Roll Top or Flip Top Pits

[mmcfarland]

Ramsey-

does that mean you prefer flip tops. i am having this argument on a few we are about to put in. i prefer the flip tops as i have hunted in too many roll tops that always come off the track and are a constant PIA. what kind of pits do the boys at the lounge use?? the problem with flip tops is that they can be difficult to see out of unless you are on the end. roll tops are fine by me they all just seem to come off track. what does snapp use?

[Double R 2]

cattle panels with fast grass strips...keep up both sides and looks through the grass strips on cloudy days, or when birds are stale...put up one side to throw a shadow on sunny days....put up all but the one in front of you when you're hunting alone...all of the pits are situated in a rice levee and blend in excellently this way...hunted out of roll top blinds on occaison and besides being noisy, can only see down wind.

[duramax]

cattle panels with fast grass strips...keep up both sides and looks through the grass strips on cloudy days, or when birds are stale...put up one side to throw a shadow on sunny days....put up all but the one in front of you when you're hunting alone...all of the pits are situated in a rice levee and blend in excellently this way...hunted out of roll top blinds on occaison and besides being noisy, can only see down wind.

Ours roll to either side so you can roll it the other way if the wind is wrong. Their quiet too. WD should fix any sqeeks.

[maggiedog]

ROLL TOPS / Especially if you got a bunch of sky watchers . You can keep everyone covered up . Flip panels you have to worry about the guy at the other end with the moon pie look on his face .

[Deltaduk]

we had some on our lease last yr.16' pits with dog boxes and roll tops.I greased them sumbiocthes with every kinda of lubricant i could find.they were still hard to roll.they would get out-a-line and were sure hard as hell to push back then.I think it would have worked better if it 2 separate 8' tops .would have been a lot lighter.also damn thing stuck out pretty bad.it was in no levee.farmer would not pull a dummy levee up to it.thta would have helped alot I think

[jwarwick]

Ours roll to either side so you can roll it the other way if the wind is wrong. Their quiet too. WD should fix any sqeeks.[/quote]

Duramax, do you have any good pics / drawings of the boxes and tops you could post or email to me- and I will post them for you??

Jon

[duramax]

Ours roll to either side so you can roll it the other way if the wind is wrong. Their quiet too. WD should fix any sqeeks.

Duramax, do you have any good pics / drawings of the boxes and tops you could post or email to me- and I will post them for you??

Jon[/quote]

This is a quick sketch. I believe it's a 14 or 16' pit with 2 top sections.

[oltcutdown]

Neither! We use cane over our pits with no top whatsoever. It sucks in the rain, and when the cane starts getting thin, but it's absolutely deadly! We cut the cane in 6-8' pieces and lay it straight over the pit. You sit in the pit and pull the cane toward your shooting hole. If you don't make big movements in the pit, the birds never know your there. We keep our guns on the bench or on top of blind bag with the muzzle sticking up out of the pit/shooting hole maybe 6-12". When the shot is called, you gently stand up and half the time the ducks are looking at decoys or the place they are trying to land and never see you coming up to shoot.

Cons- as the leaves fall in the bottom of the pit, they ferment and it gets pretty ripe in the pit. The cane gets thin and has to be replaced or added to. It's messy and the leaves are always hitting you in the face or back of the neck. Strong winds will blow the camo out of place or out in the field. You can take bailing wire or some rope and tie bundles of cane together to prevent this. The cleanup after season is a mess.

Overall though, the callers (guys calling the shots) can watch the birds in any direction. If the birds settle on the back side of the shooters, the caller can describe where the birds are, and call the shot. The shooters come up and spin to the back side of the pit. I'll try to get a couple pics up in a few hours.

[oltcutdown]

Here ya go. Don't think I have any early seasons pics, but this will give you an idea of what I'm talking about.







This is an early season pic. Stripper headers used on the levees, and as much rice stubble as possible left around the pit. All hunters enter the pit from one dog box, and exit the same way. No stepping directly out of the pit. In some of the other pics, the stubble has been beaten down by the dogs, hunters, etc.

[oltcutdown]

We have a couple pits with real shallow dog boxes. My boy in this pic is actually sitting beside me, not in the box. Sometimes when the cane gets thin, we drag in sheets of fast grass to drape over the leafless cane.



This will give you an idea of how the cane looks in relation to the fella standing up. When I sit in the pit with good posture, the top half of my head is all that is sticking up out of the pit. Most of the time I'm hunched over, watching though the cane. That's another great thing about camoing a pit this way, is you can actually spread the cane out to where you can see through it. On sunny days, you can have a pretty decent sized shooting hole. On cloudy days, it better be real tight.

[Double R 2]

I like the fast grassed flip tops for the same reasons oltcutdown describes with the cane - I want to be able to see the ducks that are working, and dropping into the decoys unannounced. Everyone has a panel, even the dog. When it rains, we rain - not that we'd be dry after a walk to the pit in the rain anyhow.

Here's a pic of us hunkered down after a hunt. Built into a rice levee, the blinds blend in perfectly.

[Locked Up]

Ok, here's my question. Oltcutdown, Double R and duramax, do yall have to remove your pits from the fields after the season is over for the farmers ag practices or does he just plant over them, meaning straddle the pit and keep on going? Some of the places I have the pit stays in place but in others they have to be uprooted every year as of right now. Just woundering if this is the same as yall. Great pics and ideas. I appreciate all the help in this matter.

[Double R 2]

Our pits stay in place. They farm around them (the pits stay put in the levees).

[jwarwick]

RR, do you make your pits or buy them built?? If so where and about how much?

thanks

[Double R 2]

I wish I had that kind of talent!

Adam Lyrlie, bayou Deview, makes great pits.