While sitting in the blackhole...

[Ringtail]

I will be picking up a Double Bull Matrix 360 for next year's deer and hog hunting (my first season with a bow), and I have a verrrrrrrry narrow, short lived attention span.

What do you guys use, to entertain yourselves, and to pass the time while sitting in a dark ground blind? I don't want to get to the point where my eyes glaze over and I drool into my lap. Embarrassing for a deer to come by and see that...

Any ideas on snacks, chairs, rump cushions, or anything else important, will also be dutifully accepted. No matter how random they are. In fact I prefer random ideas...given most of you are hunting now, and you will have fresh ideas.

[Jerry/NJ]

I will be picking up a Double Bull Matrix 360 for next year's deer and hog hunting (my first season with a bow), and I have a verrrrrrrry narrow, short lived attention span.

What do you guys use, to entertain yourselves, and to pass the time while sitting in a dark ground blind? I don't want to get to the point where my eyes glaze over and I drool into my lap. Embarrassing for a deer to come by and see that...

Any ideas on snacks, chairs, rump cushions, or anything else important, will also be dutifully accepted. No matter how random they are. In fact I prefer random ideas...given most of you are hunting now, and you will have fresh ideas.

Now that is funny right there !! :D

Get the most comfy chair you can! I picked up several at Walmart and added some foam cushioning. Take plenty to eat and drink, stay carbed up.
And the most important piece of advice I can give you is, practice out of it BEFORE you go hunting! So many pop it up and wonder why they shoot thru the bottom of the blind. :rolleyes:

[Michael]

Get a swivel stool. I stay busy buy using my binos to check for movement in the distance. I use a black fleece blanket on the ground too, it keeps everything very quiet, and helps to keep your "black hole" warm as well. As Jerry said, set it up and practice too. The first time I tried to use one, it didn't take long to realize that I was sitting way too far forward.

I don't really do anything to entertain myself, I enjoy being in the woods, and mother nature is the only entertainment that I need. It does help that I have my hunting buddy (son) with me when I hunt.

[2Racks]

It never hurts to have a GameBoy in the backpack on them really slow days! That's what I use when I take my kids out with me hunting! When its just me I only have my bow and video camera in hand. Being a mother of 3 little ones I enjoy every second of the quiet time I can get out there in the blind! ;) :D

[shootstraight]

Cross stitch is something that has always fascinated me. :D

[L-train]

Now that is funny right there !! :D

Get the most comfy chair you can! I picked up several at Walmart and added some foam cushioning. Take plenty to eat and drink, stay carbed up.
And the most important piece of advice I can give you is, practice out of it BEFORE you go hunting! So many pop it up and wonder why they shoot thru the bottom of the blind. :rolleyes:

I didnt think anyone saw that:eek:

I take a book with for looooong sits!

[Ringtail]

Cross stitch is something that has always fascinated me. :D


something wrong with that... :eek::eek:

[Ringtail]

1. Comfy padded swivel chair - check
2. Setup and shoot, before hunt - double check

2Racks...excellent point...need to get a digital camcorder and tripod. :D

Thinking about a good book and one of those clip-on LED lights for my hunting cap.

What kind of SILENT snack containers do you use...???

[Ringtail]

A friend pointed out that my cap mounted reading light was a dumb idea. Possibly illuminating my movement in the blind. Sooo...I scratched that.

But do you guys find it necessary to have longer fibers or a LED for your sight, while inside a blind, early in the morning ??

[Scotty]

As I hunt out of ground blinds 95% of the time, I have found that it is best to dress in black at least from the waist up. Face mask as well. Think Ninja. You can move around with impunity, and the deer won't know you are there.

[Wile_E_Coyote]

A friend pointed out that my cap mounted reading light was a dumb idea. Possibly illuminating my movement in the blind. Sooo...I scratched that.

But do you guys find it necessary to have longer fibers or a LED for your sight, while inside a blind, early in the morning ??

...you'll likely find is a resounding 'yes.' I've hunted out of a Matrix for the past couple of years, turkey, hogs and deer, and the one thing that's not necessarily a negative but something that you'll have to remedy is that you'll have no ambient light in the blind. Ambient light is what lights your pins, so at least make sure you have a sight light. I also have Fitz fiber extensions in my 7-pin 0.010 Hogg-It. I still lose my pins at dusk, and need to hit the light, even if only on low.

To pass the time, I'll take either a magazine or a book (no, not some girly novel, something maybe by Tom Clancy), and I'll also take an iPod or something similar with a headset. Sometimes if I have a knife I need to put an edge on I'll take a sharpener out and (quietly) sharpen it. It's been so hot in Texas lately that the afternoon hunts have totally sucked, so it's almost dusk before I've been seeing any deer. That leaves a couple of hours of countin' the squares in the shoot-through mesh...;) Gotta have something to do.

One thing that is an absolute must is a comfortable chair with a back, as has been mentioned previously. I have about 9-10 different chairs I've tried in the past year or two, but two have worked out really well. Double Bull's new larger Magnum chair is awesome, and the Bird and Buck Swivel Seat (the one with the back on it) also works well. The B-n-B seat isn't real portable, and is best to use if you can drive up kinda close to where you'll be hunting on an ATV like we can and drop your stuff off. But, it swivels silently making it easier to reset for a shot out of a different direction than if you're in a stationary chair.

And the biggest thing, also as has been mentioned, is to practice shooting out of the mesh, at some point using the exact model of broadhead you'll be hunting with. (I usually burn one out of one of my packs, I'll super glue it shut and that's the practice head.)

Hope some of this helps. Best of luck to you in the upcoming hunts, keep us posted.