The author arrowed this Wyoming whitetail from a Redneck Hay Bale blind that was placed beside a stack of actual alfalfa hay bales. This buck, and several other deer, never paid the fake any attention, despite the fact it was set up immediately prior to the hunt. (Photo by Justin Fabian)
October 28, 2025
By Haynes Shelton
As few as 10 years ago, I had very little experience hunting whitetails from box blinds, or “permanent blinds” as many call them. I killed my first deer from a hang-on tree stand when I was just a kid, and for the next 20-plus years I primarily hunted from small, mobile platform stands, during both archery and firearms seasons.
While my beloved hang-on style stands and tree steps can’t be beat for their light weight and modularity (except maybe by popular new tree hunting saddles, which admittedly I’ve not tried), there’s a reason why most of the bucks I’ve shot since 2015 were taken from permanent blinds.
In this article, I’ll briefly explain why I’ve started hunting from permanent blinds as often as I do, and why I’m punching tags because of them. I’ll also discuss some strategies I use when setting up these blinds, including what’s become perhaps my most important strategy: the “not-so permanent” blind.
Bale Blinds: Perfect Fakes It all started on a September bowhunt in Wyoming at Trophy Ridge Outfitters in 2016. While hunting the edge of a long, wide alfalfa field from a tree stand, I’d grown frustrated after several days of watching bucks feeding in front of me at distances of 70 to 100 yards, obviously out of range of my vertical bow.
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A plan was devised to move closer to where the bucks were entering the field. Their route to the alfalfa was a system of trails that converged in a pinch point that happened to be directly adjacent to a tall stack of alfalfa hay bales.
However, there weren’t any trees near the hay bales that would work to hang a tree stand. And that’s when I was first introduced to the hay bale blind. The bale blind we used was made by Redneck Blinds. It had a rigid metal frame and was covered in a burlap material that looked like hay straw.
The blind looked just like a round hay bale. Still, I gave the deer a lot of credit and thought they’d surely notice if we set the blind (a new, foreign object) beside the stack of actual hay bales.
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The deer won’t come near us! I told myself. They know this field; they know this stack of actual hay bales, and surely they’ll notice this blind and peg it as a fake.
I was wrong. During that first evening hunt, deer were literally walking up to our blind and trying to eat the straw from the sides of it. I shot a mature buck at 30 yards from that blind, my first ever for North American Whitetail TV , in fact.
A few Septembers later I returned to Wyoming to hunt once again with Trophy Ridge Outfitters. On the first evening of that hunt, I hunted again from a hay bale blind, this time in a wide open sorghum field. I saw multiple shooter bucks walk through a drainage in a low spot in the field just out of range.
Before the next afternoon’s hunt, we simply lifted the blind over our shoulders and walked it 40 yards closer to the drainage. Will these bucks notice the blind moved closer to the drainage? I wondered. No was the answer. I arrowed a mature 8-pointer at 40 yards that evening from the bale blind, also captured on film for North American Whitetail TV.
Hard Blinds: Beat the Wind and Cold I’ve also used Redneck Blinds’ hard-sided blinds with great success. In fact, I killed three bucks in northeastern Missouri at Indian Hill Outfitters from the very same Redneck Blind in the same exact food plot. But one of those hunts was extra memorable, and the Redneck is majorly to credit for my killing the buck.
It was a November rifle hunt, and I was chasing a big heavy-antlered 6 1/2-year-old buck that’d been nicknamed “Goofy” because of his lop-sided rack. I was in the Redneck Blind, overlooking the plot of standing soybeans where Goofy often fed and checked for does. But that’s when the wind direction switched . . . and headed straight for the bedding area where I suspected Goofy was bedded.
If I’d been in a hang-on stand, I’d probably have climbed down and left the area in hopes Goofy wouldn’t smell me and alter his pattern. However, I simply closed all the windows in the Redneck Blind, repositioned my Ozonics ozone generator outside of the blind and reapplied Conquest cover scent to the exterior of the blind. About an hour later, Goofy stepped out at 100 yards. I dropped him in his tracks, on film once again for North American Whitetail TV .
The author shot this trophy buck in Iowa after a winter storm brought temperatures as low as -8 Fahrenheit. A small heater placed inside the Redneck hard-sided blind made the bitter hunt easily bearable. (Photos by Brad Biddle) On another hunt in Southern Iowa, with Paul Fountain at Fountain Outfitting, I hunted once again from a Redneck hard-sided blind. It was late muzzleloader season, and a recent blizzard had dumped snow on the ground and caused the temps to drop into the negatives.
During that hunt, I took a small heater with me into the Redneck Blind. I believe it was -8 Fahrenheit that first afternoon. However, cameraman Brad Biddle and I were so toasty inside the insulated fiberglass blind that we had to remove our heavy coats and several layers of insulated clothing. I had gotten text messages from friends hunting nearby that had to return home because they couldn’t stand setting outside in the cold.
Not us. I ended up shooting a 160-class buck with my muzzleloader, and Brad captured it on film for North American Whitetail TV .
Not-So Permanent Blinds Midwest whitetail hunting legend Bill Winke was the first guy I watched videos of moving permanent blinds around on trailers from field to field. Bill’s YouTube channel has videos of him explaining how quickly deer accept permanent blinds as part of their environment. Often, deer pay little attention to tower blinds being moved from one spot to another, almost as if they associate the bulky blind as a piece of farm machinery.
I experienced this phenomenon first-hand on a hunt in northern Missouri with my friend Nathan Wilt at Land & Water Outfitters. During Missouri’s late muzzleloader season, Nathan and I used ratchet straps to tie down a Redneck Ghillie Blind to a flat-bed trailer. We then dropped the trailer at the edge of a soybean field that was littered with old tractors and farm implements.
The author shot this Missouri buck from a Redneck Ghillie blind that was strapped down to a flat-bed trailer and placed on the edge of a soybean field near some old tractors and farm equipment. The deer never paid the blind any attention, likely assuming it was just another piece of big, bulky machinery. (Photos by Brad Biddle) Several mature bucks had been feeding in the soybeans in recent days. But there was nowhere close by to hang a tree stand, and terrain wouldn’t allow us to see well enough for a shot from the ground.
Hopeful the bucks wouldn’t notice the trailer and blind, I waited for one to show up. Soon enough, a mature 9-pointer gave me a broadside 200-yard shot. The buck never even glanced at the blind before he hit the dirt, again on film for North American Whitetail TV .
Try ‘Em Out A decade ago I wouldn’t have predicted I’d be hunting from permanent stands more often than from tree stands. However, because of my successful hunts outlined above, I’ve developed a certain level of confidence in permanent blinds and consider them a critical piece of whitetail hunting gear. I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest you try them out. And if you do, here’s to hoping you’ll find them just as useful for tagging mature bucks as I do!
