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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