Our typical hunting property here in California is the Colorado River zone. No monster buck or big toms, but the upland and waterfowling is great. Th only problem is, because its a river, the water level rises and falls by some 5-15 feet every few hours. This is especially challenging when it comes to erecting a working duck blind. Most previous attempts have ended in them being washed away or not being able to get to them due to water level. This is especially humiliating when you work for the Outdoor Channel, where EVERYONE wants to know how your hunt went, and most are expecting pictures, frozen cuts or jerky. Problem solved. I give you our new portable duck blind. 1 Satuday, $120 in parts and 1 case of beer (or more?) later, she's done. Here's the process:

Started out with10ft. pieces of 1.25" PVC. Was gonna go for 1.5" or even 2" but we wanted it light and portable.

Measured and made the cuts.

ALOT of cuts

Martin and I laid the basic framework, making sure the dimensions would accomodate 2 chairs, a gun rack, a cooler, a heater, and a dog

After framing popped up, we quickly realized that our inital design needed some modifying. It wasn't stable enough

Cross-beam added and all heights set. Low enough to see the decoys in the water, but tall enough to not catch us or a muzzle when swinging with a fly-over

Even though most of the blind is covered in Max4 burlap and Realtree APG windblocker, we decided to paint the PVC just in case. Ducks can spot ANYTHING out of place, and the last thing we wanted to do was spook em before they can even hear our hail calls.

Finish painted product. Now to make a Bass Pro Shops trip to get the burlap. Should take 30 mins (read: 4-7 hours, it is the greatest store on earth)

Burlap dimensions are perfect. 95% visibilty from inside and 90% coverage from outside. Completely conceiled. Now the walls.

Windblocker added. This is the finished product. It's 4 feet deep, 6 feet long, 7 feet high, and wieghs in at just under 40 pounds.

Now to see if we achieved portability. Done. Fits into an old Quik Shade bag with wheels and sets up in under 15 mins.  Holes can be cut to modify it into a turkey blind, deer blind, or even snow geese blind. Similar DIY models online started at 300 bucks. Think we achieved perfection.

Can't wait to whack em this season! Been a wet year, so they should be pretty thick. We'll post pictures of opener in October.