Brand · Blinds & Tree Stands
Tidewe blinds are pop-up ground blinds with see-through mesh walls, sold alongside swivel hunting chairs to sit in them, a rangefinder and a binocular harness. Here's the thing: every Tidewe blind is built around one idea, walls you can watch through. What separates the models is how many walls do it, how much floor you get and how tall the roof is. Pick by floor and height, then by the view. (Thirty-some Novembers at Hemlock Run, I've opened a blind window every time I wanted to look. Not opening them took me a while to accept.)
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On this site, Tidewe covers four product types: ground blinds, swivel hunting chairs, a hunting rangefinder and a binocular harness. The blinds are the main line. The chairs are built to go inside them.
The maker's own site sorts the brand wider than that. Next to the blinds and chairs it sells hunting clothes, insulated suits, heated apparel, boots and waders. This site doesn't list hunting apparel or footwear, so you won't find those in the grid.
The grid above changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the models and what separates them, not about how many are listed this week. Values marked in the grid as coming from the Amazon listing are the listing's numbers. Numbers in this text come from the maker's product pages.
Every Tidewe deer blind I read about uses the same trick. Some or all of the walls are one-way mesh: you see out, and the maker says game can't see in. A regular hub blind has solid walls, and you see out only through the windows you open.
Here's the thing. That changes how you sit. In a solid blind you open windows to watch, and every open window is a hole a deer can see movement through. In a see-through blind the windows stay shut until it's time to shoot.
The models differ on three counts:
My one opinion on this page: see-through walls are for watching, and the window is for shooting. The maker's own Vis360 page says not to shoot through the mesh. The mesh is fabric, and an arrow or a pellet doesn't care that you can see through it. Open the window, then shoot. Every time, even when the buck is standing right where the mesh is.
The 270 models have three see-through panels and one solid side. The maker's VisX/VisMax page lists three full panels of one-way mesh, quiet sliding windows, a hook-and-loop door and a pop-up hub frame it says deploys in about three minutes. It mentions a 3 to 4-person version roomy enough to stand for a rifle shot.
The VisST page gives the numbers. A 58 by 58-inch floor, 75 inches hub to hub, and 66 inches of height. It lists 300-denier fabric (denier is the weight of the thread; a higher number means heavier cloth), two large windows that open vertically, three sliding windows and a big triangular magnetic door. The maker says it fits 2 to 3 hunters.
A 270-degree blind has one solid wall. Put that wall toward the side the deer won't come from, or toward the sun if it's behind you in the morning. If you can't guess which side that is, the next group exists for you.
The 360 models make all four walls see-through. The Vis360 page describes four full mesh panels and a removable blackout panel to darken one side. It comes in two sizes:
The maker lists ten shooting windows in several shapes and heights, 300-denier fabric, 9.5 mm fiberglass poles and a door that opens 90 degrees with no threshold to step over. It also ships with a removable orange rain cover over the roof, which the maker rates at 5,000 mm waterproof and says helps other hunters see the blind. A carry bag, four tie-down ropes and eight stakes come along.
The VisTall 360 is the tall one. The maker gives it 75 inches of standing room, detachable blackout curtains, a full-size door it calls No-Trip, and solid fiberglass poles with metal hubs. Its listed fabric is 150 denier, lighter than the Vis360's 300.
Rule of thumb: if you shoot a compound bow standing up, the height number matters more than the view number. A blind you can't draw in is a very nice tent.
The odd one out is the Modular Panel Hunting Blind, sold as an A-frame duck and goose blind. The maker says it's four panels on hub frames, zipped together, with clasps to join several blinds side by side or back to back. It lists a 102 by 39-inch ground footprint, a 47-inch height, 600-denier fabric, aluminum hubs, fiberglass poles and 13 lb. There's a dog door on a silent glide track, which tells you who it's for.
It holds 3 to 4 people on the maker's word, sitting low, facing one way. It's not a deer blind, and it doesn't pretend to be.
The chairs are the other half of the lineup. Both maker pages describe a metal frame with TechMesh fabric, a 360-degree swivel, a seat height adjustable from 17.5 to 22.2 inches and independently adjustable legs with large swivel feet. The maker says the feet keep the chair from sinking in soft ground.
What separates them:
The maker gives the heated chair's battery as 10,000 mAh with a 3 to 4-hour full charge. It lists up to 10 hours on low, 5 on medium and 3 on high, and says the battery shuts off above 131°F. A second heated model without armrests is listed too, with the same three settings and up to 10 hours.
Both pages describe a silent screw-in knob in place of a bolt, and a coated frame under the armrests to cut noise. Quiet matters in a blind. You turn your body a hundred times a morning, and the deer only needs to hear it once.
(Danny asked if the heated chair would keep his chili warm if he set the pot on the seat. I told him the chair is rated for 350 pounds, not for chili. He's going to try it anyway.)
More on the type is on the swivel hunting chair page and the hunting blind chair page.
Tidewe's rangefinder is a 6x laser unit. The maker's page lists 700 and 1,000-yard versions, a 3-yard minimum, ±1 yard accuracy, a 4.12 by 2.61 by 1.50-inch body and 0.35 lb. A 750 mAh rechargeable battery is rated for about 20,000 measurements per charge. It shows line-of-sight distance, horizontal distance and speed, and the maker notes that the speed display labeled km/h actually reads in miles per hour.
The horizontal distance is the one a bowhunter wants. Bowhunter's piece on angle-compensating rangefinders says to shoot the horizontal distance for most archery shots at about 40 yards and under. More on the type is on the hunting rangefinder page.
The binocular harness, per the maker, weighs 1.04 lb, fits binoculars up to 10x42 and closes with a magnet. It has two detachable MOLLE pouches, one of them for a rangefinder, plus a built-in rain cover and a lens cloth. See the binocular harness page for others.
A 58-inch floor holds 2 to 3 people by the maker's count. A 70-inch floor holds 3 to 4. Chairs take more room than people think, and a bow at full draw takes more than that. Set your chair in the yard, draw your bow, and measure from limb tip to limb tip before you pick a floor.
66 inches is plenty sitting down. Standing to draw a compound needs more, which is the reason the VisTall exists at 75.
270 degrees covers three sides for less fabric. 360 covers everything, and the blackout panels let you darken a side when you want a dark back wall behind you. If you hunt one spot with one trail, 270 is often enough. If deer come from everywhere at your spot, you already know the answer.
The maker lists the panel blind at 13 lb. The deer blinds come with a carry bag, stakes and ropes. A blind you can carry is a blind you can move when the wind changes. Compare more models across brands on the ground blind page and in best ground blind.
These come from NSSF's ground blind safety advice and the maker's pages. No jokes here.
Blaze orange and blind rules vary by state. Check your state wildlife agency.
For care, dry a wet blind fully before it goes back in its bag. The maker's warranty excludes damage from inadequate storage. Fold it the way it came out, and the hubs will thank you next season.
Both brands make hub-style pop-up ground blinds with see-through mesh walls. The difference is in the range. Tidewe's maker pages run from 270-degree models to 360-degree models where every wall is mesh, plus a waterfowl panel blind. Rhino, sold by FeraDyne Outdoors, lists mesh models from 180 degrees (two panels) up to 270, plus low-hub blinds and smaller models like the Rhino 50 and 75.
One pair lines up closely. The Tidewe VisST and the Rhino 180 both list a 58 by 58-inch floor, 75 inches hub to hub and 66 inches of height. The Rhino 180 page gives 150-denier fabric and 14.3 lb; the VisST page lists 300-denier fabric. Compare the exact models on fabric, door and how many walls you can see through. The Rhino Blinds page has its lineup.
The maker's warranty page lists one year against defects in materials and workmanship from the date of purchase, with repair, replacement or refund. It doesn't cover normal wear and tear, misuse, accidents, improper storage or modifications. Items bought through a dealer go back through that dealer, per the maker.
Tidewe's own story says the brand started after a November hunt on the oak ridges of Western Wisconsin, when two hunters' boots leaked on the walk in. That explains the boots on the maker's site. It doesn't give a year or say where the gear is made, so I've left those out.
Floor, height, view, carry. Get those four right in the living room in August, and opening morning is just a walk and a sit.
What the maker states is checkable. Its blind pages list the view through the mesh (270 or 360 degrees), floor size, hub-to-hub width, height, fabric weight and the door and window design for each model. Whether one suits you depends on how many people sit in it, what you shoot and how far you carry it. The grid lists the values per listing.
No. The maker's Vis360 page says plainly not to shoot through the mesh. The see-through panels are for watching. Open a shooting window for the shot. The Vis360 page lists ten windows in several shapes and heights for bow, crossbow and firearm hunting.
The maker's return and warranty page lists a one-year warranty against defects in materials and workmanship from the date of purchase, with repair, replacement or a refund. Normal wear, misuse, accidents and improper storage aren't covered. If you bought from a dealer, the maker says to contact that dealer about returns.
The maker lists 330 lb for its unheated swivel blind chair and 350 lb for the heated chair with armrests. Both have seat heights adjustable from 17.5 to 22.2 inches and independently adjustable legs with large swivel feet. Check the capacity on the exact listing you buy, since there's more than one heated model.
The maker's own story says the brand started after a November hunt on the oak ridges of Western Wisconsin, when two hunters' boots leaked on the walk in. It doesn't give a year or say where the products are made, so I've left those out.
