Avery Quickset Blind - some ways to improve it.

The Avery Quickset Boat Blind is the best boat blind on the market (in my opinion). I have hunted ducks for a long time. I have built boat blinds, and I have hunted behind the Northern Flight and others. I have yet to see a better blind than Avery's.

I put an Avery blind on my 16' Grizzly Tracker, and I loved it. The blind fit my boat easily and well. As I used it, I found some things that I would have improved upon if I were to do it again. One big thing was the height of the "top" of the blind where my rain top goes. I would like for the top to be clearly above my head, but it wasn't. This is important to create shadows and to keep the wind and rain off!  The other improvement I wanted to make was to eliminate the huge gap in the middle when the front and back were both up. I like to swing the two sides up when geese are flying overhead. If the two halves come together, it will hide you from high flyers. These two problems are actually a function of the length of the pre-bent sections of frame that made specifically for the back (top) and the front swing sections. The length of the frame before the bend limits blind height and concealment. A friend of mine has an Avery Quick Set blind that he has mounted on the third 20' Lund that he has owned. He likes the Alaskan model with side console and 90hp motor. It is high and swings closed overhead. I am not sure why they are not made that way anymore!

I was able to solve both of these problems with the same solution! By cutting the vertical part of the frame in half (before the bend) I was able to add an extension. I bolted in a 12” length of tubular steel. The inside diameter was very close to the outside diameter of the frame. The next step was to paint the steel satin black with Rustoleum spray paint. It was important that I leave the last 4” of the pole intact, because that end is designed to fit in the plastic pivot attachment.

 

 By bolting in an extension, I was able to raise the blind by 8".

Not only did I raise the height by 8”, but I was also able to move the pivot attachment 8” closer to the center. This is huge because by closing the gap of the front and back by a total of 16”, you almost eliminate it!

Another smaller issue that I had with my first blind was untying my blind so I could “pop” it up! I had a difficult time finding the black elastic cord and black balls in the dark. We want to set up the blind before shooting time, but our best chance to get it untied from travel mode was under the light at the ramp (where there is one).I found my solution to this problem at Lowe’s hardware. They have these brightly colored “pipe cleaner” looking ties.

 They are covered in plastic, 32” long, tough and flexible. These ties come in bright orange and bright green. They are great for wrapping around the blind material so it doesn’t unwrap while traveling, and they are easy to find when unwrapping the blind for hunting.

A third issue that I had with my first Avery Quick Set Blind was with leaving it tied up at the dock in the early season. The actual problem was that I did not have the blind material covered up and it faded a bit in the sunlight. I did not have a boat cover at the time. I since discovered a way to wrap the camo blind in the wind blocker material. This prevents the boat from being exposed to UV light and fading the camo!

 Hopefully there is something here that will help you. Gunner and I love to hunt ducks, and we love to hunt them behind our Avery Quickset blind!

Oldsquaw - a Sea Duck Lost at Buckeye Lake

Opening day of duck season on Buckeye Lake (Ohio) was pretty good. Of course I did secure the "Ace" spot on the lake, or at least my favorite spot! In order to get that spot, my yellow lab, Gunner, and I had to sleep in my 18' Alumacraft on the lake. Yep, that's right. We put our boat in the evening before and motored to our spot, deposited the decoys, put the Avery quick set up and hit the sack. I did cover the boat with a tarp and turned on my new propane heater. Oh, did I mention we had a blow up mattress? We were cozy! The sun came up and the shooting started. We ended the day with eleven ducks and a goose. We bagged five species, mostly mallards.

The next week I volunteered to secure the prime spot again. This time I got up at 2:30 and launched at 3:30 AM. As I feared someone was already there! Darn. I had to settle for spot B, but with the wind shift out of the north, spot B was a good choice. Spot B is a point that we call "West Point". The report was that there were divers on the lake. That made a point very appealing. We were blasted with a cold snap and there was a light early snow fall. I set out a nice spread of Herter's mallards, geese, divers, and four mojos. My friends, Matt and Randy, showed up later with more blocks and 3 more flappers. Our spread exceeded 100 fakes. It was quite impressive.

We had a great hunt! We dropped 13 birds. I will not mention how many misses! There was quite a collection of feathery participants; ring necks, ruddy, buffle head, canvasback, blue bills and green wing teal and one gadwall! Some of these ducks seldom visit the shallow water of "Buckeye Ocean". It was quite a treat, and Gunner had a ball!

Gunner's share of the spoils.

The next week Randy volunteered to secure a spot for the group. He had first pick at 3:30 AM.  The duck forecast was not promising. Despite the poor duck report, my brother elected to drive two hours to join us before sunrise. The wind was wrong and the ducks were few, but little did we know how blessed we were about to become. A beautiful drake mallard cupped up and "parachuted" straight into the spread at first light. His majesty's arrival was announced by the report of the Randy's Benelli SBE as he joined the poor imitations of his likeness. Later, my brother, Brian, and I were schooled by a passing diver which may very well have been the first duck to exceed the speed of sound! Brian and Randy redeemed our pride by doubling up on a pair of birds and Gunner was quite grateful! It was an hour before we saw another waterfowl other than a loon that landed 200 yards out. The loon serenaded us with his "north woods" song.

Suddenly out of nowhere Brian and I heard the bang from the shotguns of Matt and Randy. I looked up to see a duck dive at the edge of the decoys. I asked Brian, "Where did that come from?" As luck would have it, the wind shifted and we were not tied up! Oops! The boat was sailing through the decoys. I decided that we may as well go get that bird while we're out here. I had just pulled the dog ladder in when the bird popped up again. Brian covered it with #2 steel. I started the 60 HP Merc and motored my way to the edge of the spread. When I looked up to see where the bird was, I couldn't believe my eyes! It was an Oldsquaw! I saw one once 37 years ago on Lake Erie, but wow! What was that bird doing here! How Beautiful! When my brother reached down to get it I said, "Be careful! That's an Oldsquaw! That's a trophy!" I took 8 pictures of it before I gave it to Matt and Randy! What a day! I don't know how that sea duck got this far inland, but he sure made us excited!