# Duck Blind for Riverhawk B-60?



## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 20, 2014)

Anyone here ever build a blind for their Riverhawk?  Mine in particular is a B-60.  If anyone has a good blind design for one I'd love to see pictures, plans, materials list, whatever you've got.

Thanks!


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## king killer delete (Jan 20, 2014)

There are not to many boats I can not build a blind on. Post a pic of your boat and I think I will have a way for you to build a blind on it.


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## S.Tanner (Jan 20, 2014)

I built this one for a B-52. I used emt and bent it to conform to the shape of the hull. I used angle iron at the front and rear of the boat and notched it to fit the side walls. I bolted down joist hangers and drilled/pinned the emt to pivot. I still have the frame for it. You can have it if you want.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 20, 2014)

S.Tanner said:


> View attachment 771615
> 
> I built this one for a B-52. I used emt and bent it to conform to the shape of the hull. I used angle iron at the front and rear of the boat and notched it to fit the side walls. I bolted down joist hangers and drilled/pinned the emt to pivot. I still have the frame for it. You can have it if you want.



Thanks for the offer.  Mine is a B-60 so I don't think yours would fit but if you have more pictures of it I'd love to see it.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 20, 2014)

killer elite said:


> There are not to many boats I can not build a blind on. Post a pic of your boat and I think I will have a way for you to build a blind on it.



OK, I will as soon as I can.


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## S.Tanner (Jan 20, 2014)

I doubt I have any more pictures. I don't have the boat anymore.


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## bigkga69 (Jan 20, 2014)

Killer:  his river hawk is just like my Waterbug, just wider ...


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## king killer delete (Jan 20, 2014)

bigkga69 said:


> Killer:  his river hawk is just like my Waterbug, just wider ...


You know what I am going to do with your water bug and I think it would work for him.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 20, 2014)

OK Killer, here are some photos of my boat and of the mounts that were supposedly for a blind that was previously on the boat.  I'm sure it was a homemade blind, but I don't know what it looked like.  There are only 4 mounts and the front ones are about 10'4" from the back ones which seems like a pretty long span with no other support.


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## king killer delete (Jan 20, 2014)

Floor flanges and 1/2 EMT Call me 2 moro and I will tell you how to do it. Send me that PM with your phone number.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 20, 2014)

killer elite said:


> Floor flanges and 1/2 EMT Call me 2 moro and I will tell you how to do it. Send me that PM with your phone number.



PM sent.  Thanks.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 21, 2014)

killer elite said:


> Floor flanges and 1/2 EMT Call me 2 moro and I will tell you how to do it. Send me that PM with your phone number.



Great conversation today.  Thanks for the ideas.


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## ChristopherA.King (Jan 21, 2014)

Looks like a great boat to duck hunt out of


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## HuntinDawg89 (Jan 21, 2014)

ChristopherA.King said:


> Looks like a great boat to duck hunt out of



It isn't going to be ideal, but I bought it primarily to fish out of.  I think I can make it work in a pinch.  One of the major issues is the front and rear seats have flotation compartments (for lack of a better word) around them which   will make it tricky to stand up and shoot depending upon where your feet need to be to face the birds.


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## JohnnyD (Jan 21, 2014)

Can't help on the blind, but I've got a B-52 and it did very well for us this year. Like you said, those "flotation compartments" get in the way, but the boat is stable and will float in wet grass.

I'm painting mine this off season. This year we were cheap and covered it and us with brush and camo burlap. Not pretty, but it worked and was comfortable.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 12, 2014)

OK, this is what the end result looked like.  We did kill some ducks.  We killed 9 ringnecks and 2 gadwall on the final Saturday of the season.  I think we've only killed 1 or 2 gadwall on this property previously since 1995.

I'm concerned about the strength of the filberglass on top of the flotation pods where the floor flanges are mounted.  There is an awful lot of torque there potentially and you can see the fiberglass flexing.


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## king killer delete (Feb 12, 2014)

HuntinDawg89 said:


> OK, this is what the end result looked like.  We did kill some ducks.  We killed 9 ringnecks and 2 gadwall on the final Saturday of the season.  I think we've only killed 1 or 2 gadwall on this property previously since 1995.
> 
> I'm concerned about the strength of the filberglass on top of the flotation pods where the floor flanges are mounted.  There is an awful lot of torque there potentially and you can see the fiberglass flexing.[/QUO Great job. You need to see if you can support it with some wood and you may have to use some bondo to improve the support. Try to support it from the side of the boat.


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## clark87 (Feb 17, 2014)

is the boat a decent duck boat? im in the market for a new one, just trying to get ideas


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## Mark Brooks (Feb 17, 2014)

I have a B60 and haven't found an area I couldn't get to with that boat.  Really stable and fun to run with a Honda 15 HP on the the back.

Use mine to get to hunting site and then typically hunt outside the boat in cover.


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## duck-dawg (Feb 17, 2014)

Obviously it's not keeping you from killing birds, but why put a high profile blind like that on a low profile boat? I have a Flyway Specialties blind on my Gheenoe Classic that I customized to fit my boat...at the highest point it's less than 35" from the water line to the top of my blind. Do a google search for the FS blinds. I've not come across a better design for small boats with tapered/pointed hulls.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 26, 2014)

clark87 said:


> is the boat a decent duck boat? im in the market for a new one, just trying to get ideas



I bought it as a fishing boat.  Hunting out of it is a bonus.  It is very stable and will work in very shallow water.

They do make a duck boat model which has a lot more open floor space.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 26, 2014)

duck-dawg said:


> Obviously it's not keeping you from killing birds, but why put a high profile blind like that on a low profile boat? I have a Flyway Specialties blind on my Gheenoe Classic that I customized to fit my boat...at the highest point it's less than 35" from the water line to the top of my blind. Do a google search for the FS blinds. I've not come across a better design for small boats with tapered/pointed hulls.



This was my first try at a blind.  We were hunting with 3 men and 2 retrievers out of this boat so there wasn't room to be sitting in the floor.  I'll check out that blind though.  Thanks for mentioning it.


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## jawja7 (Feb 26, 2014)

HuntinDawg89 said:


> OK Killer, here are some photos of my boat and of the mounts that were supposedly for a blind that was previously on the boat.  I'm sure it was a homemade blind, but I don't know what it looked like.  There are only 4 mounts and the front ones are about 10'4" from the back ones which seems like a pretty long span with no other support.



This is my old boat. I bought it brand new. There was a four post pvc with two crossbars on each side. They were then wrapped with military CAMO netting. I had pics on my old phone but no longer have them. I made the wood door because the first fiberglass one broke the first week of having the boat. I also made it a functioning live well for crappie fishing. It had shadow moss seats on it when I finished the CAMO paint. It actually had a better paint job before we fished out of it for about 3 months straight and wore it down (daily). I really miss hunting and fishing out of that boat. Lots of good times. Hope you're enjoying it!


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## jawja7 (Feb 26, 2014)

I also made mine a low profile and we would position the boat to shoot out of one side of the boat and generally shot pretty easily straddling the floatations devices in front seat. We hunted 3 people out of it pretty good. Oh and the pvc blind was built with a bend in it so that it came back to the center of the boat for better concealment. Man I wish I still had the pics to show you. I had a 15 horse motor on it when I sold it and we went into very shallow waters duck hunting. Very stable and shallow draft made it a decent duck boat.


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## duck-dawg (Feb 27, 2014)

HuntinDawg89 said:


> This was my first try at a blind.  We were hunting with 3 men and 2 retrievers out of this boat so there wasn't room to be sitting in the floor.  I'll check out that blind though.  Thanks for mentioning it.



We don't sit in the floor of my boat. My Gheenoe has 3 benches, 2 with swivel seats. Sitting down, the blind is about eye level. 

3 men and 2 retrievers is a lot to have hunting out of that boat...


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## Core Lokt (Feb 27, 2014)

I build one for my gheenoe that raised and lowered out of pvc.

Blind up





Blind down





matterial only, one side up and one down.





the frame was bent in the shape of the topr rail of the boat. Narrow in the front and back and wider in the middle.





The 1/2" 2 hole straps were bolted through the metal rail cap and the 1/2" upright pvc went all the say to the floor for stability. The top rail is what was raised and lowered by tightening and loosening the eyelets. The bottom rail was fixed.






Not the prettiest blind out there but I sure killed some ducks out of it for 4-5 years. I actually still have the blind in the top of my barn collecting dust cause I now have a Flyway on my new boat.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 27, 2014)

jawja7 said:


> This is my old boat. I bought it brand new. There was a four post pvc with two crossbars on each side. They were then wrapped with military CAMO netting. I had pics on my old phone but no longer have them. I made the wood door because the first fiberglass one broke the first week of having the boat. I also made it a functioning live well for crappie fishing. It had shadow moss seats on it when I finished the CAMO paint. It actually had a better paint job before we fished out of it for about 3 months straight and wore it down (daily). I really miss hunting and fishing out of that boat. Lots of good times. Hope you're enjoying it!



That is wild that I found the original owner on the forum.  I believe that I bought it from the second owner (that's what he claimed), his name was Ken...bought it off Craigslist last April.  I needed something big enough to fish 4 people (me, wife, 2 kids) and was able to do it in this boat although my youngest has to sit in a camp chair.  We only got to fish out of it 3 times last year but hope to do more this year.

I cannot picture the blind you are describing.  I would have loved to see the pictures.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 27, 2014)

duck-dawg said:


> We don't sit in the floor of my boat. My Gheenoe has 3 benches, 2 with swivel seats. Sitting down, the blind is about eye level.
> 
> 3 men and 2 retrievers is a lot to have hunting out of that boat...



This one has 2 benches with swivel seats and a live well in the middle with a swivel seat.  The middle seat is the only one where the floatation compartments don't get in the way.  If I mount the seats low to the bench I would be really cramped and have a hard time getting to my feet with a shotgun in hand in order to shoot (we stood up to shoot).  By mounting the seats high like I do for fishing I can have one foot up on a floatation compartment and one foot in the bottom of the boat so it worked fine.

I do understand what you are saying about the height of the blind though.

I was concerned about having 3 men and 2 retrievers in it, but it was no problem.  When my family fishes out of it there are 4 of us, but we only weigh maybe 425 lbs. total.  With the 3 men and 2 dogs I figure we totaled close to 800 lbs. not counting battery, trolling motor, 3 shotguns, decoys, ammunition, blind, mallard machine, mojo decoy,  etc.  It turned out fine, I couldn't even tell it was riding low in the water or anything.  We were hunting a farm pond, so no outboard motor and when we stood up to shoot it was solid as a rock.


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## HuntinDawg89 (Feb 27, 2014)

Core Lokt said:


> I build one for my gheenoe that raised and lowered out of pvc.
> 
> Blind up
> 
> ...



That thing looks sweet.  I may follow up with some questions later.


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## duck-dawg (Feb 28, 2014)

HuntinDawg89 said:


> This one has 2 benches with swivel seats and a live well in the middle with a swivel seat.  The middle seat is the only one where the floatation compartments don't get in the way.  If I mount the seats low to the bench I would be really cramped and have a hard time getting to my feet with a shotgun in hand in order to shoot (we stood up to shoot).  By mounting the seats high like I do for fishing I can have one foot up on a floatation compartment and one foot in the bottom of the boat so it worked fine.
> 
> I do understand what you are saying about the height of the blind though.
> 
> I was concerned about having 3 men and 2 retrievers in it, but it was no problem.  When my family fishes out of it there are 4 of us, but we only weigh maybe 425 lbs. total.  With the 3 men and 2 dogs I figure we totaled close to 800 lbs. not counting battery, trolling motor, 3 shotguns, decoys, ammunition, blind, mallard machine, mojo decoy,  etc.  It turned out fine, I couldn't even tell it was riding low in the water or anything.  We were hunting a farm pond, so no outboard motor and when we stood up to shoot it was solid as a rock.



The bench seats on gheenoe's are set up a little differently from that of the river hawks. Instead of the flat, through-bench on the river hawks, gheenoe's have an elevated seat mount, so I understand your need to raise the seats some. 

In a farm pond, I agree that load is no big deal. Sounds cramped, but certainly doable. 

Hard to appreciate the actual height and "profile" of my blind with it being on the trailer, but this should give you some idea...keep in mind, it's 35" from the water line to the highest point.


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