# My hunting cabin CSM



## dzklrz (Dec 15, 2009)

Here is my cabin I built out of boards I milled up with the Alaskan, 394xp and alittle help from my 372xp. The horizontal siding is Hemlock with the corners and the door being red oak. The logs on the front and back porch and white pine, the front deck is made out of cherry and the back deck is maple. In the spring I want to seal coat everything and chaulk all the horizontal boards to make it look like chinking in logs. 

This site has been real bad for me getting anything done around the house as I am always looking for dead trees to mill and once that is out of my head, its hunting season!

Chad


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## Philbert (Dec 15, 2009)

Nice!

Enjoy it!

Philbert


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## nategyoder (Dec 15, 2009)

Awesome!


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## Gumnuts (Dec 15, 2009)

Good job....did you season for long ?
Looks like you could use a small pot-belly.


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## mtngun (Dec 15, 2009)

That's a tastefully built cabin and a good example of the practical use of a CSM.

Is the cabin for sleeping or shooting or both ?


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## KD57 (Dec 15, 2009)

Sweet !!!!


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## gink595 (Dec 15, 2009)

Any pics of the inside? Really nice cabin for sure! That is going to be one of my projects as well for my mill, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to start milling was to make a small cabin.


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## wood4heat (Dec 15, 2009)

Bet that RZR in the background is a kick in the ### in the snow!


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## stipes (Dec 15, 2009)

*Nice!!!*

Hellofa job!!!


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## SilverBox (Dec 15, 2009)

How big is that beast of a cabin!!

It looks more like a really nice shack to me .

Good work!.


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## dzklrz (Dec 15, 2009)

Thanks for the compliments. I use the cabin for a getaway, hunting, sleeping, drinking, and storage for my hunting gear. The cabin without the decks is 10x10. All the windows are on hinges so I have 360 degrees of shooting except the door. I have a wall mounted heater that runs off of lp. The 20lb tank is stored in the seat/boxes on the left side of the door, I then ran the hose through the wall to the heater. My wife wants the storage shed I built last year by our house to look like the cabin. Looks like another reason to run the saws!!


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## sachsmo (Dec 15, 2009)

*Home made?*

Do you have any plans or pics of that home made Alaskan?

We use a lot of aluminum extrusion at work, always thought I could make my own too. That stuff is very versatile.


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## gink595 (Dec 15, 2009)

Where are you at in Indiana?


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## sachsmo (Dec 15, 2009)

Ever heard of the Back Fourty?





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## irishcountry (Dec 15, 2009)

Great job that would nice to have froze quite a bit this yr. out hunting!!! Looks great


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## Brmorgan (Dec 15, 2009)

That's a sweet looking little cabin. 

Please humor a Canadian non-hunter though... Exactly what is the purpose of a fixed-location "hunting cabin"? I keep seeing/hearing you American hunters talk about and show pictures of these things, but it's a completely foreign concept to me. Do you guys just build these out in the sticks on public land, or what? Or do many of you own big acreages of essentially wilderness forest that you mainly just use for hunting? Up here probably 98% of all hunting is done on public Crown land, and since we aren't allowed to build structures on undeeded public land (except for traplines and mining claims), a lot of folks usually go daytrip hunting down the logging and ranch roads. Of course it helps that we only have to drive maybe half an hour from town to get into fairly empty wilderness. If people DO go out on extended trips, they usually throw the camper on the truck and set up a small camp for a few days with a couple buddies. You see these all over the backcountry around here in the off-season - random poles and tarps set up between trees in the middle of nowhere to hang deer & moose from, with a nearby firepit etc. The only people I know of who actually hunt on land that they themselves own are the ranchers (who own hundreds if not thousands of acres) and the Natives, many of whom also hunt anywhere and anytime they damn well please with no regard to limits and seasons and with little consequence.

Not knocking it, I've just never heard of guys here going hunting and staying in a cabin in one spot for days at a time, much less going back to the same spot year after year. I guess it's just a different way of doing things. Like the Germans I've talked to who come over here to hunt and fish - they have no concept of public land to begin with; it amazes them that we can just grab a boat and throw it into pretty much any lake we like and go fishing. Back home everything is privately owned.


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## gink595 (Dec 15, 2009)

My grandparents had what they called deer blinds, set up all over there trac of land in Northern Michigan, they were permanent strutures kinda like the one the OP made but not as nice, I know one had a little potbelly stove and fold down cots, pretty neat setups. I'd like to build one just to hang out at now and then, take the kids to and camp out.


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## WesternSaw (Dec 15, 2009)

*dzklrz*

One helluv a nice little getaway you have there! I'm kinda wondering the same thing as Brad.I hunt and Brad is right about his assessment on what the general hunting public do for accommodation when out hunting,campers,trailers,tents and tarps.I'm under the impression that many Americans might be in a club that owns tracts of land available to it's members,or they build these cabin's on private land.Sad to say if someone built a cabin on public land like that,some yahoos would trash it in a second.I have seen many small trap line cabins on public land.If you have a good spot you usually go to year after year on public land you would be hard pressed to even find your game pole there after one season.Seems like some are just into wrecking whatever made someone feel proud of what they did.Always take our garbage out ,plastic,that kinda stuff.
Lawrence


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## dzklrz (Dec 16, 2009)

I live on just over 180 acres, about 80 is wooded and the rest is soybean or corn fields. I use the shack mostly for rifle hunting, as bow hunting I need to be in a tree. I scoped out the land and picked this spot. There is a hemlock bedding area to the back of the cabin, corn and soybeans to the east, food plot to the north and about 1,200 acres of solid woods to the west. It is just a nice spot to sit back, watch and listen to nature.


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## irishcountry (Dec 16, 2009)

dzklrz ---what your saying is you have a peice of heaven and deer or no deer you enjoy the land and getting away to have peace and quite kicking back and maybe crack open a cold one or two right? Great job on the cabin looks like a nice place to hunt and or just relax!!!


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## WesternSaw (Dec 16, 2009)

*dzkirz*

Hi Again! Do you have any pictures you could share of the interior of the cabin?
Lawrence


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## dzklrz (Dec 16, 2009)

Irishcountry, YOU BET!!!

Lawrence,
I will have to snap some pics of the inside. I will try to descibe the best I can. I built benches that open for storage on 2 walls. I had a solid core 3/0 door that I made into a bed on another wall. The bed is on hinges so I can swing it out of the way. The floor is carpeted with 1" styrafoam. I also have two shelves above the windows for storage, some antler sheds for coat racks and deer calls and last I installed some rope lighting that runs off of an power invertor and 12v batteries.


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## Cowboy Billy (Dec 16, 2009)

Awesome job on the hunting shack Dzklz

I love it!!!!!!!!!

Billy


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## rarefish383 (Dec 16, 2009)

That is one neat little cabin. 

Not trying to hijack your thread, here's a little explanation for our friends up North. I live about 30 miles from Wash DC, in MD. It's so over run with deer here, they are a hazard to motorist, but it's hard to hunt. It's too populated. Back in the 70's my dad and uncle bought 2 pieces of property, for $215 per acre, in West Virginia, about 2 1/2 hours drive. This property is just for leisure purposes. My goal is to build a little cabin with my milled lumber just to the left of the old trailer. One day I want to build a real log house behind where the trailer is and use the smaller building for a shed/workshop.

Once again, neat cabin and sorry for weasling in on your thread, Joe.


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## WesternSaw (Dec 16, 2009)

*rarefish383*

Thanks for the information you provided for your friends to the north.
Man,that is some nice looking country there in West Virgina,No wonder John Denver sang about it!
Lawrence


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## WadePatton (Dec 20, 2009)

about cabins/camps/blinds in my part of the US:

Hunted all my life and not more than once on public lands. Fished all my life on mostly public or publicly used bodies of water.

All of my hunting friends own or have access to private lands. We build cabins where folks normally stay a few days each outing and/or the site is used for other gatherings. Camping gives way to cabins eventually.

So yeah, hunting on the same land for years and years is common. I just helped construct a stand on ground I've been hunting since the 1970's.

A stand used to just be a bucket or a chair or board jammed into a crotch or nailed to a post. Then they got bigger...armrests, then roofs, and so on until now it's quite common to see hunting stands with four walls a roof and a heater.

And while they're usually home-built, they can be store-bought.

Since we know where we'll be hunting next year, we also plant wildlife specific crops and conduct wildlife-oriented forest stewardship of our private woods..as well as imposing our own herd management rules.


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## Brmorgan (Dec 20, 2009)

I dunno, and this is just my opinion, but that doesn't at all sound like hunting. That sounds like cracking a beer and waiting for some unlucky creature to wander into your sights. I'm not saying I'm against it or anything; it just seems like it would be more fun (and sporting) to actually go out and find and track an animal rather than shoot it point blank because it can't see you sitting up a tree. I've never really understood the point of hunting from a blind either, except for ducks where it makes total sense. Then again I'm not nearly patient enough to sit 30 feet up a tree all day long without making a sound. Maybe for a million bucks ($1000000) but not ONE buck! I tried icefishing one winter... I can't imagine why anyone who isn't starving would spend any amount of time doing that voluntarily! Nothing like freezing yer arse off sitting in one spot out on a lake for a day to take the appeal out of something, for me anyway.

Back on hunting though, I guess it comes down to geography. 93% of British Columbia is still public Crown land, and outside of some that's under grazing, mineral, or timber license, any of that land is pretty much open to use by anybody as far as hunting, fishing, camping, firewood cutting etc. are concerned. So it's a LOT easier to find good hunting areas on public land than private land up here. I know that's not the case in the vast majority of the US, so that explains a lot. On the other hand there are still guys like my neighbor who goes way up north to almost the Yukon border (like driving from New York to Chicago) every fall for a month or so with a bunch of other guys. They pack up a couple big modified camper trailers and their ATVs, and once there they park them out in the bush someplace and do daytrips on the quads. If they don't get anything they just move the campsite to another spot. Different means to the same end as what you guys do, I guess.


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## irishcountry (Dec 20, 2009)

Yep just different but not complicated?? I think the mentality here in America is just the point of getting out in nature and finding some peace and quiet in that process some that have scouted out a area and know how deer move/work in their respective area may or may not stay in the same place but might "get lucky" that a poor helpless creature finds its way into their sights (sarcasm) . I am not sure how it is all over America but in my area there is not alot of public land and you do not wander or set up camp where you think all the deer are migrating to do so would be risking getting shot by either a landowner (rare) or accidently being shot by a unseasoned excited new hunter (more likely and happens). As far as beer goes most I know most save that for after dark and they get together at someones home for awhile and might crack a couple or even a few open while telling the equivelant or big fishing stories. Hope that clairifies how "we" do it and why.


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## yooper (Dec 20, 2009)

A little shack like that would make a great sauna also. nice little building!


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## Brmorgan (Dec 20, 2009)

irishcountry said:


> Yep just different but not complicated?? I think the mentality here in America is just the point of getting out in nature and finding some peace and quiet in that process some that have scouted out a area and know how deer move/work in their respective area may or may not stay in the same place but might "get lucky" that a poor helpless creature finds its way into their sights (sarcasm) . I am not sure how it is all over America but in my area there is not alot of public land and you do not wander or set up camp where you think all the deer are migrating to do so would be risking getting shot by either a landowner (rare) or accidently being shot by a unseasoned excited new hunter (more likely and happens). As far as beer goes most I know most save that for after dark and they get together at someones home for awhile and might crack a couple or even a few open while telling the equivelant or big fishing stories. Hope that clairifies how "we" do it and why.



Yep, I was just joking about the beer & such. I know there are a few dangerous idiots who drink & hunt; I don't mean to say it's the norm.


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## Brmorgan (Dec 20, 2009)

yooper said:


> A little shack like that would make a great sauna also. nice little building!



+1

If I didn't already have one in the house it would be something to consider!


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## WadePatton (Dec 20, 2009)

"atv's and quads"

those are my pet peeves in the woods. for a myriad of reasons. we walk out to our stands always. even when someone has hauled one of those things into camp.


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## Brmorgan (Dec 20, 2009)

Ya I can see how they could annoy stand hunters. Those two wouldn't go together very well.


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## mtngun (Dec 20, 2009)

WadePatton said:


> "atv's and quads"
> 
> those are my pet peeves in the woods. for a myriad of reasons. we walk out to our stands always. even when someone has hauled one of those things into camp.


You either love them or hate them.

Me, I've just about lost interest in hunting because the woods turn into a motocross park during hunting season. Not my idea of hunting.


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## WadePatton (Dec 20, 2009)

mtngun said:


> You either love them or hate them.
> 
> Me, I've just about lost interest in hunting because the woods turn into a motocross park during hunting season. Not my idea of hunting.



oh sure, and there's room for everybody. for work days, i'm all for 'em-in the rare case my truck won't do the job.

hey--back to cabins/blinds. here's an elevated one that i like (not that there's anything to not like 'bout the op's). and ftr, my "big stand" is a fully enclosed 5x5, elevated, built with commercial materials (i didn't build it). the one we started recently on another place is 4x6 elevated on sassafras poles the balance is all scrap. i'm using throw-away pallets in some future plans.

my lumbermaker is going to get a workout soon. i need lumber and i need ground contact/non-toxic like black locust. 

oh yeah--that pic.


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## irishcountry (Dec 20, 2009)

Thats a sweet blind or getaway~~!


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## WadePatton (Dec 20, 2009)

yo, i stole that image somewhere--not even a hunting thing. dude lived in it for a bit i think.

but lookit all the round wood...save some mill time by using round as much as you can. that's my _notetoself._

cheers.


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## Philbert (Dec 20, 2009)

WadePatton said:


> but lookit all the round wood...




That's because he's _'been getting 'round to building it'_ for some time!

Philbert


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 21, 2009)

I like that little cabin you built, it's pretty neat, you should be proud of your work. The fact that you took the time to mill the lumber with a CSM, only makes it even better.

I built myself a small elevated cabin some years back here on my property. Origionally i had built it with a 6' deck on three sides,






then a couple years later i decided to add even more deck onto one of the sides,






and i also added an outdoor kitchen, (it's further along than these picts. show)






Anyway, here's some picts. from my cabin.

On one side there's a pond,






and on the other, there are fields and woods that the deer and turkeys travel back and forth to/from,
















Anyway, it's a work in progress, as i work on it as a hobby.

Rob


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## irishcountry (Dec 21, 2009)

Great job Sawyer Rob!! That looks like a real nice spot for something like that!! I wonder if it would be worth having a thread to compile all the pics and work/info done over the years on cabin building/shacks ect. on this forum? I know I just like to even look at photos and read about that kind of stuff for ideas or maybe its because of Grizzly Adams scarring me when I was a little boy ha ha !! Anyway great job everyone!!


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## Andrew96 (Dec 22, 2009)

Nice job guys...all of them. SawyerRob...are those logs floating in the pond waiting to be milled up?


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 22, 2009)

Andrew96 said:


> Nice job guys...all of them. SawyerRob...are those logs floating in the pond waiting to be milled up?




Yes, i do occasionally store logs in my pond,







It keeps them from drying out before i can get them milled.

Rob


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