i was watching a hunting show and if you grow trees to sell some places run metal deteacters over them and if they find steel they wont even touch it .
i would leave them but take them out.
But i do not use them since i weight so much
ORIGINAL: Madjac20
ORIGINAL: NCRemington700
Yeah I leave mine in too. The tree will start to grow around them eventually but at $2 a piece it's no big loss. I eventually remove them all though but if i know I'll put a stand in the same tree next year, they stay.
I tend to disagree with this..onour farm we harvest some of the timber, those metal steps hidden inside a tree can do some real damage when that tree gets to the sawmill. Just my $.02 though.