Author Topic: Small hunting cabin plans.... (Read 9125 times)

redneckd1 · « **on:** February 02, 2005, 04:53:12 AM »

Anybody have detailed plans for a small hunting cabin(shed)?
I have been staying in a small pop-up camper, but I'm out-growing it and hate the condensation that develops in it. I've been looking at some stuff on line, but haven't really found what I'm looking for.
I need to build something VERY economical as funds are always an issue, the one cabin I found a materials lists for added up to over $1200 and that was just the shell!!
I think I've settled on 10x14 as the smallest, and there isn't any power or water on the property, so I have been trying to come up with some innovative ideas about all propane powered (lights, cooking, heat, etc..) and maybe some way of rigging a water storage deal to include a shower of some sort (a guy gets ripe after a week without a shower!!)
Any ideas or websites will be greatly appreciated.
Thx,
R

Thomas Krupinski · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2005, 05:12:05 AM »

You didn't say what kind of location you want to plant it on, but I thought about buying a lot and building a cabin on it. We have an abundance of public hunting land here in Arizona and planting a camp on a particular spot was disadvantage.

What I did was purchase an older 34' motorhome to use as a hunting cabin. Maybe a bit more costly than building a shack, but when you buy an older one it don't depreciate anymore if at all. If you decide to sell you can probably get out what you put into it. The costs for use come out to be far less than staying in a motel and I have it right where I want to hunt from.

The advantages are that you can move it around to different hunting locations as the seasons change. You have full facilities as well as central heating and AC with a built in generator. Mine even has a washer and dryer in addition to a microwave. I even put a burgler alarm in mine.

When leaving it for a location for extended periods of stay, just haul water and fuel in and add those to the tanks as you use them. You can also get an adapter to use a propane cylinder together with your main propane tank.

redneckd1 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2005, 11:07:04 AM »

Of course a camper is the best way to go for mobility, but I am on a tight budget. I have a small pop-up, but it is a pain and doesn't allow for storage of all the huinting gear that seems to be required to go sit down in the woods for a while!!
So I thought I would build a small shack and then use bunk beds, two people can sleep in the space of one, and the rest can be used for cooking and storage.
I've seen some plans for sheds that would work, but was hoping to get some ideas on how to do this very cheap. That way if I had to leave it, I could sell it to one of the other club members or, if not, I wouldn't be out too much money.
Thx,
R

pastorp · « **Reply #3 on:** February 14, 2005, 09:15:15 AM »

Redneck1, Look for an old metal shipping container. The ones popular in Alaska are about 8'x8'x20'. They can be finished into a very nice cabin. And you can add windows, etc. as you can afford them. Regards, Byron

redneckd1 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 14, 2005, 10:00:03 AM »

Quote from: pastorp

Redneck1, Look for an old metal shipping container. The ones popular in Alaska are about 8'x8'x20'. They can be finished into a very nice cabin. And you can add windows, etc. as you can afford them. Regards, Byron

Byron, that would be great and more than enough room, but where do you find one and how would I get it out in the woods?? Any additional info would certainly help.
Thx,
R

pastorp · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2005, 10:21:47 AM »

Redneck1, Check with barge companies, or truck shipping outfits. The containers are made to fit 2 on a 40' flatbed semi trailer. We use a front end loader to move. You can put on wooden or concrete pilings as a foundation. Regards, Byron

Turtle · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2005, 11:21:06 AM »

redneckd1- I'm in the same boat and haven't had much luck finding anything. For what it's worth, I'm gonna use the trees that are on the property and go from there. The kicker in all this is the amount of time and work involved with cutting the trees down and debarking just to begin. But...it doesn't cost much.
I plan my cabin to be about 11' x 15' and plan to use ~8" logs. I'm going to saddle notch the corners and probably used an old house door I have in the garage. The part I'm struggling with is the roof. I want to keep the cost down but don't want to be getting wet at 2 am in hunting camp because of a leaky roof.

redneckd1 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2005, 04:48:35 AM »

Hey Turtle,
I know what you mean, it is harder to find plans that don't cost $50 and the materials list adds up to nearly $1500. If I had that kind of money I could just buy a prefab building and have it delivered to hunting camp!!

I thought about the log cabin deal, but I hunt on land leased from a timber company and I don't think they would appreciate me cutting down their profits!

I did find a webpage about building your own log cabin, of course they wanted you to buy their book, but there was some good info on it. I think the easier method was to drive sections of rebar into the logs as you stagger them, no saddles to cut and supposedly really strong. If I were to build a cabin, I would build up the end walls (the 15' sides) to the height of the peak of the roof, then run your 11' logs across every 2' up to the peak. Then use tin for the actual roof material, might be more expensive than you want, but will probably be the easiest and will last forever. Good luck and if you find any good info on this please let me know!!

Cheers,
R

flatlander · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2005, 06:47:06 AM »

How about some of those steel garden sheds? You could pick up a couple used small ones for next to nothing, and then screw them together and fill them as you need to. Add a coleman stove, barrel stove with a double wall vent, a table and a couple of cots, and then shoot some undercoating on the inside to make it quieter and give some insulation, and you'd be set immediately. Add some more insulation and windows later if you want. I found a new one online (10X14) delivered for under $800, so I would bet you could get them used for a LOT less. I would guess the most expensive part would be a concrete or wood floor for the thing. And buying more than one would get you more than 1 room if you want. Then you could add on later!

pastorp · « **Reply #9 on:** February 27, 2005, 08:41:29 PM »

Redneck, years ago we had a hunting lease near the flint river in Georgia. It was paper company land and you could build but could cut no timber. We scrounged old power poles to use as corner posts and framed then covered with corrugated roofing tin. Sides and roof, We had a dirt floor. With a 55gal drum made into a stove it made a fine hunting camp. Regards, Byron

redneckd1 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2005, 05:17:14 AM »

Flatlander, That is what started this whole thing. I found a 12x14 yard building that a guy was selling for $500, it had a hole in the roof but was in decent shape otherwise. It was just that I would have to haul the thing 100 miles out to the hunting lease.
Pastorp, I have a friend that works for the power company, so he is looking into some old power poles and I'm talking to a guy at a lumber yard to keep an eye out for weathered wood, some cheap stuff!!
I'm thinking a pole barn styled building would be the cheapest to build, if I make it 8x16, I can get standard 8ft length 2x6s for the floor and roof joist and easily cover the sides with 4x8 plywood. I hoping to collect up enough stuff by May to get started and finish before deer season starts in Oct!!
Thx for all the great info and advice!
Cheers,
R

Billybob · « **Reply #11 on:** March 01, 2005, 02:15:24 PM »

Here's the small 8x12 cabin we just built this past weekend for $200. All the wall planks are just 1x6 treated fence boards. We just used downed cedar poles we found for end posts and center beam. Hauled all the wood back with my friends Grizzly.
We decided to just use a camo tarp for the roof for right now. That worked great though. We got snow and ice the first night in it and we stayed dry and warm with temps in the 20s.

redneckd1 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 02, 2005, 04:43:34 AM »

That is a pretty sweet cabin for $200!!! Do you have a floor in it or just a dirt floor?
I'm getting some good ideas and trying to track down some cheap materials, I might be able to put something together for just a few hundred bucks, that will keep me warm and dry!!
Thx,
R

Billybob · « **Reply #13 on:** March 02, 2005, 12:14:33 PM »

Redneck, we just have a tarp covering the ground for the floor at this point. My friend and I started building at 1pm in the afternoon and we slept in it that nite so it was easy to build. We have already talked about doing the floor on a future trip out there. With the 12 foot length it would be real easy to use the 6 foot planks end to end with 8 foot 2x4s as cross pieces.

We made all cuts with a chain saw so we built it trying to keep cuts to a minimum. We wanted it 12x12 but the slope of the land prevented us from building it that wide. We talked about doing the roof on a future trip but really the tarp worked out great. It only cost $7 at K-Mart so it's easily replaced. We used to sleep in a lean to with a tarp roof and that tarp went an entire year without a leak. We probably could have built it even cheaper using some plywood but we wanted it to have somewhat of a rustic look to it.

We figure we can take some wood out each time we go out there and easily put in a floor and maybe a roof. We had 5 guys sleeping in it with room to spare so it meets our needs for now. We like it alot better than our old lean to because we can stand up in this and hang a lantern from the center beam when we want to play some cards at nite.

redneckd1 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2005, 05:33:53 AM »

Billybob,
Thx for the info. I think I am going to start with something similar to yours. I'll get something built to stay dry, warm isn't much of a problem now and then slowly build a floor and fix it up as time goes by. If I get something that I can stay dry in, I can sell my little worn out pop-up for a few bucks to finish the cabin! I have some plans in mind now for a 8x16 pole barn styled building, that will give my son and I plenty of room and some extra for a guest hunter or two. We made it this year with my little pop-up and a deck made of old pallets out front. I have a 16x20 tarp covering the whole thing and it really helped to keep us dry this season, we had a buch of rain this year!! Thx again for the advice and I'll keep ya'l posted as to what progress I make!
Cheers,
R

dave375hh · « **Reply #15 on:** March 03, 2005, 07:21:48 AM »

Redneck,
You don't have to buy a whole yardbarn. I've seen DIY places that sell just the end frames. You can build your own cross braces to go in between them, add plywood and insulation. Three frames would allow you to make one 12 X 16, and using salvaged wood would help with the cost factor other than the frames. Many construction sites will let you cherry pick their scrap piles for free because they have to pay to have it hauled when their done anyway. The frames give you a square and solid basis to start from, a little imagination will take care of the rest.

willysjeep134 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 14, 2005, 04:50:09 AM »

The Backwoodsman magazine just ran an article on making a small cabin. It was an A frame just made with 2X4's, thin planks, and tar paper. The Backwoodsman has many small sidebars and page-filler articles on making small cabins. The most you get with the article is a sketch of the frame and some general directions.

The A frame cabin was neat. It was just a rectangular one room building that was about 15 feet long and 12 feet wide. It had walls only on the ends, on the sides the roof ran straight to the ground. There were two single bunks in one end, and a metal stovepipe and wood burning stove in the other. Two windows were mounted, one in each end, to give some ventilation, and a door was spiked together from planks.

If you find a copy of The Backwoodsman on the shelves they run many half-page or less articles and some longer ones on making cabins. You can also go to backwoodsmanmag.com to subscribe.

If you can draw a little and have some idea of what you want, might it be possible to draw up your own plans? Most hunting cabins are just one room structures. The design's i've seen have all been easily illustrated in a simple sketch. A detailed plan won't tell you much more because there isn't much more to tell.

A book you might want to search for is called "Sunset's Cabin Plan Book". It was published back in the 30's. Each page is a diferent floorplan for a cabin. The authors figured the average person back then knew how to spike together walls, so they just showed the floor plans. It was an interesting book to read. They have a few one-roomer plans that would still make a good hunting cabin.

If looks and building codes aren't a big issue, you could consider buying some slabs to cover the cabin with. Slabs are the round faced, bark covered planks sawmills cut from a log first. The local sawmill in my area sells them by the pickup load. The only problem is that they don't have square edges. You could probably square them up with a table saw, or even a chainsaw and a board for a guide. You might also want to remove the bark depending on the type of wood. I have built a few little temporary shacks using slabs. If you use them horizontally, nailed to corner posts, you can make a faux log cabin that is very inexpensive.

Whatever you do, good luck with it!

redneckd1 · « **Reply #17 on:** April 14, 2005, 05:31:28 AM »

Thx for the advice, I am still looking into what I can build to get the most for my $$. Turkey season is taking priority right now though!! I'll look into the frames and the Backwoodsman Mag, both sound like great ideas and maybe if I can get some of those slabs they'll make a great exterior wall material. (that whole log cabin look would be cool too)
Thx again,
R

Turtle · « **Reply #18 on:** April 14, 2005, 09:31:39 AM »

WillyJeep134,

Any idea what issue of Backwoodsman mag that might have been in? I don't subscribe to it but I pick it up every chance I get and thinking I might have missed an issue.

Thank you.

outdoorman · « **Reply #19 on:** September 02, 2005, 03:37:53 PM »

I located an article that I saved about building a simple cabin after reading it found out that the cost is $8,000 to build and have to send $30
for the plans.

Anyways, I've wanted to buy some land like an acre of wilderness for along time. Only everything seems so expensive when you look at what's advertised. I'd like to find something 3 hours north of Atlanta in the carolina mountains. Any suggestions on how you might successfully find cheap small acreage like this.

redneckd1 · « **Reply #20 on:** September 13, 2005, 04:24:42 AM »

Outdoorman...you might do a search in the county you want to buy in for some realtors, then take a look at their websites to see who has small tracks of land available. If you find someone with a few listings, let them do the work for you, especially since the seller is usually the one who pays the commission to the realtor. Good luck!