Pope County fills up every November, and most of the people coming down here are working out of a truck bed and a tarp. A building on the property changes the whole week. Here is how to spec one that actually earns its keep in hunting season and stays useful the rest of the year.
Separate the dirty end from the clean end
The single best layout decision is dividing the building. One end is gear: stands, blinds, tools, fuel, ATV. The other end is clean: processing surface, coolers, freezer, knives. Keep them apart and you will not be trimming backstraps three feet from a gas can. A 12×24 splits comfortably. A 14×24 is better if a four-wheeler is going inside.
Processing needs three things
A surface you can sanitize, light you can see by, and power. A finished interior with wall coverings and a hard floor wipes down; bare framing does not. Our finish-out packages include electrical, flooring and wall coverings, and that electrical matters more than anything else on this list, because a chest freezer running on an extension cord from a house three hundred feet away is how people lose a season’s meat.
Add a hanging point. A beam or a header rated to take a deer on a gambrel, placed near a door you can back a truck to, is worth planning at order time.
Cold, wet and stink
Spray foam insulation does three jobs here: it makes the building usable on a twenty degree morning, it stops condensation from forming on the underside of the roof and dripping on your gear, and it lets a small heater actually keep up. Pair it with gable or ridge vents so moisture from wet clothes and boots can leave.
If scent control matters to you, keep hunting clothes in sealed totes and store fuel, oil and chemicals in a different building or at minimum at the opposite end with its own ventilation.
Security on a property you visit ten days a year
Nobody is going to hear an alarm out here. Use a heavy hasp bolted through the door with carriage bolts, a shrouded padlock, non-removable hinge pins, and no window in the door. Take optics, rifles and anything small and valuable home with you.
Getting a truck back there
Most Golconda area hunting ground is down a gravel or dirt lane through timber. Walk the whole route before you order: the turn off the road, the narrowest point, the culvert or low water crossing, and the overhead limbs. We need about two feet of clearance past the building width the entire way and roughly 13 feet of overhead, on ground firm enough for a loaded trailer after rain. Low branches are the most common reason a remote delivery gets rescheduled and take an afternoon to fix. Written permission if we cross a neighbor. See the delivery prep page.
Built to sit alone eleven months a year
Set it on a level gravel pad about a foot larger than the building on all sides, on high ground, so water leaves. Every Cardinal building carries our 10 year guarantee covering acts of nature such as storm damage and settling plus our craftsmanship, with LP SmartSide siding under a 50 year warranty and AdvanTech flooring under a lifetime warranty, all handled by us. Sizes 6×8 to 16×60, starting at $1,900 for a C+ Utility 6×8. Rent-to-own has no credit check, 24 to 60 months, from $75.44 a month, first two months down, no early payoff fee.
Get Started on Your Golconda Building
You do not have to drive to a lot to get moving. Use our 3D Shed Builder to pick your size, siding, colors, doors, windows and add-ons and see the building take shape on screen. When it looks right, send it to us and we will confirm pricing and a delivery date for Golconda.
Prefer to talk it through? Call our main office at 618-518-5578. We will walk you through building styles, custom options and rent-to-own and financing, and answer anything on our FAQ page. You can also see what we serve nearby on our location page.
Close to home: our main shop, office and display lot are in Harrisburg — see hours, directions and local sales contact on our Harrisburg, IL location page, or call Whitney directly at 618-499-1161.
