Heres some good advice,,,, take it as a lesson learned!

Go buy another treestand and take it home with you when your done hunting.

You want too confront these guys,, you dont even know if they took it,, probably did,,, but you dont know for sure.

Who's too say they dont beat the he77 out of you or worse??? and if you do get the better of them,,, who's too say you dont get charged with assault or worse??? a criminal record follows you a very very very long time... and ending up being dead in some woodlot over a $100 dollar treestand just isnt worth it...

my $.02