Some of the best — and some of the most miserable — times I have
ever had in the outdoors were spent in duck blinds. Such is the
nature of the sport we call waterfowling. And, duck blinds are
an iconic part of it. For thousands of years hunters hunted
ducks and geese by concealing themselves in whatever cover was
readily available and dispatching their quarry whenever it came
within range. A lot of them still do it that way. Hunters,
standing quietly beside towering cypress trees in flooded
bottomlands have been the undoing of unfathomable numbers of
wood ducks and mallards. Others, squatting in coastal marshes
and along inland rivers have downed sacks full of those species
plus scaup, pintails, widgeon and the like. There’s nothing
wrong with that. In fact, as we get older, many of us adhere
more readily to the minimalist approach to everything, including
duck hunting. That said, it’s also a fact that many waterfowl
hunters consider a blind to be as important as their favorite
shotgun or a well-trained retri