Hunting buddy and I want a semi-permanent 2 person duck blind to moor in the middle of a small sometimes flooded marsh on private land with the ability for 360 degree shooting. This spot has no hunting pressure besides us and is very difficult to hunt from a shore blind.
I am going to build or buy (leaning toward build) what amounts to a 4x8 dock section with plastic barrels underneath for flotation. we will moor it in the middle of the marsh to pickets or fence posts set in concrete.
On top I am planning a structure made of tube steel that will look like a small shed. The sides of the "roof" are on heavy door hinges and are lowered down to horizontal to enable shooting out that side of the blind. Camo netting of a type TBD is zip tied to the structure. the blind breaks into 5 pieces using pins for transport.
The exact design I'll figure out as I start into welding it, mostly what I need to noodle while I am working on it is the reinforcement and the horizontal stop design so it doesn't break.
My main concern is weight of the drop sides. I came up with about 30 lbs including camo, not including any snow build up for each drop side using 3/4" .065" thickness square tubing for all the structure. It also needs to to be pretty strong, wind is a major factor.
Here are some rough diagrams of the design (not to scale and it is not as crazy narrow as the diagram would make it seem). The drop sides would really be more like 4', not 3' as I have in there.
My question is if the tube steel will be strong enough or if I should step up to thicker side walls or even 1" material?
