Went down to hunt yesterday and found that some P.O.S. had sliced the ratchet strap on my ladder stand!!!!! :mad: I guess the Great One was looking out for us, as I was going to put Tyler up into it opening day, but he wanted to hunt from the the stone cicle.
This individule does not have permission to hunt the ptoperty,and sneaks in through a small piece of land boardering the cemetary. Last season,I had seen his truck parked on a dead end side road, and we found his climbing stand at the base of a tree about 50 yards from my stand. My friend, (a cop) wanted to "confiscate it"... But I talked him out of it. My reasoning was, if you stood where his climber was, and looked toward my ladder stand... You could BARELY make out the sides of the ladder, and we were LOOKING for it. I thought it was pretty brazen to put his stand that close, but I chalked it up to a dumb mistake!!!
Opening day of gun season, I heard him take 1 shot from the stand. I waited about 10 minutes to see if anything would come my way, then headed down to see what he got. Well, apparently he had missed. There was a 12ga shell case at the base of the tree, and a scent rag hanging in a bush. Both him and the climber were gone!!! Apparently he figured he better "git gone,or git caught" and had beat feet outa there... We didn't see any sign of him for the rest of the season.....
What really ticks me off is, why do people sneak into a spot to hunt, then they want the place all to themselves??? It doesn't matter to them if someone gets hurt... "If he's hurt, he can't hunt" seems to be the mentality!!! :confused: What if I HAD put my son in that stand???
The really SAD thing is, although there are only a few of us that hunt there, EVERYONE who has asked was given permission to hunt!!!!! We all have each others cell #'s and keep each other posted when and where we will be hunting. It's also nice to know you have help if needed to track or DRAG a deer!!!
I bought a couple sets of ratchet straps and will secure the stand this week. However... I honestly can't say what I'll do if I find his climber at the base of a tree this season.....