Same EXACT thing happened with to my brother in law. Me and him are generally the only people that bowhunt our wive's grandmother's land. Whenever we've seen the people that gun hunt the land we've told them to go ahead and use our stands. They didn't put a stand in one spot that they always hunted (it is easily the best spot that I know of on the 280 acres), so my brother in law put up a stand about 100 yards away on the trail that leads to the other spot. You know what he got? He got his stand scattered in 15 different directions, piece by piece.

My advice is to get in touch with the other hunter and get things straight before hand. It just might tick him off, even though you have every right to hang the stand. Some people take ownership over hunting spots, even on public land. I've seen it happen. It's not right but if you are aiming to not tick the guy off then I'd talk to him. My $.02.

oh, I should say that these guys are a bunch of bozos. They get all liquored up and go shoot anything that moves (usually the 10-12 of them get a deer or two, hehe). Under each stand is a pile of empty beer cans. One of them even shot the finger off another one with a slug.