Stands on public land ...

[GingivitisKahn]

quote:Originally posted by Arwin:
Ok I admit I felt a little attacked by Mr. Kahn and Magoo, but I'm a big boy and can take some debate.        
 Have either of you ever hunted public land in Michigan? Judging by that stats from your states we have way more pressure than you do. 300,000+ bowhunters is pretty substantial. You ever have more people walk past your stand than deer? You get to a point when you long just to be alone for a few hunts without it geting disrupted by another human.
 I never claimed to own the land, simply that it takes a tremendous amount of work to harvest deer in my neck of the woods and I think a courtious hunter would find another spot. Moral ethics vary person to person and because it is public land, I can only get frustrated if I feel infringed upon. With the amount of public land we are blessed to have, there is no reason for hunting someones elses stand.  
 My opinion is that there is greater satisfaction in finding my own spot rather than hunting under someones elses treestand, or in it for that matter.
 Yes it does sound like whining to me if other hunters complain that it's not fair my stand is there, but I'm not going to hate you for disagreeing with me.
 To me, saying another hunter should take down their stand so others can use that spot is like honking and screraming at the person in front of you for driving too slow.  

[Mo. Huntin]

I am glad we don't have the pressure you guys have.

[m midd]

same hear i have several thousand acres within an hours drive of the house. there are probably 4 die hard bowhunters in the area i leave my stand. i havent had any run ins at all. they have the placesthey   like to hunt and i have mine. and this year if someones staked a claim on my so called spot, i will just find another. i have learned to live with alot of the things that come along with hunting on public land. most bowhunters here are respectful and usually all around nice guys. But public land duck hunting in arkansas will make you pull out your hair.

[Three Arrows]

GingivitisKahn, it IS very rude to have a treestand in a spot all season and not use it.  Hunt right by it if you want.  It is the professional bowhunter types that put up a stand and hunt it day in and day out or pack a climber in and out.  I pack a climber or hunt from the ground in the morning, and put up a hang on or climber in the evening.  I leave the stand for the morning.  I have witnessed people who come from other areas of the state to put up stands for gun or bow season and not come back for weeks.  Hopefully we will find hunting areas with some solitude in this state.  Don't expect to find it in Michigan...

[GingivitisKahn]

For the dudes that use a stand in the evening and leave it because they are going to use it in the morning - I've got 0 issue with that.  Those guys are out there in the woods and more power to them.

Three Arrows - if you haven't already considered it, you might bring that stand with you to the Ohio Deer Hunt thing that Buckeye Hunter organizes every year (and to the Great Ohio Squirrel Hunt - why not).  It's tons of fun and the friendly debate is much easier to conduct around a nice campfire.

   

[Mr.Magoo]

Well, it still seems lazy at best to leave stands on public land for 3.5 months (which is what the folks in my area do), but to each his own.

Always interesting to hear everyone's opinion.

[Horner]

Lazy is one heck of an offensive word to me where I come from, and how I was raised.  I would choose a better word to describe people that you don't even personally know. You have used it in about every post you have made on this thread.  Plus you started this thread to begin with.  

You should have just titled it.  
Hunters who leave out there stands are lazy.

It all comes back to personal ethics (period)!!!!!!!!!!

We are all unique, that is what makes us disagree about issues.  We all won't ever see eye to eye, and that's OK.  On subjects such as this, you have to just let it go.

[buckeye_hunter]

Three Arrows,

Yes, I did have the same opinion when I used my climber. I used it for 3 years and packed it in and out every time, except on my own farm. Even then, I only left it once from the morning until an evening hunt and brought it back in to the barn that night.

Secondly, If you are TRULY still hunting you will only cover 400-500 yards in an entire morning. I have never run into a stand hunter while trying this. I also avoid areas where other people have gone into the woods before me. If I see a truck or car on the side of the road I intended to hunt, I just go somewhere else.

Thirdly, why would anyone have an issue with me creatiing a natural brush blind with debris/wood/sticks/saplings from the woods with materials that are NATURALLY occurring? If you were to look at it, it looks muck like a blowdown. No ropes, steel or anything artificial, just a natural blind.

I can't think of anyone that would get ticked at that. Honestly...would you?

We built some natural blinds (no ropes or anything) out on AEP and I highly doubt they will even be found or recognized by anyone until gun season.

I wouldn't think tree stand hunters would be offended by a brush pile.

A bit confused,
Charlie

[Orion]

I'll sometimes leave stands out for a week or more on public land.  The county where I hunt permits the hunter to leave out two stands as long as they're marked with the hunters name and address. The land I hunt is very lightly hunted and it's rare for me to come across a stand of another and I'm sure, vice versa.  I chain my stands in the platform up position when I leave.  This is to protect against theft, though I've never had a stand tampered with or stolen, but it also serves the purpose of making the stand unhuntable by anyone who might find it.

[buckeye_hunter]

I guess I should be clear that I don't consider it any type of offense to leave a stand. People that leave temporary stands in Ohio are doing so legally. We are not allowed to attach permanent stands on public land, but you can legally leave a climber.

I always say to each his own when hunting as long as it is within hunting regulations. I  simply wish stands weren't left there because FOR ME it feels like the spot has been staked out.

Out of courtesy on my part, even if I have hunted there for years, I will leave that spot alone if someone else has put up a stand. I have given up hunting areas for this reason several times. So, to some degree, whomever left the stand has claimed that spot for himself. At least to my exclusion. I will not now or ever, however, ask them to remove their stand for my benefit. It is their right to leave it.

Each should do as they will within the regulations. As long as we all promote hunting and carry on the tradition in a good light, I think we are ok.  

-Charlie

[Three Arrows]

Anyone who makes a ground blind, puts up a stand, sets up a pop up blind, clears brush, prunes shooting lanes on any game land public or private is staking out his spot.  It just so happens that the treestand is storebought and manmade.  If you went somewhere and set up a natural ground blind, you did in effect stake out your proposed hunting spot.  If I happened on it, I would know it is someone's ground blind.  If I saw where someone cut shooting lanes and cleared brush, I would consider that spot staked out also.  I would go elsewhere.  I guess I just don't get offended in anyway about a fella's hunting spot even on public land.  It really boils down to what each individual finds tolerable or not.  Just this past Monday I went to my secret public land spot and found some camo burlap rolled up in a neat package by a tree.  I got a little ticked that some hunter had already staked out MY sweet little venison making ambush.  I then recognized the work of this person as mine from 1998!   :(

[GingivitisKahn]

Heh I was hoping that no one would bring up the natural ground blind thing.  To a degree, I have to agree with Three Arrows on this one.

The one mitigating factor (I think) is that a really well made ground blind is a thing that an average hunter (maybe not a Tradganger) would be apt to miss.  A treestand is an obvious thing that all of us recognize when we see it.

For instance, on the very rare occasions I've done anything groundblindish, It's been to move a branch from one spot to another or to snip a branch that's poking me in the back or something.  If you can go to any of my hides and point to my blind, I'd be very impressed - I'm nearly certain I can't.  :-)

To the extent that there is a recognizable stand on public land - in the air or on the ground - then I'd have to say I agree.  That's staking out a spot.

[buckeye_hunter]

Three arrows. I see your point about the groundblind.

So....hmmmm.

Now I have to go in the woods with just a loincloth of deer skin, make no blinds at all, hunt with only a self bow, use stone points and then I can say I'm a zero impact hunter. ARGGGGGG.....    

Just when I thought I had it all figured out!    

Good hunting,
-Charlie

[Don Stokes]

I'll make one last comment. Some hunters are not as physically able as others, and I'm not talking about simple lack of conditioning. I'm certainly not lazy or uncaring about my fellow hunters, but I'm not able to carry a stand in and out of the woods every time. I did when I was in better shape (younger), even though it was harder for me than for others because of my physical condition.

That's why I built and installed a dozen ladder stands on my home property, and that's why I leave a stand in the woods when I hunt public land. I sometimes have to have help to get it there. I move my ladder stands with bicycle wheels on a threaded rod axle.

Don't assume that a stand left in the woods was left by a lazy, rude, or uncaring hunter. All you see is the stand, not the background that goes with it. Should I stay home, or be confined to ground hunting, because I can't carry a stand in and out? It's a big ol' world out there, and not everybody's the same.

[jcar315]

The ground blind issue is a valid point and a good one. Thanks for brining it up. Never thought of that in that way....but I would agree that it would be the "same" as leaving a tree stand up as it pertains to "staking out a spot."

Regardless of the situation or circumstances if I ran into either of these I would keep on moving and try to get farther away.

[GingivitisKahn]

quote:Originally posted by buckeye_hunter:
Three arrows. I see your point about the groundblind.

So....hmmmm.

Now I have to go in the woods with just a loincloth of deer skin, make no blinds at all, hunt with only a self bow, use stone points and then I can say I'm a zero impact hunter. ARGGGGGG.....  

[hvyhitter]

You should take it in and drag it out. If you leave it, it doesnt give you the absolute right to that area. If you show up at 10:00 and I am two trees over, and have been there before light, I am not going to leave.....

[Three Arrows]

This subject gets brought up along with others like this due to etiquette.  Maybe someone can come up with a bowhunters' etiquette book like Robert's Rules of Order?  Loincloth attire is simply banned OK?

[Widowbender]

I personally wouldn't leave a stand on public land, BUT I don't have a problem with someone doing it if they wanted too...Most of the places I've seen stands left aren't where I would hunt anyway...

[buckeye_hunter]

Alright...I finally got it figured...

All I have to do is leave an old stinky loincloth on my climber. Then it is both natural AND no one will steal it!

   
-Charlie