Field & Stream stores sent a ground blind to test at the writers camp.
The Writers Camp was my first time to use it. First, I popped the blind up and took some pictures of the blind with the help of outdoor writer Joe Byers. Setting up the blind was both quick and easy.
One of the achilles heels of many pop-up ground blinds is the placement and size of the door. A door that is placed too high can trip you getting in or out. And if the entry hole is too small or narrow it’s a chore to get through.
AS far as I’m concerned, the bigger a door is the better. I’ve found plenty of ground blinds to be hard to open and a real struggle to get in and out of, especially in the dark before sunrise and after sunset.
The Field & Stream Stores Ultimate Ground Blind door proved to be easy to open. Plus the door is tall, wide and easy to step through. Very good.
But you don’t know the true measure of a portable ground blind until you get inside and hunt from it. There was a 3-legged chair inside the blind and I put it near the back so I would be hidden from view in the darkness of the blind.
Once you are inside and ready to hunt the main consideration is the Windows.
In this blind each window can be 1. closed, 2. meshed or 3. open and 4. the size of the opening is adjustable. And as you can see there are plenty of Windows: in fact 8 in all.
I meshed the top center window of the front side. and opened two of the shooting windows on the left side. That way I could see through the mesh into the woods in front of me and if something walked by the blind I could shoot through the left side windows.
On the side toward the right I meshed 3 of the 4 the windows and squiggled around the largest one so I could shoot out of it.
2 sides of the blind were REALTREE® AP and 2 sides APG camo. The exterior of the blind is coated with a weather resistant coating. The interior was the blackest of blacks which conceals movement and shadows. It was quiet too.
The 8 Silent Movement windows and mesh flap adjustments were excellent, it allowed me to get the windows precisily to my liking. I’ve never seen a blind with windows that adjusted to the hunting situation as wellas this. And quiet too adjust too.
Brush-in Strips were on the blind for holding trimmed tree branches and creating an additional layer of concealment for the blind. It is large inside and easily accommodates three hunters. Dimensions are: H: 66 in x W: 66 in H: 73 in. Carry Weight is 22 lb.
I know what you are thinking, with all these features this blind must be $500 to $700, right. Wrong, it’s $169.99. Wow!
If my previous favorite, the Double Bull Matrix is an 8, this Field & Stream Ultimate Ground Blind is a 10. Honest.
Looks nice too, huh.
