Anybody ever have any success laying out in their decoys in a bean field? I have hunted this field from a fence row with layout blinds and landed birds @ 30 yards but I’m being greedy, and enjoy the challenge and would rather have them at 5-10 yards in my face. Was planning on running around 15-20 dozen fullbodies and 4 dozen sleeper shells. Thoughts?
The quick answer is likely yes. For a major portion of the season in North Dakota we hunt soy beans and have great luck getting them to decoy right in. I'm going to guess thought that there is a little more to the question than that. Is this an odd type of bean? Is the field worked and plowed? What's the problem specifically with a bean field in Iowa?
I think maybe you misread my question. I’m asking about hiding directly in my decoys without a layout...in a bean field. Otherwise no it is a regular combined bean field.
Ghillie blanket. If you can, zip tie natural cover to it. I just found one in my basement, as I was going through my old stuff, trying to cull some stuff. Didn't even remember I had it. I will try to post a picture tomorrow, but there are lots of options out there. Silos are great for covering up. One between your legs, nice and tall. Couple on each side, one at your head. Since you are trying to bring them in that close, that would be close to the kill hole anyway, so the cluster shouldn't be a problem.
Ah, that makes more sense, fair enough. In that case, I haven't tried it in years as we use layout blinds now, but I'd say a ghili blanket or we used burlap w/ stubble secured to it.
Dig the blind into the ground if you can, If not froze or landowner allows it. Use the stubble straps to the very maximum. Decoys or silos around you and you will be fine. Geese here tend to prefer landing in the bean stubble and walking over to the corn field to feed. Gillie covers work well but my old back doesn't like it. If you do go with them I'd recommend picking up a cheap cushion for an outdoor chair and laying on it. Keeps you off the frozen ground and give some comfort.
A camping 'sleeping pad' is often recommended. The kind that are about 1" thick, and roll up. You could probably find a brown one. Back in the day, it was an air mattress. Anything to get you off the ground. Use your blind bag for a headrest, or build a 'triangle' shape out of plywood. Just keep it low profile.
This is one idea of a ghilli blanket. Sorry for the shaky image. Parkinsons. A guy could make his own, cheap. This is made with fake grass, looped in half, loop end stuck through the netting, loose end brought back through the loop. Another way is to zip tie grass (real or man made) to clothes pins, then just clip the pin to the netting. That way, if you have several bags of different colors, you can adjust the color to your situation. That net will roll up into about a 1' x 3' bundle. Not very heavy, and being man made, will not hold water. This is a pretty old (20 years?) net, but there are plenty of others out there.
