patterns

[LODI QUACKER]

All right I need a little info. Mainly where I hunt I am setting up in button willows what do yall think is the best camo pattern for my quick set. It seems like Break up is a little dark with too much black.Shadow grass is way to light and the button willows dont have grass growing up in them. What seems like would be ideal is the older treestand Mossy oak. Do yall still make the pannels in that pattern? What other paterns do you make that might fit this scenario? Also I have been looking around alot where can you get another set of pannels for people who hunt in different environments? In my opinion you need to make them in a button willow pattern, maybe a thicket of branches with a vine weave thoughout. One more question-- what do you suggest to break up the box dimensions of the blind.thanks.

[Tom Matthews]

LQ,

I don't want to over simplify the answer to your question, but it's like this. I have hunted from Quick-Sets since Allen Hughes and I built the first one in 1994. I hunted out of very similar custom blinds for 4-5 years before that. What we found is that the color of the camo on the blind made very little difference as long as it was die-cut (for 3-D effect) and did not flap in the wind.

Back in the beginning, there was no Break-Up, Shadow Grass, Timber, Wetlands or any of the other 1,000 commercially generated patterns we can use now. This stuff is great, but a ton of money is wasted on camo for boat blinds. The best camo for any boat blind anywhere is still the old military tank netting. This stuff blows them all away! This is just my opinion, but my Qucik-Set has sold over 20,000 units since 1994 so I consider myself relatively knowledgable about the subject.

With that said, I can direct you to video segments on several Whistling Wings tapes or on the Avery Quick-Set promo tape that shows us killing ducks at 15' sitting in button willows. Sometimes we had Mossy Oak Treestand (I agree a great pattern for willows and even better for cypress), sometimes we used Shadow Grass, Mossy Oak Bottomland was used for two years and there is one segment from a TV show we did with Knight & Hale where we are shooting greenheads with no sun at all using Advantage Classic on the boat. All that was done because of the "politics" of this business, but I can tell you that the absolute best camo to use in button willows is either tank netting with the brown side out or some of our RealGrass or a similar dried grass product.

Finally, since I have spent the last 10 years shooting most of my ducks from willows, I will suggest that you get the boat back inside the line of the button willows at least two rows of trees, cut out a wide shooting berth and make a quick access exit so you can chase ducks down if you don't have a dog with you. I'm sure you know all that, but it's the most effective hunting we do on the backwater of the Mississippi and White Rivers in Arkansas. It gets me fired up just thinking about it.

Thanks for the question. I would love to hear any suggestions you have for the same type hunting.

Tom Matthews

[LODI QUACKER]

Tom hello, sounds like we do in fact hunt the same "Type" places I am sure if you have hunted with Tate that we have hunted in some of the same holes. I am from central MS and spend quite a bit of time around the A. Wood boat landing.I live just a few miles from there.I would like to ask you this, since you brought it up. If you had a pile of the tank cammo and a pile of the break up or other cerex would you use the military stuff or the MO. I have both, plenty of the military cammo and am just wondering.We do get the boat back in the willows as much as possible but alot of times you cant get back in as far as you like, so the cammo is important. Getting out of a spot is not even an option because it takes a while to get wedged in most places and it would be a nightmare to have to chase down cripples everytime. If I could not take my "Little black friends "to collect my cripples, with me I probably would stay at home. Most of the time the places that I frequent get so heavily hunted the by the middle of the season the natural cover is either shot down or run down by boats,that is another reason that we have to rely on the blind cammo so much. I do use a collage of stuff when I set up, my blind lookes like a big blob of who knows what. Usually I will start of with the base and then zip tie a bunch of military cammo and frayed cerrex from the last 8-10 years of collecting scraps so that helps to break it up. One more thing we do is before we get to where we are going to set up, stop by some button willows and pull some of that viney stuff into the boat after you set up just drape that over the blind. The vines work great but in some years the water level dictates how much is available,If it has been too high there will not be any or it will be underwater.It is good to talk with folks that hunt the same as I do.

[Tom Matthews]

Wow it's been a long time since I hunted the Don Miller hole, the big hole, the hole behind the hole, the point, etc. Sounds like you know "what time it is" as Avery used to say.

I can only say that the old tank netting seems to be the best deal for what you are suggesting if it's the kind with the 2" netting hog-ringed on the outside of it. That stuff is a pain to deal with, but you can stick willows and other natural vegetation down in it where you can't with our current CamoNets or strips of Cerex. We are changing our CamoNets back to the netted version for 2003 because it is so effective.

Speaking of getting "wedged" reminds me of one morning about 3:00 am as Avery Wood and I sat in the "puhfect weeedge" on the west side of the Don Miller hole. Some jackass that was lost and trying to get to the state blew through the hole and broke our wedge, then made the fatal mistake of cutting his engine when he saw us and drifting up with the old "How ya'll doing?" Not many folks know what we're talking about, but that guy got his brains kicked in by Wood so bad it made my stomach hurt. I bet the guy gave up duck hunting for good.

Maybe I'll see you around there someday.

Tom

[LODI QUACKER]

You got that right, It gets hung on everything!!! Every stob and every corner of the blind. I bet he did get a case of the a$$. That was the big problem especially with the DM hole there is a well marked route around the DM hole now so it is not nearly as bad. What is the netting going to be like for 2003? Anyway it was good talking to you. OUT>.