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Cargo Van Makes Great Hunting Blind
For less than the cost of a new plastic hunting blind, Jerry McCabe has a 112 sq. ft. hunting blind. Even better, he can pull it into place and pull it home again when he's bagged his deer. The 8 by 14 by 7-ft. tall blind with its wood floor is more like a cabin on wheels than a traditional hunting blind.
"When I
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Cargo Van Makes Great Hunting Blind MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 34-5-16 For less than the cost of a new plastic hunting blind, Jerry McCabe has a 112 sq. ft. hunting blind. Even better, he can pull it into place and pull it home again when he's bagged his deer. The 8 by 14 by 7-ft. tall blind with its wood floor is more like a cabin on wheels than a traditional hunting blind.
"When I saw the cargo van for sale at a local auction yard, I knew I could use the box for a blind," says McCabe. "I figured I could strip the cab and frame down and sell enough parts and scrap to more than cover its cost."
He pulled the van into his shop, cut away the bolts holding the box to the van frame and lifted it off. Once the van was out of the way, McCabe rolled an old wagon gear into place. Two timbers mounted to the running gear provided a solid frame for bolting on the cargo box.
"I had a couple of 4 by 5-ft. picture windows that I had traded for some mechanical work. I had the local lumber yard install them," he says. "I studded up the back doorway with 2 by 4's and filled in the open space with a door and with metal from the sides where the picture windows were installed."
McCabe did buy shooting windows for all four sides, as well as a small wood stove to take the chill off a cold morning. "The stove only cost $10, but the insulated stove pipe cost me $120," he says with a laugh.
McCabe also tinted the picture windows so deer wouldn't be spooked by movement inside the rig. The final step was to give it a camouflage paint job, something his wife suggested and helped with.
"I won't have $1,000 in it when I'm all done, and it will last for years," says McCabe. "Some of those hard-sided blinds cost even more, and they barely hold two people. We can have an entire hunting party in this."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jerry McCabe, 23012 Ivy Rd., Preston, Minn. 55965 (ph 507 765-2404).
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