Tree stand thieves

Let me throw this out there... This is my view, is it not the person that puts the treestand up and leaves it therte that is interfering with everyone else's legal right to hunt that land?... If you are going to hunt crown, brinf your stand with you daily, take it up and down, use a pop up blind or leave your tree stand there knowing you are on public land and anyone will be able to use it...

This is 100% correct!!!!!! deleted the rest of my rant!
 
wow what is wrong with people
some people are horrible, took a nice 4 point buck out of an area and some guys saw me drag it out and came by my camp to shoot the #### the next day. Next season I am there the same time of year, these clowns are camped right in the middle of a road that goes on for litteraly 100's of miles that I got my buck out of, there was another entrance to the same area so I thought nothing of it, well that one had been barricaded with huge boulders and you could still see the equipment tracks that moved them there........... I got an even bigger 4 point that year and made sure to drive by their camp even though it was well out of my way.
 
If i set up a stand in the middle of the day in preparation for an evening/moring set, (takes some time to get it up the tree with screw spikes and or clibing aperatus), go back to my camp eat get out of my camp clothes and into some hunting clothes and come back I expect not to find a person sitting in my tree stand, or taking it down/sabotaging it because he thinks its not fair that I left it up and was claiming "his" spot me despite being there first and doing all the leg work.
it isn't claiming land, its activity hunting.
If you leave your temporary tree stand up all season on crown land your a ####. But if you go in and take a guys spot; One that he has obviously prepared and done scouting on this season your even more of a #### and are interfering in his hunt. Especially if baiting is involved since you don't just throw out bait in the morning and expect to bag a big bear by lunch. It can takes weeks of checking and re-baiting to draw in a big boy. I would be livid if I found another hunter up my tree stand at my bear bait or even worse skinning the bear I was going for after shooting it from my stand.
Even if you aren't breaking the law have some common courtesy. People ##### that no one extends it to them; but here we are a thread full of people more then willing to throw another hunter and his prep work under the bus instead of just moving on a to another site.
 
Hunting an area is pretty much about common sense personally if I see a stand or other gear trailers/camps, vehicles, machinery,cameras etc. in the bush I leave it be. That being said I am not going to find another area to hunt because someone has scouted the area and put up a stand on public lands if they are hunting that area when I get there yes I leave but if they are nowhere to be found I will sit, stalk, glass and hunt any way that seems logical . As to claiming an animal because you have seen it on a trail cam or followed it's tracks unsuccessfully for an afternoon or two ... The first shot to bring it down wins imo(on public lands) .
 
If i set up a stand in the middle of the day in preparation for an evening/moring set, (takes some time to get it up the tree with screw spikes and or clibing aperatus), go back to my camp eat get out of my camp clothes and into some hunting clothes and come back I expect not to find a person sitting in my tree stand, or taking it down/sabotaging it because he thinks its not fair that I left it up and was claiming "his" spot me despite being there first and doing all the leg work.
it isn't claiming land, its activity hunting.
If you leave your temporary tree stand up all season on crown land your a ####. But if you go in and take a guys spot; One that he has obviously prepared and done scouting on this season your even more of a #### and are interfering in his hunt. Especially if baiting is involved since you don't just throw out bait in the morning and expect to bag a big bear by lunch. It can takes weeks of checking and re-baiting to draw in a big boy. I would be livid if I found another hunter up my tree stand at my bear bait or even worse skinning the bear I was going for after shooting it from my stand.
Even if you aren't breaking the law have some common courtesy. People ##### that no one extends it to them; but here we are a thread full of people more then willing to throw another hunter and his prep work under the bus instead of just moving on a to another site.

So explain to me how someone else who scouts the crown land knows that you only put it up for the day?... Are you proposing it gets taken down at the end of the day's hunt or are you saying it should stay up as long as you are hunting the area?... Honestly, I don't see why someone should feel they have the right to erect a semi permanent structure on crown land.... Try a ground blind or climber stand or get your own land...
 
I erect a stand when I am in the area and hunting. I normally do my scouting, find the spot i want to hunt, either go in dusk and dawn, or if I feel it necessary set up a tree stand for my evening and morning hunts.
most people operate the same way. So when I see a tree stand I can assume that someone has made an effort to scout and chose this location setup. I make a personal effort to avoid that area as it is clearly being used by another.

I'll ask you this, if you find a tent on crown land, do you just up and use it? or do you assume someone else (like the owner) is using it or has intention on using it? How do you think it would go if you occupied another guys camp while he was out hunting? How would you react if someone did that to you. Do you expect the owner to pack up every morning so that others can have a chance at his camp site? Does your idea that "if its on public land and the owner isn't around so its ok to use his stuff" apply to quads as well? how about trucks and cars? a tree stand is no different. It's personal property that is owned and has been placed so it can be used by the person who payed for it. It doesn't matter if its on private or crown land if it doesn't belong to you stay the #### off it.
As for the hunting spot itself, your right if hes not there your not interfering in his hunt. but your setting yourself up for a couple of nasty scenarios:

1) you steal the guys spot, he walks in and wrecks your hunt argument ensues...
2)you try to pouche his spot and you walk in latter you wreck his hunt, argument ensues
3) One of you in your giddy trigger happy excitement takes shots at the other guy whose walking in or hiding in a bush thinking hes a deer, best cases: argument ensues, worst case: gun fight.

Is it really that hard to go "oh look a tree stand/blind, guess someone else is already hunting here. I should move along and find a different spot"? Or is your goal to try to wreck another guys hunt because your so offended by him "claiming" a spot in the public land?
 
I erect a stand when I am in the area and hunting. I normally do my scouting, find the spot i want to hunt, either go in dusk and dawn, or if I feel it necessary set up a tree stand for my evening and morning hunts.
most people operate the same way. So when I see a tree stand I can assume that someone has made an effort to scout and chose this location setup. I make a personal effort to avoid that area as it is clearly being used by another.

I'll ask you this, if you find a tent on crown land, do you just up and use it? or do you assume someone else (like the owner) is using it or has intention on using it? How do you think it would go if you occupied another guys camp while he was out hunting? How would you react if someone did that to you. Do you expect the owner to pack up every morning so that others can have a chance at his camp site? Does your idea that "if its on public land and the owner isn't around so its ok to use his stuff" apply to quads as well? how about trucks and cars? a tree stand is no different. It's personal property that is owned and has been placed so it can be used by the person who payed for it. It doesn't matter if its on private or crown land if it doesn't belong to you stay the #### off it.
As for the hunting spot itself, your right if hes not there your not interfering in his hunt. but your setting yourself up for a couple of nasty scenarios:

1) you steal the guys spot, he walks in and wrecks your hunt argument ensues...
2)you try to pouche his spot and you walk in latter you wreck his hunt, argument ensues
3) One of you in your giddy trigger happy excitement takes shots at the other guy whose walking in or hiding in a bush thinking hes a deer, best cases: argument ensues, worst case: gun fight.

Is it really that hard to go "oh look a tree stand/blind, guess someone else is already hunting here. I should move along and find a different spot"? Or is your goal to try to wreck another guys hunt because your so offended by him "claiming" a spot in the public land?

This is all fine and well, if you use your stand as you say, there is nothing wrong with that BUT there are way to many guys that put up a stand or tent to calm a spot and only use it on maybe every second weekend....and I will not respect that kind of ignorance. Like I said in my first post in this debate, I would not remove the stand but I would not have any problems in using it at the same time.....if you leave your stand up for weeks and you find me in it, you had better be willing to walk away until I'm done hunting for the day! I know a$$ wipes that set a tent up on the river for the duration of the summer to claim a fishing spot.....people have actually been gaffed in the resulting dispute....I guess who's right and who's wrong is a matter of physical attributes....how far are you willing to push it???
 
for the record you can occupy a spot on public land for 14 days (ab). you are not obligated to move nor are people allowed to bump you. So that guy that set up the tent and claim a fishing hole for the summer... he is legally entitled to do so for a 2 weeks, then he only has to move so many meters to keep legal.

T I would not remove the stand but I would not have any problems in using it at the same time.....if you leave your stand up for weeks and you find me in it, you had better be willing to walk away until I'm done hunting for the day!

ok, fat chance, because i would demand you get off my personal property, then remove it. hence the argument part.....
if you want to be an #### and hunt the ara i was in before you... well whatever... but stay off my property, I don't need some strangers fat but breaking my tree stand that cost me a days wages.

If you can't be bothered to pack in a heavy ass tree stand foot spikes, and safety gear, 4km into the woods then hunt on the ground and stay off of mine.
 
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Well, whatever happened to good will towards men? I don't care who was there first, or on what day, or what time. I would rather leave the fellow alone, or his treestand, and hunt elsewhere. Last time I looked Canada has more than a few acres of crown land.

If someone intentionally interferes with my hunt, I move on. But 9 times out of 10, when I bump into someone while hunting, it becomes a joint effort, game is found, and I end up with a new friend. The other 1 in 10, I find somewhere else to hunt, I am more than capable of bagging my game elsewhere and just as easily.
 
for the record you can occupy a spot on public land for 14 days (ab). you are not obligated to move nor are people allowed to bump you. So that guy that set up the tent and claim a fishing hole for the summer... he is legally entitled to do so for a 2 weeks, then he only has to move so many meters to keep legal.



ok, fat chance, because i would demand you get off my personal property, then remove it. hence the argument part.....
if you want to be an #### and hunt the ara i was in before you... well whatever... but stay off my property, I don't need some strangers fat but breaking my tree stand that cost me a days wages.

If you can't be bothered to pack in a heavy ass tree stand foot spikes, and safety gear, 4km into the woods then hunt on the ground and stay off of mine.

I pack my tree stand with me when I hunt....I also remove it at the end of the day. Haven't you heard the saying, "if you pack it in, pack it out" .....I mean really, how hard is it to remove your stand at the end of the day when YOUR hunt is done!!!
 
I pack my tree stand with me when I hunt....I also remove it at the end of the day. Haven't you heard the saying, "if you pack it in, pack it out" .....I mean really, how hard is it to remove your stand at the end of the day when YOUR hunt is done!!!

I'm sorry I don't like taking down a tree stand and trying to hump it out in the dark. or go back for it in the dark after humping out a deer. And if I got nothing I use it in the morning, and I'm not humping out and setting up a tree stand at 3am for a morning set.

Besides I don't know about you, but packing in 60 pounds of #### through the woods makes me sweaty, and that doesn't go well for a hunt. Hence why i set up a tree stand in the afternoon, go back to camp, eat wash up get changed out of my "camp" clothes and into hunting attire that i try to keep clean and away from fire and food.

how do I know the guy on foot wasn't their first, because I would have been there in the morning scouting, setting up the stand in the afternoon, and heading out a couple hours before sunset to occupy it. If I found someone in my stand that means the would have come in after I set up the stand while i went back to camp to eat, change clothes, grab my gear and scoot back.... So yeah I would make a stink about it, the weasle just wrote off an entire days work for me, wrecked my hunt, and is using my property without permission.


cleftwynd has the right idea. you see a stand up, especially one that has been erected recently, move along find another spot. Even if I scouted an area I want to hunt on foot in the morning, come back in the evening to find a truck, tree stand or evidence that someone else is already there or now invested in the spot I move along.

As for fellow hunters, if i find a camp in the area i'm in I stop to talk to them, maybe share a beer. But ultimately it's so we can talk about where we are hunting and avoid stepping on each others toes in the field. a Friendly "I'm planning on being down this cut line tomorrow morning" is far better then a heated argument on site when you accidentally bump the other guy during a set because who knows maybe he planned on using the same cut line. A 5 minute game plan talk works well to insure everyone has a good hunt.
 
how do I know the guy on foot wasn't their first, because I would have been there in the morning scouting, setting up the stand in the afternoon, and heading out a couple hours before sunset to occupy it. If I found someone in my stand that means the would have come in after I set up the stand while i went back to camp to eat, change clothes, grab my gear and scoot back.... So yeah I would make a stink about it, the weasle just wrote off an entire days work for me, wrecked my hunt, and is using my property without permission.

If he was sitting on his carefully chosen log, would you graciously move along, or would you argue that the treestand made the spot yours? Do you know when he picked it? What if he's pissed that you made all that noise and sweated up "his spot"?
 
I've got two tree stand and I have owned both of them since the late 80's....I've never had a problem with some one removing them because unless I'm hunting on private property I will remove them at the end of my hunt (meaning the end of the day). This way I'm not infringing on anyone elses hunting rights. Also I try to hunt areas that are not over crowded with city slickers who put a tent and stand up and move it every two weeks by mere inches so they can believe they are illegally allowed to occupy and control the hunting area.
There are two different mindsets here...."one is bring your crap into the bush and leave it there to claim a hunting spot"...the other is..."hunt an area leaving it as you found it when you depart" free for others to use.
If your to lazy to remove and pack out your stand at the end of the day, I certainly will not feel sorry for you when it goes missing!
Enjoy your hunt.
 
I'm sorry I don't like taking down a tree stand and trying to hump it out in the dark. or go back for it in the dark after humping out a deer. And if I got nothing I use it in the morning, and I'm not humping out and setting up a tree stand at 3am for a morning set.

Besides I don't know about you, but packing in 60 pounds of #### through the woods makes me sweaty, and that doesn't go well for a hunt. Hence why i set up a tree stand in the afternoon, go back to camp, eat wash up get changed out of my "camp" clothes and into hunting attire that i try to keep clean and away from fire and food.

how do I know the guy on foot wasn't their first, because I would have been there in the morning scouting, setting up the stand in the afternoon, and heading out a couple hours before sunset to occupy it. If I found someone in my stand that means the would have come in after I set up the stand while i went back to camp to eat, change clothes, grab my gear and scoot back.... So yeah I would make a stink about it, the weasle just wrote off an entire days work for me, wrecked my hunt, and is using my property without permission.


cleftwynd has the right idea. you see a stand up, especially one that has been erected recently, move along find another spot. Even if I scouted an area I want to hunt on foot in the morning, come back in the evening to find a truck, tree stand or evidence that someone else is already there or now invested in the spot I move along.

As for fellow hunters, if i find a camp in the area i'm in I stop to talk to them, maybe share a beer. But ultimately it's so we can talk about where we are hunting and avoid stepping on each others toes in the field. a Friendly "I'm planning on being down this cut line tomorrow morning" is far better then a heated argument on site when you accidentally bump the other guy during a set because who knows maybe he planned on using the same cut line. A 5 minute game plan talk works well to insure everyone has a good hunt.

You ought to get yourself cleared on your ideas with a CO.

As far as I was ever made aware, while I lived in Alberta, an empty stand built on Crown Land and untended, is just so much available real estate.
Not that I would generally trust someone else's construction mostly.

Have found several stands on Crown land, some built by outfitters, others built by guys that were willing to risk them not being there when they came back.

You can build the Taj Mahal of stands, it does not stop anyone from hunting there, if it's on Crown land.
Private property is another story altogether.

If I were far enough out in the boondocks that I felt safe enough to do so, your plan would work well enough, but I would not be all that keen on leaving the ladder there anyway.

Cheers
Trev
 
Years ago my brother and I were set up on a ridge in Western Alberta during elk season and this twit comes along and right beside us he starts to set up this rifle with a tripod and such. I asked him what the hell he was doing and he replied he was waiting for a elk to move through. I might not have been nice with my reply. Had the same thing happen in a hay field once also. DUH.

I am deathly scared of heights so any tree stand would be safe from me anyways.
 
i'm not talking a permanent nailed to the tree stand that doubles as a tree fort... i'm talking my big boss strap on stand that seats one.
if it's a stand that has been hanging in the trees for years well that's one thing, but when you see a strap on tree stand setup that another.

and yes if someone has decided to move in under my tree stand and set up on a log or stump or sweet spot in some brush I would leave them alone and talk to them afterwards and get a "game plan" for the next day so as both of us could hunt without interfering with each other again. but if they decide to use my personal property I painstakingly carried in and set up I'm going to raise a stink. just like if I catch someone occupying my camp and using my stuff when I get back from hunting I'm going to be furious as well.
 
What if he said that his log made the spot his, that he'd been hunting it for years and was going to be there for every day of the season , and that you should pissoff forever 'cause he was there first?
 
What if he said that his log made the spot his, that he'd been hunting it for years and was going to be there for every day of the season , and that you should pissoff forever 'cause he was there first?

It would only count as a stake if he brought the log in from elsewhere and didn't want to get sweaty hauling it back out.... If the log was there the whole time it is a crown log and therefore belongs to the queen... ;)
 
It would only count as a stake if he brought the log in from elsewhere and didn't want to get sweaty hauling it back out.... If the log was there the whole time it is a crown log and therefore belongs to the queen... ;)

LOL....good one!!! If he got all sweaty bringing it in he would still have to move it a few inches every two weeks to legally claim the spot.
 
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