I never leave my stand overnight because of the reasons you mentioned. I don' t want a deer/buck to " check" my stand out when I' m not there....not to mention if the wind is wrong and hunting another area. The Ol' man is so simple to remove and carry, it' s not an option for me to leave it overnight.

If you do decide to leave it.....put the stand up on the tree as high as you can reach, that should put it up out of the range of a deer.