A couple of Greenhorn questions

I rushed the prep for last seasons duck shooting (my first full season into water fowling), thus the following questions

When is the best time to get the permanent mai mai ready, covered with brush etc?

When do the decoys go out? last year they went into the pond early, a little over excited I was.....

Looking into a layout blind, I see the Cabela's Northern Flight™ Ultimate Layout Blind looks the part, can get it landed for about $440 NZD, looks a better product than the Finisher blind I sat in at H&F Waikato. Thoughts, comments?

Any advice or comments will be appreciated.

Cheers

Awesome! Hope you had fun in the first season!!

About the maimai, I would do it a few weeks prior to opening so you don't disturb the pond/river too much. But dont do it early enough that the cover is dead by the time opening rolls around. Maybe a week before I would do it.
I never put the decoys out until the day. Somthing exciting about setting the decoys out in the dark half hour before you can shoot. Also if you put them out too early any birds that use that area will get used to them. And wont be "attracted" to the decoys. The night before at the earliest, but only in a spot that they cant be stolen. Opening morning is my choice.
Yet to see those layout blinds, I have a M2 blind, well worth the money. Layout blinds are the way to go.

$440 NZD for the layout will probably attract GST via customs on top.

I'd say brush your blind up anytime from now on. It's about the duckies becomming accustomed to the mai mai over a period of time and haveing as little disturbance of the shooting area leading up to opening day.

I also like to put decoys out in the morning.

Get a ground force from H&F $400.
I would put your decoys out the night before at the earliest

We 'scrub up' our mai mai and put out our decoys the night before (mainly for logistical reasons - we live 2hrs away from the lake we shoot at). The change no doubt makes some of the resident birds a little wary but we find birds that have been scared/shot at from all over the district that don't know the lake well enough decoy well throughout the day.

buffalo river layouts are $199, havnt seen 1 but will have a look at one soon, as to the maimai, from now on like most are saying and decoys no earlier than the night b4 opening, basicaly i have just typed the same shit as everyone else

Ok here is the run down on the budget blind as I have owned them all.
Buffalo river - Good price. Lots of stubble straps to stop the grass falling out. Folds down reasonably small. Very heavy, fabric isn't that tough. hard assembly process. Ammo pocket.
Cabelas ultimate - Comes to $320 when I ordered it so fairly cheap. Light, rigid doors and frame. Annoyingly large when folded down. Complex assembly process. Ammo pocket.
Cabelas mobile - Came to $320 when it was $129usd + shipping. I have seen this down to $100usd + shipping but I don't think it's on sale at the moment. This is the lightest blind. Also the quickest to put up and the smallest folded down. You can actually put a few things inside it when it's folded down. No ammo pocket. Narrower than the other two.

If you order from the states try and get a camo pattern thats got at least some green in it. Many of the american patterns are all yellow as they just hunt in corn fields not dairy farm grass paddocks.

Massive which is the biggest out of the above blinds bro

I see Hamills are doing the Tanglefree blinds from $339, look good on the Layout Blind Review - YouTube video. I might have to go check one out tomorrow.

Just priced the Tanglefree Layout Blind "The Landing Zone Blind" at Hamills, $599.99

Apparently they are top of the range...........

Quote:

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Originally Posted by upnorth uplander

Massive which is the biggest out of the above blinds bro

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I realized I never answered this. When I said Cabelas Ultimate I should have said Cabelas Interceptor Elite.

The Ridgeline was probably the biggest. The Interceptor Elite (it appears to have dropped off the cabelas web site) was bigger than the mobile blind but not by much.