Where's my stand?

[salad days]

Went out to my best stand today and I could tell something wasn't right before I was half way out there. My trail was wider with many broken sticks and branches and I have been VERY careful not to disturb the area too much all season. Its funny how tuned in your insticts get after a month of hunting. I new 10 minutes into my morning sneek in that someone else had carelessly trampled my trail and that my favorite treestand was probably gone. Sure enough it was. Also sure enough someone has a new stand hung about 50 yards further down the natural funnel between the two marshes. They will more than likely kill one or both of the nice swamp bucks I've been chasing all season on Saturday morning which is the opening day of the Michigan firearm deer season. I had a great chance a week ago on one of these bucks but just could not get a clear shot and saw the other bigger one chasing five does across the swamp. Does this kind of crap happen everywhere or is it just a Michigan thing? This is the second stand i've had stolen in two years. Where have the sportsman gone?

[stickbender]

     Yep, Poo Poo happens.  It seems that some think that it is first come, first serve.  They see a nice stand, and if it is not occupied, then they just assume that is there for them.

                                                                                         Wayne

[leapingbare]

When i was in KS. i had a hang on stolen and they left the climbing sticks that were worth more then the stand.. some ppl..

[Ryano]

Takes balls to hang one back up in the same area you stole one from though don't it. I'd be sitting in his stand come first light on opening day of gun season. Is this on public or private land? You know its illegal to leave a stand up over night in most state owned public land. At least it is in PA and OH. Also you can not cut or damage tree's in anyway. Just something to think about. I've had several stands stolen over the years but, not for a long time. I'm very careful about leaving them in a place where they wont be seen by other hunters.

[salad days]

These fools around here stole my sticks too. They left my strap that holds my harness up in the tree. I almost left my backpack up there the other night and decided at the last minute to take it with me. What erks me even more than my stand being gone is that my prime spot is now ruined, for me anyway. I did all the work scouting it out, finding the rub lines, scrapes, patterned two nice bucks, passed on a bunch of does to get a chance at the boss and had a theif take it all away from me. I'm feeling sour grapes today for sure.

[salad days]

In Michigan you can hang stand two week before the season starts and it has to be out of the woods by two weeks after it closes. Its is also illegal to harm the tree in any way. I thought hunting in that spot for firearm season but then I'm gonna get in a fight out in the woods with a guy with a gun and no ethics. I'll pass.

[DanaM]

Michigan is bad and the UP is no exception, had my own bad experience on private land this year
The flood of hunters from down below into the UP is starting now, expect a bumper crop this year with the baiting
ban in place down there. I feel for ya.

[sailordad]

Takes balls to hang one back up in the same area you stole one from though don't it. I'd be sitting in his stand come first light on opening day of gun season. Is this on public or private land? You know its illegal to leave a stand up over night in most state owned public land. At least it is in PA and OH. Also you can not cut or damage tree's in anyway. Just something to think about. I've had several stands stolen over the years but, not for a long time. I'm very careful about leaving them in a place where they wont be seen by other hunters.

yup,same same here in MN also,i wouldn't sit in his stand,guaranteed argument/confrontation with some armed dude,thanks but no thanks.

instead,what i would do if it was on public land is get a few guys together,a case of beer. sit there and drink it, and everytime someone had there fill and needed to empty a bladder
have them do it down the trails and funnels going to his stand,all around his stand etc. and then go out there durng the morning and evening and walk and talk and just be there,cause if it is public land you have the right to be there even if your not hunting.

just my 2 cents on it,dirty rotten thieving bastards.


                                                                                             peace,
                                                                                                   tim

[salad days]

I'm thinkin my Llewelin setter might have a good day of grouse hunting Friday. I been setting up in that tree watching grouse walk around for weeks. They like the same kind of cover swamp bucks like. If I'm real lucky I could bag a limit of pats and maybe feel like a little justice has been served.

[mullet]

 I had it happen to me a few years ago. I hunt mostly public land and it's worse during turkey season. You only want a bird to gobble once.
 
 Anyway one of the Universities did a study and found out that deer can't really tell the difference between human or deer urine. But when the dude not only stole my stand he set it back up for him to use not very far away. It was an old stand, I took a dump in it.  I would have liked to have been there when he got in it in the dark:o

[stickbender]

     Now there is a place for a hidden camera!  I guess that beats the cigarette butts, and diesel fuel rags, in the area, that I would use.  Yepher, Eddie, that would have been something to see.  Too bad you didn't have the distinguishing marks of a big ol buck to hang on it also.  Just sort of a little kicker for him.  He was probably trying to figure out where that odor was coming from, as he was climbing up to it in the dark.  Lets just hope he was eager to sit down......

                                                                                           Wayne

[El Destructo]

I had two of my Feeders and 3 Game Cameras stolen last Year on a Private Lease....so it ain't just Da You-Pee and Minny-Soda....it's everywhere....the quality of Sportsman has gone to Sh%t in a Handbasket in the last 10 years....cant trust a soul out there barely

[sailordad]

yup i dont even leave my ground blind behind when i go spot and stalk when i am hunting on public land anymore.
people will damn near steal it from you when your inside of it on public land,makes spot and stalk hunting harder,but i have been getting real
creative with burying gear so that i dont have to carry it all the time, a gps is real handy when it comes to finding it again.

its a shame these days when you cant even trust the other hunters to not rob ya blind in the woods.

                                                                                   tim

[FlintWalker]

Go to a barber shop or hair salon and get a big bag of hair.  Fill panty hose stockings with it and hang them around his stand.
  Human hair contains a lot of scent, won't be many deer passing close by for a while.

[ricktrojanowski]

Aaron That totally sucks. .  I had my stand stolen on state land ouside the Soo a bit.  I hope that the idiot that stole it falls out the first time he sits in it.