Hunting Another Guy's Tree Stand?

[Avenger]

An ethics question for the guys who regularly use tree stands...

We were deer hunting state land in PA on the last day of the season, about an hour and a half from closing. We come across a tree stand that is unoccupied and has no footprints around it, so it hasn't been visited since the snowfall the day before, and it's pretty unlikely that the owner is going to show up in the next 30 minutes. So my buddy says I should hunt the stand and he'll go over the ridge and hunt the other side. I didn't think it was a good idea and stayed on the ground there. BTW, whoever placed this thing picked an awesome spot. Even from the ground the coverage was incredible.

Anyway, I probably already know the answer to this, but I was wondering if you guys think it's acceptable to use a stand you find on public land, or is it a good way to get shot?

[bigfish4me]

Not my style, i would be pretty ticked if i walked up to my stand and found someone in it already....then again i have had a few stands stolen so i may be biased here.

[Capt-D]

I wouldn't hunt it but would not have a problem of somebody doing so. What is the deal of setting a stand on public land. The public land I'm hunting in MD you are not allowed to leave a stand, camera or anything else for that matter. You also cannot "mark" your spot. Its first come first served.

-D

[nautiduck]

If it was on state game lands its up for grabs first come first serve. I have seen a few placed on state game lands by private individuals and a few that were supposedly placed by the PA game commision. My buddy the game commisioner said that in some areas the commisioners will leave them but they make it known that if you build a stand on public land you are in effect donating it to the commision in other words the public and have no claim to it. I have also heard of (but I dont know where) permitted stands in some areas of PA kinda like the duck blinds on public land you buy a permit to be able to place it and useit, in those cases it is your stand and you have the right to kick people out of it. That being said I have climbed up in a stand that belonged to someone else and boy were they pissed when they showed up to hunt and I told them to get bent I wasnt getting down. They got even more pissed when my hunting buddy( yes the game commisioner ) arrested them for trespassing and a couple of other charges. Guess they shouldnt have built their stand on my families property 40 feet away from my buddies stand.

[offshore]

Bad JU JU to hunt a stand you didnt hang yourself!!...Mark

[seapower]

We put stands up with the idea that other's will hunt them if I'm not. One thing we do is put a tag with our name on it to ID our stand. If I have a particular spot that I want to hunt, I keep it quiet and hunt it with a climbing stand that comes and goes with me. This is private and club land I'm talking about. Public land would be ground or climbing stand hunting only.Frank

[SNAKE EYES SPORTFISHING]

personally i would have only climbed it if there was still pleanty of bait, if there wasnt , i would have left a note and asked them to please bait this stand properly....dave

[Avenger]

I checked the handbook that PA sends with the license and the only thing it says about tree stands on public land is that they must not damage the tree.

There are probably more rules than the handbook has room for, but that's all I could find.

But It does clearly say there's no baiting allowed.

Also, I did not see ID of any kind on the stand. It was a really nice stand too. It had a ladder and a bench seat. If it had a cooler it would've been perfect.

[Wild Life Management]

Dennis is right, you aren't supposed to leave a stand up on public land in PA. It does say in the rule book that a stand can't damage a tree on public land, then in another part of the rule book it says you can't leave the stand on public land either. The PA game commission has never published a rule book that was clear and organized.

It might be bad juju, but I would be more worried about the safety issues using another hunters stand. What if the stand wasn't secured properly, or had a weak strap, etc.

What part of the state were you in and did you end up scoring?

[Avenger]

The stand appeared to be a very good one. It had a ladder that was almost like a flight of stairs and was secured to the tree in three places, plus two guy-lines to other trees. I wasn't too worried about it's safety, but then again what looks good vs. what works good when you put 225 lbs plus gear on it...

We were in Wayne County in the northeast corner of PA. A friend has a house there. Good place to stay, but not enough land to hunt.

When we were walking out we found one set of tracks that appeared to be from a buck, and one of our guys saw a doe in the morning, but that was it. It was a typical hunt for me, a well armed nature-walk out of cell-phone range. Which is good enough, getting a deer is a bonus.