Although more of this type of activity happens durring firearm season I don't think it's fair to blame all gun hunters. Durring the firearm season there are a lot more people in the woods and the tactics are a lot diffrent from that of bow hunting.
Durring gun season there is a lot more wandering the woods and that combined with the added numbers of hunters generally leads to more incidents of theft. There are bad apples in both groups
Adams nailed it. I am also a gun hunter and go out out of my way if I see another hunter on post, (sometimes I like to still hunt). But while bow hunting it's straight to the stand, hunt, and back to the truck, so I seldom see another hunter. When gun season opens up it's another story. By the way, I too hunt public land and know of a couple of stands left up far back in the wooley swamps where they think they are safe. Fortunately for these hunters I leave their stands alone, and wouldn't even think of hunting out of them, let alone steal them. There's always another tree nearby.
However I have left my stand at the base of my tree, Knowing full well I'll be back the next morn. I intend to go out Bow hunting Sat and leave it in the area for opening Monday. But it will be locked and camoed. If it is stoled ,well it's my fault leaving it on public land. In other words leave it if you must, but expect the worst.[:@] Hey, after all the world is not made up of perfect individuals like you and myself.