Probably gonna get raked over the coals

Harold Money jr

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Was reading in another post of a gentleman who had his blind stolen on public land. Man, I HATE a thief!!! I've had gates and posts pulled down on my farm so they could steal my feeding trailers. I've had stand up air compressors unbolted and stolen while we got good pics there was nothing done because the license plate and their faces were covered. Heck we had a calf stolen by a truck moving through our cattle on a back road, we caught him though. I hate em!!
Something I really don't like either is going on public land and seeing ladder stands, ground blinds, lock on stands and climbing stands left for the owner to come back to. When I see any of the above I move on and on some properties that's a substantial amount of land. I know I can still hunt there I just prefer not to have a confrontation on a hunt if I can help it. I go hunting to relax and enjoy the precious time to myself. I've seen orange ribbons surrounding ladder stands for people to keep out of the area. I've even seen keep out signs surrounding the stands all well within the public lands boundary. Elk hunters out west are especially bad about putting blinds and stands on waterholes again, it's open for all it kinda excludes most everyone else but the owner of the stand. Like I said I HATE thieves but, I don't like that stuff left on public hunting land either.
 

Snake

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Well don't think you should unless you have permission , stands that is dont really know about blinds . With that being said I'd never bother other people's stuff just go to another area . Yeah I hate thieves as well .
 

ImThere

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I guess to each his own. I don't understand why people get there panties in a bunch over a ladder stand being left on public land. If your there first climb your tree and hunt. Wave him off with a flashlight. IMHO. It's not a big deal.
in the prime of my hunting me and 3 other guys had 34 stands on public land. We hunted it hard and treated like a lease. I really enjoyed hunting back then. I put a bunch of new hunters in those stands over the years. And I know they were hunted by hunters I didn't even know. The biggest buck I ever missed was killed out of my buddy stand the next day by a hunter I never met.
 

catman529

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Doesn't really bother me. One thing you have to keep in mind is that we all own the land and we all can hunt it. Treestands and blinds help me get a better idea of where the hunting pressure is concentrated. And I like to check the stands to see if they've been used recently by looking for tracks, kicked up leaves, and leaves in the stand. Just remember that someone can walk in and ruin your hunt even if there are no treestands around. That's just part of it.
 

Lost Lake

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This is not aimed at anyone, and I hope it's not taken the wrong way.

I wish they were not allowed to be left at all. Even though some may insist that leaving a stand doesn't mean they are claiming ownership, it gives the impression that it does. The last thing I want is to be hunting a spot and have someone walk in on me, or me on them. It happens I know, but there is a really good chance that if I hunt a spot that has a stand there, the owner is gonna show up. That's more commotion than I want in a spot that I'm hunting, plus I don't want to knowingly hunt someone's leftovers. That sounds worse than I mean it, but I'm not trying to insult anyone.

On the other hand, what leaving a stand does is show me a spot to completely avoid, since I'm gonna assume that ( maybe incorrectly) they've hunted that spot to death and educated every deer in the country.

Another thing I've seen, especially on a middle Tennessee WMA that I now avoid during any firearms season, is adjoining property owners creeping just over the boundary line and hanging stands and waving public hunters off. Pretty good tactic if you want to claim additional public to add to your private land for your hunting spot, because most hunters like me haven't got the time or stomach to get into a pissing match. It ain't worth it to me.

Even leaving a stand overnight because you're coming right back in the morning can be a problem. Several times I've done that, only to find someone parked in the spot two hours before daylight ( I know because I talked to them later) and already in the area. So, I just lost my stand for the morning at least.

If I had my wish, I'd only see others tracks, and them mine.
 
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Buzzard Breath

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In my opinion, if you leave something in the woods and you don't have permission to do so, you just littered. Every year, I carry half a dozen old torn up blinds out of the woods and drop off at the convenience center on my way home. I probably carry out twice as many torn up chairs. Our WMA's are trashed up enough as it is. Just drive down the roads in Yanahli and look at all the junk. I usually fill up a trash bag at the access every time I'm there.
 

Weegee

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I'm sure this is one of those "it's what you grew up doing" kind of issues, but I tend to agree that you shouldn't be leaving stands in the woods all season. I don't hunt out of other people's stands or call the TWRA or anything, though...

I did have some guys walk up on me while I was sitting at the base of a tree this year. They mentioned that they owned the property adjacent to the public where I was hunting. They seemed pretty shocked to see me for some reason. Said something about looking for stands. I'm not sure what they meant by that but it seemed a little shady if they were removing other people's stands. I know that 24 hours is the regulation, but how do you know for sure that they didn't get permission from the TWRA, or that they haven't come back to it within that 24 hour window?
 

DRSJ35

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I was told by an area wma manager that if you leave a stand in a public area it then becomes public property. And if you go to your stand location and somebody is in it you can't do anything or you will be a fault for any confrontation that occurs. And that if one day it isn't there when you come back then it was either stolen or twra has it and it is now there property. He said they take a ton of stands out of the woods every year. And then they auction them off.
 

TNGRIZZLY_

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I was told by an area wma manager that if you leave a stand in a public area it then becomes public property. And if you go to your stand location and somebody is in it you can't do anything or you will be a fault for any confrontation that occurs. And that if one day it isn't there when you come back then it was either stolen or twra has it and it is now there property. He said they take a ton of stands out of the woods every year. And then they auction them off.
I wonder where the auction are? I need some ladder stands
 

Snake

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I would rather hunt my little place to death than hunt public because of how selfish other hunters are . Having permanent stands on private property or leases is bad enough if there are too many members to know where everyone is going to hunt . We had a problem once on our 1600 acre lease in Lewis Co. The problem with putting up a permanent stand is that if everyone respects your stand then stays away from it knowing its your stand (area) and then you decide to hunt another area then you've taken up two different areas . When all members are in touch with each other then there is no problem or you have a sign in board to let everyone know where you are . Public land there is no way to let others know because you have no way to know who will be hunting .
 

catman529

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Franklin TN
I would rather hunt my little place to death than hunt public because of how selfish other hunters are . Having permanent stands on private property or leases is bad enough if there are too many members to know where everyone is going to hunt . We had a problem once on our 1600 acre lease in Lewis Co. The problem with putting up a permanent stand is that if everyone respects your stand then stays away from it knowing its your stand (area) and then you decide to hunt another area then you've taken up two different areas . When all members are in touch with each other then there is no problem or you have a sign in board to let everyone know where you are . Public land there is no way to let others know because you have no way to know who will be hunting .
I've had enough spots to myself on public land that I would never fool with the BS of leasing land only to claim spots among other lease members. With public land you go learn the property and figure out where the deer are and the people aren't and don't worry about anyone else, if someone walks in on you, then you can either sit it out, or go find another spot. 1600 acres is a good chunk of land, but I hunted on public property adding up to maybe 40k acres (rough guess) across middle TN this past season, and it ranged from hunters walking all over me to nobody within a mile. And I didn't even touch 1/4 of the acreage available in the places I hunted. And I didn't even touch 1/4 of the public properties within a 2 hour drive. I'd rather deal with the public land BS than pay an annual fee to lease the BS on much less acreage. And I did hunt private property as well, but not leased, only managed to kill one doe on private this year.
 

ImThere

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I was actually shocked watching catman and THP as to how many treestands and blinds have actually been left unattended for obviously long periods of time, tobthe point where the stand is now embedded in the tree. I assumed that wasnt legal
The problem we have faced locally is hunters come here, buy stands at Walmart, put them up, hunt them for a week, leave them for the Game warden to take down.
This was straight from our local game wardens mouth.
 

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