How One Manufacturer is Innovating Deer Blinds




When the leaves start to fall and weather begins to shift, whitetail deer hunters across the South begin the annual ritual of hunting preparation. Deer camp, cleanup, cutting trails, killing wasps, setting up cameras and feeders – all in preparation for a new deer season on the horizon.

In Texas alone, more than half a million hunters pursue whitetail deer every fall. Deer hunters look forward to creeping through the darkness before dawn, in order to beat the wildlife to the chase. Often this involves climbing or crawling into a box blind.

Typically either manufactured synthetic blinds or home-made wood blinds will be found at any average hunting property in Texas. Wood blinds are often constructed with basic lumber, are extremely heavy and cumbersome to install, and last for a few seasons before they start to weather. Repainting, reflooring and sealing up gaps are common annual maintenance chores on wood blinds. Manufactured blinds, on the other hand, are light weight, much simpler to install, and weather really well – often with virtually zero maintenance at all. The trouble is that they're generally very expensive, commonly totaling in the thousands of dollars and being cost-prohibitive to a wide population of hunters. 

This is where Formex Manufacturing saw an opportunity for innovation.

hunting blind

Formex Manufacturing is a thermoforming manufacturer based in Lawrenceville, Georgia that has been building quality plastic products for nearly 60 years. In addition to dock floats, industrial products and chicken coops, they now have a line of deer blinds offered under the brand name of Snap-Lock.

deer blind

Snap-Lock Hunting Blinds are designed to be assembled in place, removing the clunky transportation of pre-built blinds. All panels and parts are packed flat in a large box weighing less than 100 pounds, they are easily transported in the bed of a pickup truck, and quickly built by two people right in the field. The kit contains interlocking panels that don't even require hardware or tools to assemble.

This smart design and detailed engineering is coupled with the decades of polymer and thermoforming experience that Formex brings to the table. Snap-Lock blinds are made out of heavy-duty material, built in a double-wall construction for an extremely desirable strength-to-weight ratio. This also provides for more natural insulation than a single-walled synthetic blind.

deer blind features

Standard features of the Snap-Lock blinds include swivel-mounted hardware strips ready to mount to a base or stand in either horizontal or vertical formation, a full-size walk-in door with molded hinge, and low-profile window openings. Accessories are also available, such as quiet-open plexiglass windows, window netting to hide the hunter's silhouette, and an interior shelf.

In our modern global industrial age where cheap materials and imported products have become the norm, it is refreshing to see an American company designing and building high-quality hunting blinds at an affordable price right here in the USA.




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GOOD. Water Stained; 57 degrees; 0.28 feet below pool. Bass are good in 3-5 feet of water with squarebill crankbaits, and chatterbaits. Texas rigs and Viper XP Jigs are good around big timber in 3-8 feet. Carolina rigs are fair on the main lake and secondary points in 8-15 feet with ring frys. Report by Marc Mitchell, Lake Fork Guide Service. Warm sunny days are dictating black bass movements. Try and target fish where the water is 55 degrees or warmer water. To fly fish for bass try game changers and craw patterns in shallow water. Report by Guide Alex Guthrie, Fly Fish Fork Guide Service. The Lake Fork crappie bite is really good this week if you can stand the cold weather and beat the winds. Patterns are changing day to day with fish on the move and the weather so up and down. Some days they will stack up on bridges and the next they will disappear. Timber in 14-34 feet seems to be the most consistent pattern. If you find a crappie and hold an artificial bait above it still enough most fish are crushing that bait. Try using hand tied jigs in two different profiles. Smaller profile jigs in deeper water mid lake or on bridges. When you head north to shallower and muddier water switch to longer and bigger profile jigs. Try to fish lighter, more neutral colors in deeper water and darker colors in shallower water. Soft plastics and minnows will still get you bit as well. We should see the fish push shallower and shallower over the next few weeks with warmer temps in the forecast after the next week. Report by Jacky Wiggins, Jacky Wiggins Guide Service.

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