tired, want to move around. Maybe you're going to have to pivot to get a shot, and you want to make sure that your ground is very silent. Get all the leaves out of there, trim out any of the sticks or anything that's growing up from the ground. A good pair of pruners are real handy to have anytime you're going to ground blind hunt. Not only will that help you trim out an area for the blind and shooting lanes in front of the blind, but it will also really help you get the ground clear. Get all those sticks out of there, dead leaves, dead limbs, anything, so you can move your feet around quietly. And if you're like me and you got food and snacks and all kinds of other gear and camera equipment, it's really going to help you out to be able to move things around in there without making a noise. Because you got to remember, oftentimes with ground blinds, we're dealing with really close shots. Now, sometimes that's not the case, they're farther away, but you can literally be dealing with a shot out of a ground blind at five yards, six yards, maybe even closer. So the littlest noise can be a huge deterrent to whatever you're hunting, whether that's a turkey, a whitetail, or other big game. So you want to make sure that you have plenty of ground clearance. So the next thing I want to talk about is comfort. Now, with the Crossbow, I really feel like you can get away with being more comfortable than you can with the Compound or Trad setup. But when you have the Crossbow, you don't really have to worry about drawing or really having a lot of movement. You can get comfortable. So I like a nice chair with arms. It doesn't matter if you're running and gunning and you have a nice little portable, cheap fold-up chair with arms that you got somewhere for, you know, $10. Or if you've really spent the big money and you have an expensive swivel chair with arms, or maybe if it's a permanent blind, you have an office-type chair, a really cozy chair. I think that you can really get comfortable when you're Crossbow hunting because you're going to be really not having to worry about any of this movement, drawing back. You don't have to worry about anything drastic. In fact, when you talk about comfort in this blind, you want to really make sure that your whole setup is comfortable. And by meaning with the Crossbow, I really think that you should consider having a monopod, a bipod, or a tripod of any sort to be able to stay steady and stay still. And that will also help you enjoy your comfortable seat. So as you position your Crossbow, you want to make sure that you have a nice, sturdy rest. This is really important if you are a youth hunter or somebody that is not going to be able to bear the weight of a Crossbow for a long time, just holding it up freehand. So the tripod that I have here works really well. It's low. It doesn't come into any interference at all with my string, my rail, my bolt, or my broadhead. And actually, there's some great ones on the market. But if you're a budget guy, make one. Find a $5 tripod at a garage sale. This one here is homemade. This is just made from a tripod that was broken that I got at a yard sale for $2. I put a Y on it, painted it black, and threw some camo to make it soft up top. And it really works well. It keeps this bow, this Crossbow, completely steady for everything. So once I get comfortable, I can really just sit here and relax. I can put my arm down. I can do other things. And my bow, Crossbow, is always at the ready. And this is really, I think, an advantage of Crossbow hunting out of a blind is that comfort level. Now one of the things that you need to make sure that you're considering is the clearance. So you want to actually get a good line of sight from your bolt out that window to make sure you're not going to hit anything. And you also want to be very aware of these cross supports. If you have a blind that has some type of cross member in it or corner post, oftentimes we get excited. We're focused on the animal. And when you look through a scope close up, sometimes those things are actually blurred out and you're so focused on the animal or your scope is higher than the level of the bottom of your window or higher than one of the cross members, you're not going to see it. So you want to always give a quick look and make sure that the line of sight for your bolt is going to clear everything before you fire that shot. And again, most of the times in a blind, you have a good idea where the deer are going to come from. You have a little bit more opportunity to be able to prepare for that shot coming in so you can be ready, make sure that you're clear and have everything lined up. One of the other advantages of the blind is being able to get away with a lot of movement. It's very advantageous for you not to have all of the windows open. So today we have the windows open, of course, because we were getting some light in here so we can get some good footage to talk to you about some of these benefits of ground blinds and crossbows. But you want to make sure that especially everything behind you is blocked off and to your sides. You don't want that extra light coming in to highlight your body. And the important thing about being in a ground blind is your clothes and what you are wearing. So in every other hunting situation, we are always talking about camo, right? There's a bunch of different brands. There's lots of different choices. When you're in the blind, you just need black. You need to have, at least from the waist up, a black shirt. Something that covers your arms is really good if you can hunt in some cooler weather and have a black long sleeve shirt, a black face mask, black gloves, everything. You want to take advantage of the shadow and dark situation that your ground blind creates. If you have all the windows down, you lose that. Even wearing black, you're going to get picked out. Another thing that you need to consider in the ground blind is also moving your chair to the farthest back of the blind that you can. That allows you to be even more concealed in the blind. If you are sitting way up front, it's a lot easier for you to get picked off, especially if you have maybe a little bit of window open in the side that you want to shoot through, then that will really hamper you for getting busted, especially close up as you move around. Black clothes and sitting as far back in the blind will be a big advantage to you. The last thing that I want to mention today is screens, mesh. Now, a lot of blinds come with shoot through mesh. If you're shotgun hunting or rifle hunting, that would be okay. If you are shooting a fixed blade, it is probably okay. If you are shooting a mechanical or a hybrid, I would highly advise that you don't shoot through any of your mesh screens. We've done a lot of testing on our own hybrids and other broadheads, and it's a hit or miss situation. Sometimes, they go through the screen perfectly, and other times, it sends the arrow off in a weird direction. It's all variable on screen type, how tight that screen is stretched from side to side. Is it loose? Does it tent when the arrow hits it? There's too many factors to really consider that a great idea. Even if you're shooting a fixed blade broadhead, make sure you've taken a shot or two as a practice round just to make sure that it's getting through that mesh, and everything is doing exactly what you think it should do.