Ameristep Ground Blinds, Blind Chairs and Tree Steps

What Ameristep makes for hunters

On this site, Ameristep covers four kinds of gear:

• Ground blinds: hub blinds, spring steel blinds and tent chair blinds
• Blind chairs and stools: tripod stools, a tripod chair with a backrest, a folding blind chair and a swivel chair
• Tree steps: screw-in steps sold in packs
• Hunting umbrellas: a hand umbrella and a hub-style umbrella for a tree stand

Blinds are most of the grid, and most of this page. The grid filters by type and changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the families and what separates them, not about how many are listed this week.

Most specs in the grid come from Amazon listings, and the grid marks those values. A few blinds also carry the maker's own weight. Where a listing doesn't say, the grid shows a dash. I didn't fill gaps from memory. My memory still thinks gas is a dollar.

Lineup notes: the Ameristep ground blind

The maker sorts its blinds by frame, and so should you. Its own "about the blinds" page describes three designs. I'll take them in the order you'd meet them on a price tag, from simplest up.

Spring steel blinds: the Doghouse and the Gunner

Ameristep says its spring steel design has been popular with hunters for about 20 years. A series of steel poles snaps the frame into place. The maker calls it an entry-level design with strong value, which is about as plain as a maker gets.

In the grid, this is the Doghouse family (two-person per the listings) and the Gunner (one-person per the listings, in more than one camo pattern). The maker's site also lists Doghouse versions with an included tripod stool and with fire-retardant fabric.

The maker's page for the Doghouse Run & Gun gives a 55 by 55 inch footprint and 8.6 pounds, with a horizontal zippered window system. That's a small, light room. Rule of thumb: a spring steel blind is the one you carry farther, set up faster and fit fewer people in.

Hub blinds: Care Taker, Brickhouse, Banshee and the Pro Series

A hub blind folds flat, and the walls pop out at metal hubs. The maker says its hubs are metal-stamped and that setup takes minutes. Ameristep calls its hub frame the Spider Hub.

The hub families in the grid, per their listings:

• Care Taker: two-person blinds, including the Kick Out and the Run & Gun, with silent windows on several versions
• Care Taker Fire Retardant: a hub blind sold on that one claim, so read the maker's wording for the exact model
• Brickhouse and Silent Brickhouse: three-person hub blinds with shoot-through mesh
• Banshee 3 Wide Bottom Extreme: a three-person hub blind with see-through walls
• Element Hub: a three-person hub blind with shoot-through mesh

The maker's pages fill in what the listings skip. The Silent Brickhouse Wide Bottom lists a 75 by 75 inch footprint, 66 inches of standing height, 10 shooting and peek windows and 15.4 pounds. The Banshee Wide Bottom Extreme lists the same footprint, a one-way see-through mesh the maker calls Extreme View, a shooting window with a 180-degree view and 12.5 pounds. Both list the Durashell Plus fabric, a ShadowGuard interior coating meant to cut shadows and silhouettes, and 12 steel stakes with 4 tie-downs in the box.

"Wide Bottom" is the maker's name for walls that flare out at the floor. Ameristep says the Silent Brickhouse version has 61 percent more floor space than the previous model, and the Banshee page says the extra room is for gear and extended chair legs. More floor matters more than more height in a blind. Your knees will vote on this by 8 a.m.

Insulated hub blinds: the Inferno and the Pro Series Thermal

Two hub families are built for cold sits. The Inferno listings say insulated, with silent windows. The maker's page for the Inferno Insulated Blind lists a 300-denier quilted insulated shell with a non-glossy finish, three panoramic windows with silent sliding mesh curtains, room for up to three adults and 14.4 pounds. The Pro Series Thermal Hub is a four-person, five-hub blind per its listing, and the listing marks it insulated too.

An insulated wall blocks wind and holds the heat you bring in. It doesn't make heat. More on that in the safety section below.

Throwdown and panel blinds

The Throwdown and the Mossy Oak Obsession blind are listed as panel or throwdown styles, two-person per the listings. The Obsession's listing gives a center height of 27 inches. That's not a room. That's a wall you sit behind, which is exactly what some turkey hunters want. The hunting blind page covers blind styles across brands.

Tent chair blinds

The third design on the maker's list is the odd one. A tent chair blind is a chair with the blind attached. The maker says it needs no assembly, unfolds into a full cover around the seat and packs into a carrying case with a shoulder strap. The grid has the one-person Tent Chair Blind and the Deluxe Tent Chair Blind 2-Seater, per their listings.

Jess's take: "It's a blind that comes with its own chair, which means one fewer thing for Uncle Walt to forget in the truck." I'd rather she didn't say it so often.

Lineup notes: Ameristep blind chairs and stools

The maker's chair page says its seats are for camp or inside a blind. The grid's seats, per their listings:

• Folding Tripod Swivel Stool: tripod stool, swivels a full turn, steel frame
• Folding Tripod Blind Chair with Backrest: tripod base with a back, steel frame
• Heavy-Duty Folding Tripod Stool: a plain tripod stool
• Hunting Blind Chair: a folding chair with a backrest, steel frame
• 360 Silent Swivel Blind Chair: a swivel blind chair the listing calls silent

The maker's page for the 360 Silent Swivel Blind Chair lists a 300-pound weight capacity, telescoping legs with large feet and a mesh seat. It doesn't list seat height or the chair's own weight, so I won't guess.

A tripod stool is light and packs flat. A chair with a backrest is what you want on hour four. Swivel matters in a blind with windows on more than one side, because you turn the seat instead of your whole body. The hunting blind chair page and the swivel hunting chair page compare seats across brands.

Lineup notes: tree steps and umbrellas

Screw-in tree steps

The grid lists the Grizzly Tree Step, the Step-Up Tree Step and an 8-pack of Step-Up steps. The maker's page for the Grizzly 8-pack describes a self-tapping screw-in point with 2 inches of thread, a 6-inch step area and a weight capacity of up to 1,250 pounds.

Screw-in steps aren't allowed on every property or every piece of public land. Check your state wildlife agency and the landowner before you put one in a tree. Other ways up the trunk are on the climbing sticks page.

Hunting umbrellas

The Hunter's Umbrella and the Hub-Style Treestand Umbrella are both in camo, per their listings, and the treestand version lists a powder-coated steel frame. It's a roof over a stand seat. In Pennsylvania in November, that's not a luxury. That's a seat you'll actually sit in until noon.

How to choose within the Ameristep lineup

Pick the frame first

My one opinion on this page: choose the frame design before you look at anything else. The reason is in the maker's own description. Spring steel and hub blinds set up differently, pack differently and weigh differently, and every other feature sits on top of that frame. If you walk in a long way and sit alone, look at spring steel. If you set up once and sit with a partner, look at hubs.

Then the floor space and height

Capacity in the listings is a headcount, not a comfort rating. Three people in a three-person blind means three people who know each other very well. Compare the footprint and the standing or center height the maker lists. Add room for the chair you'll actually bring and for the bow at full draw. The ground blind page explains footprint and shooting width across brands.

Then the windows

The grid marks silent windows, shoot-through mesh and see-through walls where the listings say so. Each changes how you shoot:

• Silent windows: sliding or hook-and-elastic panels instead of zippers
• Shoot-through mesh: you shoot through the mesh without opening the window
• See-through walls: one-way mesh you can see out of, per the maker

The Union Sportsmen's Alliance's ground blind advice is to keep mesh over the windows and open only what you need. An open window with no mesh is a dark hole, and deer notice it.

Then the season

An insulated hub blind is a late-season tool. A fire-retardant blind answers one question only, and the maker's wording on the exact model is the place to read it. A tent chair blind or a throwdown suits short sits and moving often. The best ground blind list ranks blinds across brands by a stated rule.

Setup and care that apply across the lineup

Every hub blind page I read on the maker's site lists stakes, tie-downs and stake loops in the box. Use them. The Union Sportsmen's Alliance says to tie off or stake a blind whenever you expect any kind of weather. A blind is a kite that's waiting for its chance.

Brush it in. The same source recommends cut branches, grass or brush on and around the blind to break up its outline, matched to what's growing there. Ameristep puts brush loops on several of its hub blinds for that job.

Keep the inside dark. Wear dark clothes on top, sit back from the windows and clear leaves off the floor so your feet stay quiet. Two camo brush loops won't hide a hunter leaning into a window.

Fold and dry it before storage. That's not on the maker's pages I read, so take it as a shop teacher's habit: nothing goes into a bag wet that you'll want to open in October.

Safety around blinds, stools and stands

A ground blind hides you from other hunters too. NSSF's ground blind safety guidance says to put hunter orange on all sides of the blind, and notes some states and public lands require it.

If you run a propane heater in a closed blind, carbon monoxide can build up. NSSF says to always leave windows cracked for fresh air when using a heater.

If you climb on tree steps, the Treestand Manufacturers Association says to wear a full-body fall arrest harness every time you leave the ground, going up and coming down, and to keep three points of contact on every step.

Ameristep facts

Here's what I could verify outside a store shelf:

• Start: Ameristep began in 1992 with a single tree step, per Grand View Outdoors (2013)
• Blinds: it moved into ground blinds about six years later, in 1998, per the same article
• Owner: Ameristep is part of the Plano Synergy portfolio of outdoor brands, per Shooting Sports Retailer (2020)
• Experience: the maker's own site says it has been building blinds for over 20 years

I couldn't verify where Ameristep blinds are made or find the maker's warranty terms, so I've left both out.

Stakes in the bag, bag in the truck, truck pointed at the field. That's the whole checklist, and it still fails about once a season.