Hunting Forum

I bought an Ameristep Stealth House Blind, and got today (hoping to hunt with it tomorrow).  It opened up on its own...very easy, as the ad said.  The only "instructions" for closing it, however, are three images on the box that show the finished steps you reach AFTER doing somethign...but what?  I've tried mimicking those, along with the YouTube videos I've seen,   but aside from folding it in half (from the top, folding it near the middle, which it only partially likes), but after that, it doesn't want to be folded or twisted or whatever it does next.

Can anyone with experience with this blind please give me some simple, step by step instructions?  I need something along the lines of fold here, grab here, do this, grab there, do that, etc.....

Everything i try feels like it's going to bend the frame where it doesn't want to be bent.

Thanks,

   --jim

Take a look at this vedio and see if this helps.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...4fXjrIcA10

Posted By grandpops on 09 Feb 2013 05:09 AM
Take a look at this vedio and see if this helps.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...4fXjrIcA10

Well, they are two different blinds (btw, I found out that mine is also known as the Gunner blind), but that looks like the same procedure.  The problem, for me at least, is that mine doesn't seem to want to do that.  But this one did have that bit of extra information (where he said something like "Now this is a very important step."  That could be what I've been missing.

My attempts so far have messed the blind up a bit, though, so I'm a bit skiddish on trying anything again.  The frame bends inward towards the bottom (not sure if it's built that way or if I did that), and it doesn't spring all the way open like it did initially (I didn't even have enough time to not hot it was folded).  When I pull it open (in the kitchen or outside) it doesn't seem stable, so I'll have to stake it down every time I use it.  But then, that may also be normal.  This is my first popup ground blind, so I'm working more or les (no pun intended) blind.   Add to that the fact that, as I've elaborated on probably too many times, aftermath of cancer #1 leaves me unable to fill in the missing bits in all of the instrtuctions I've seen until this video (which shows more than just what it should look like AFTER each step---yes, many others do that, leaving me asking, ok, but how did you get there?

I'll give this a try after I've had some coffee (still in the mandatory NPO after taking my Synthroid right now) and breakfast.  :-)

Btw, the blind does spring open from any partially folded position I have it in (in fact, it's hard to keep it from doing so) into the position where it's flat.  It just doesn't spring open (fully open) from there.  I seem to recall that it did when I opened it yesterday (not realizing how difficult it'd be to take it back down).

Thanks---I'll get back with the rersults after I try this out.

On my Ameristep pop up blind the door zipper has to be opened at least half way for take down and closed for the last side to stay poped out, reason for three zippers, two of them should be down in set up and one stays down when opening the door. Mine doesn't pop open on its own, each side and top has to be pulled out or pushed in to set up and take down in no particular order.

Posted By bpearce on 09 Feb 2013 07:02 AM
On my Ameristep pop up blind the door zipper has to be opened at least half way for take down and closed for the last side to stay poped out, reason for three zippers, two of them should be down in set up and one stays down when opening the door. Mine doesn't pop open on its own, each side and top has to be pulled out or pushed in to set up and take down in no particular order.

Hmmm, sounds like I might not have screwed it up after all.  Whew!  Ok, I've had my breakfast, cofee is flowing into me per normal routine, and I've done my two injectios for today, and averted a major crisis....  I guess that means it's time to view that video again and try it out...with the door zipper open.

Ok, several notes on my blind vs the video.

My blind doesn't fold the way the one if the video does.  Mine will fold once after the two sides are pulled together.  There is one way that the two sides pull together without bending something, and it feels natural.  If you try to fold that in half, sometiems it will do so without resistance, but usually, it'll fight you.  Watching the video several times, I realized he wasn't folding it over completely, but only in a U.  So I did that (again, mine does not do the fold he does after pushing the blind down flat.  His folds at an obvious fold point, where there does not appear to be one with mine (just solid metal frame).  When I grasp the two sides of the top, as he does, the bottom half just expands out to the left, right, and away from me.  When I try to push the bottom down, as he does, everything else just flays out everywhere (worse than it had just before), whereas his stays nice and neat.  I'm not sure if this is a mistake on my part, or just the fact that we're talking about two different blinds that aren't the same shape.

I GOT IT!  I GOT IT!  After watching so many videos, and getting the general idea of how these buggers twist, I re-read the instructions that came with the blind (which had me 100% confused yesterday) about 12 times (seriously, about 12 times).  I started to see things clearly that didn't make sense at all before, or just simply didn't register at all.  First try failed, so I read the instructions two more times.  AH!  I see......  Then I tried again, and it went right down.  And Grandpops:  that video you suggested WAS a big help in showing me some of the basic motions for twisting this beastie.

Thanks, everyone, all of the help here, videos, etc., is what lead to my ability to read (and get what I was reading past my chemobrain and the 2.5 cm tumor that was in my left occipital lobe and actually understand it for a change.  Now I don't have to carry it in as a large (flat) popup blind....I can strap its backpack to my tactical backpack (along with my chair and the Vanguard Aluminum Bipod that I finally brokek down and bought (the shooting sticks took too long to setup to be stable in the beach sand we have for ground here, and if I had to change shooting directions, I had to pull them up and go through it all over again, definitely alerting any deer around).

Later,

   --jim

PS:  It still doesn't fly open completely like it did, but it's a LOT more stable now---I checked all of the supports, and those that were bent inward from my previous attempts, I bent back out.  The blind is far more stable, but I still think it'll need to be staked down.  It's so light that one light wind would blow it over......

Great. Glad ya got it figured out. My next susgestoin was going to be to watch a video on how to coil a bandsaw blade, it's the same principle.

Posted By grandpops on 10 Feb 2013 12:32 AM
 Great. Glad ya got it figured out. 

Well, mostly.  :-)   I still need some practice---I tried a few more times (probably about 7) and got it right about 3 times, all 3 of which I got very close, but was just one twist short before the whole thing sprung out.  But it did that because I forgot which way to make that last twist.....  With more practice, though, it'll be automatic for me.  I watched one video where the guy talking said the same thing about a different Ameristep blind.  I believe it.

But it's all sprayed down with Scent Killer 99%, in its backpack, and ready to go into the field tomorrow.

New question for tomorrow:  how well do these popup blinds protect from wind and deer getting your scent (assuming you've done all of the usual stuff like spraying everything, washing yourself and clothes with Scent Killer or Scent-A-Way, etc.) when it comes to the wind direction and time of day (vs ground or tree stand and air currents, etc.?

Well, so much for hunting today (and tomorrow, and Tuesday) .... Today, 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms.  I just walked out to get something out of my car, and I could smell the rain moving in....  The LAST place I want to be in a thunderstorm (especially since we are #2 in terms of lightining strikes per year, and an area in Central FL is #1 only by a tiny difference) is in a remote area where I have to pack back up, walk out back to my car, and all that time, surrounded by TREES.  Can you say dead hunter?  Yeah.....  Not good.  Definitely not good.  Out of 9 days left in this final (rut) season, I just lost three to weather (today 50%, tomorrow 70%, and Tuesday 90%).  My first outing with my new blind AND for the rut willl have to wait.  :-(

Oh, and btw, I did find out some info about scent control with popup blinds, specifically, open windows.  With one window open, the scent is mostly contained.  Open a second window, and you create a path for a stream of scent to be blown out in a steady stream of scent.  BUT....get some plastic sheeting (what I just went to the car to find) and use it to cover the windows and shoot through it, and you mask a big chunk of that scent flow.  At that point, I believe the added visibility weighs in much more heavily than the tiny bit of scent that might escape (especially with everything treated with Scent Killer, including the blind, backpack, and everything else that I carry in).  But not today.

If you can detect a breeze in the blind, then it will carry your scent with it as it exits the blind. I will sometimes spray fox or coon urine as a cover scent around the outside of my ground blinds.
Don't be afraid to get a little wet. I've taken some nice bucks in the rain. The rain helps to quiet everything down such as footsteps in the dry leaves, it provides a distraction for both their hearing and vision, and it helps to hold down your scent dispersion. If you're not out there, you'll never know if you missed that once in a lifetime shot or not.

Posted By grandpops on 11 Feb 2013 04:05 AM
If you can detect a breeze in the blind, then it will carry your scent with it as it exits the blind. I will sometimes spray fox or coon urine as a cover scent around the outside of my ground blinds.
Don't be afraid to get a little wet. I've taken some nice bucks in the rain. The rain helps to quiet everything down such as footsteps in the dry leaves, it provides a distraction for both their hearing and vision, and it helps to hold down your scent dispersion. If you're not out there, you'll never know if you missed that once in a lifetime shot or not.

I tried to get some doe estrus while buying groceries at Wally World, but they were completely out of all
hunting stuff.  We're swamped with severe thunderstorms through either Tuesday or Wednesday, so I'll probably
make the drive way out to the Bass Pro Shop and buy some there.  I doubt they'll sell out of hunting stuff
even during the off-season.

Not afraid of getting wet....I DO, however, respect the threat from lightning, especially when surrounded by
lightning rods (trees) that react explosively when struck (tree shrapnel in a 360 deg pattern, not to mention
getting an indirect strike.)  Like I said, we, along with Central FL, are number 1 in either the US or the
world (can't remember which) for lightning strike numbers per year.  I am also a Skywarn spotter (NWS-trained)
and used to do a lot of lightning photography.

One time, I was just starting to say to myself that the storm was a big disappointment, when I heard this
sizzling, crackling sound, saw a dim glow off to my left (a streamer---meaning I was ***WAY*** too close), and
then a near-blinding flash of light and a shock wave (which would soon be thunder) that knocked me off my
feet.  MUCH too close.  When I got back inside, I looked in the bathroom mirror, and all of the hairs on my
arms and on my head were standing straight up.  Definitely too close.  Skywarn training tells you to watch for
a static charge feeling, but that wasn't there...just the sizzling, crackling sound and the dim glow, which I
didn't have time (fraction of a second) to realize that it was a streamer before the stepped leader connected
with it and it was officially lightning.

Another time, the lightning was across the street, but after getting a high-resolution scan of the negative,
and looking at the images again, I spotted two streamers reaching up from a building across the street.
Neither connected with the stepped leader to form lightning, though.

No, if it's just rain, I'll be out there.  The popup blind will keep my muzzleloader dry, so no worries there,
and no lightning means I'm not so concerned...except for one of the two most deadly lightning strikes in any
given thunderstorm (a quiz from one of my Skywarn classes[1]).  And I've always suspected that a moderate rain
would help a LOT in masking scent (and add doe urine or estrus, and you're got a simple D&D---Denial and
Deception---tactic working in your favor).

Thanks,
   --jim

[1] Skywarn classes, always (from the ones I've been to) taught by the local NWS director, have a quiz.  My
    first was at the beginning of tornado season in Texas (while I was at Texas A&M).  After having been told
    the definition of a tornado (a violently rotating narrow column of air in contact with the ground and
    extending from a thunderstorm base) many times, seeing photos, vids, etc., the instructor showed us a
    photo, and asked, "Does anyone in this room see anything immediately threatening in this photo?"  What we
    saw was a well-defined wall cloud, with a definite funnel cloud extending from it.  Oh, and there was a
    bit of dust on the ground.  After several minutes of a room full of amateur radio operators like me,
    police, fire, ambulance drivers, etc., staring at it, someone finally said, "Ummmm, no." Instructor then
    responded, "Well, you'd better, because there's a tornado right in front of your face.  Remember the
    definition of a tornado, a violently rotating narrow column of air .....  Note that it doesn't say
    *ANYTHING* about a *VISIBLE* violently rotating narrow column of air.... See that debris on the ground?
    That's your indication that the tornado is on the ground.  And while we're debunking myths, you know how
    people always say you can tell if a tornado is coming because it sounds like a freight train?  Frankly,
    that's bullsh*t.  *IF* you hear anything at all, it's usually about the time the tornado is ripping
    through your walls."  After the first part, we were all looking around for someone to leave, so we could
    follow them out.  After the second part, we were REALLY hoping someone else would leave first.  He really
    put a lot of respect for tornadic storms into us with those two lessons.  But since that's one of the key
    reasons Skywarn (NWS-trained storm spotters, like me) exists, they want us to have a high degree of
    respect for the danger and stay safe.

    The third class was here, on lightning and severe thunderstorms.  Quiz question:  "In any given
    thunderstorm, there are two lightning strikes that are more deadly than all of the rest.  Which two?"
    Answer (again, after several minutes of us looking stupid): The first and the last...because you aren't
    expecting them.