This is my first experience with a vandalized stand after 25 years of bowhunting. Thejerks tried to steal it by shooting the hang-on strap with a shotgun. It appears to be rabbit hunters. I don't leave my climbing stick so they couldn't reach it but instead tried to sever the strap and knock it out of the tree with sticks. I had bought a Walmart cable lock this year and locked it to the tree. After being hit multiple times the lock held tight. I need to order a replacement strap although it also held tight. I looked it over last night and decided it would still hold me so I climbed in and strapped up. Great night too, I had 12-15 does with 3 or 4 bucks chasing them. They all came in after the light faded to where I couldn't see my sight pins and left me pinned down in the tree. I just waited until all was clear before climbing down.
I hunt on public ground so I knew it was only a matter of time before I got hit, and this stand is the most visible of the three that I have out there but it's so close to the bedding area I wanted to leave it.
Sorry just had to vent!
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PRIORITIES: "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove .....but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."
Sorry to hear about your troubles Hunter 59, but i'm glad you still have your stand. Someone stole one of my ladder stands a few years ago from the middle of a 120 acres of private ground. I was suppose to be 1 of only 2 hunting it so go figure.
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If I'm not hunting, I'm thinking about hunting. If I'm not thinking about hunting I must be dead.
That's the good part of it. They wanted to steal it and use it so they didn't shoot the stand itself, just the strap. I was going to take it down but after such a good night last night I decided to leave it and hope they don't come back with cable cutters. Or maybe I do, if I'm in another stand about 40 yards away and hear them return! That would be interesting if not violent!
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PRIORITIES: "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove .....but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."
I don't think you have seen the last of them. I suspect they ran across it while hunting and just didn't have the right equipment to steal it. But I have a feeling they will be back. In fact I believe it is inevidible. This time with the proper equipment. If I were you, I would either move the stand or hide some IR game cameras around.
Vandals hit my stand!
