Keeping side windows closed or opening them to a minimum helps restrict light penetration. Whenever they are open, no matter how little, side windows should be equipped with mesh screening, which generally comes as standard equipment. The screening allows hunters to see out but limits light, shadows and reflections. In any event, camouflage clothing should be considered a must, and if the morning sun is shining directly into the shooting window, a facemask should be considered.

Window flaps should have tie-downs to prevent them from flapping in the breeze, which may draw the attention of incoming game.

BLIND LOCATION & TACTICS
One of the things I truly like about hunting from blinds is they can be used in any type of habitat or situation. They work well in open as well as wooded areas, with decoys and with calls, may be dismantled quickly and moved with relative ease, and set up quickly with little noise near roosting areas -- wherever and however turkeys are hunted by more traditional means.

Hunters still have to do their pre-season and day-to-day homework, scouting roosting sites, looking for strut zones, feeding areas and so forth, but once the birds are patterned, a blind will reduce the time it takes to put a bird in the freezer.

Two prime places to use blinds are near strutting zones, areas where gobblers will fly down each morning from the roost or travel to at some point each day to attract hens, and feeding areas. Strutting zones are usually identified by disturbed pine needles or leaves, broken feathers or droppings, and in some high active areas a clearly-defined figure 8 pattern may be seen on the forest floor, created by the gobbler as he drags his wings while strutting.

These highly productive areas could be along the edge of an open field or in one high corner of a field, a secluded spot along a river or creek bottom, on a hardwood ridge or on a shelf halfway up a mountain. It could be anywhere, but it is a place where gobblers go each day where they feel safe and comfortable as they can strut their stuff for admiring hens.

The challenge is to locate enough of these areas to have multiple options on opening day, which calls for plenty of time in the woods. It helps to remember that gobblers have one thing on their mind each spring, and while it is not unusual for them to maintain five or six strut zones, eastern slopes and areas exposed to full sun are favorite sites early in the morning.

Keep in mind, too, that gobblers usually visit a particular strut zone at about the same time each day. I find many of my strut zones by riding around and glassing fields and open ridges a week or so before opening day. When I spot birds, I make a note of it and check the site each day about the same time to see if a pattern develops. Once I see a pattern, I scout on foot, looking for the best place to establish my blind.