This is an interesting post because I think it touches upon an issue of great debate. Disregarding your friend's actions for the moment....


...Is it fair to leave stands up on Public hunting property?

...What if someone else wanted to hunt that spot?

...What if it was the only tree that you could hang a stand from?

...If you find a spot at the beginning of the season and hang your stand on that tree then does that give you exclusive right to hunt that spot for the entire season?

...What if you can only get out to hunt on Saturdays and someone else that hunts the area can get out to hunt the spot during the week?

On the other hand, I do agree that taking the stand from public property is basically stealing and would not condone what your buddy did.

I agree.

your buddy should have left it alone. he stole it . would you take someones coat or other items that where hung up on a hook in a public place, knowing that they are coming back for thier coat ? no just because it was put there doesn't mean you should take it. I'd tell him to go put it back with a note to lock it to keep jerks like him from stealing it

If I found aloc onstand that I was absolutely sure was on public land, and it was the "off season", I would take it. Anyone leaving a stand out there should have no reasonable expectation of it staying there anyway. It is illegal and stupid. I would never take a stand during the season, but might report it. More often the stands you find in these situations are crappy homemade ones, not worth taking anyway.

Does the same apply to pick up trucks? If you found one on public land, during the "off season", and no one was around, would you try to take it? Even if it was there for a couple of days? Why does the scenario change when the value of the object taken changes?

Reading this thread, I'm not sure (and the original poster doesn't appear to be sure) that this stand was on public land or not -- he indicates that it may have been on a developer's land or a public right of way... or on public land... therefore the legality of it being there in the first place is unknown (I won't address the stupidity part - that's open for debate).

So, judging from this statement, it could have been in position legally, placed there by the person who owned the land or perhaps by someone that the land owner authorized -- or it could have been there illegally. Likewise, it seems that the hunting party may or may not have been authorized to be there in the first place (don't ever hunt on land that you aren't 100% positive who owns it).

So, it appears that your friend/brother may well have stolen someone's stand from a place where it was authorized to be but he wasn't.

wow.....must have been muddy?

The bottom line is the crap isn't yours, don't take it. Period, end of story.

If it is illegal and you feel compelled that you HAVE to do something, report it to the DNR, or CO and let them do their job. If it is on private land report it to the land owner. I have been hunting on private land and been told that if I see another stand to take it down. I have told the land owner that I am not comfortable with this, because I don't own the land and the owner may come upon me as I am taking it down. If they aren't afraid to trespass who know what else they might do. What I would do is to right a short note stating that the stand was there illegally and would be removed if they did not do so, and put it in a plastic bag and attach it to the tree. 9 times out of 10 the stand disappears shortly after that.

Just to clarify, we were doing a deer drive on property we had permission to hunt. We did cross the line onto land that was not owned by our host. It is either owned by a developer, the county, or the state. It consists of swampy, thick woods adjacent to a major highway without a building in sight. Perhaps a developer who owns it gave the lock-on owner permission? I think it is more likely the lock on owner was there the same reason we were there for the most part. We were there (unlawfully) walking back to the property we had permission to hunt. We had simply crossed over into it trying to jump up some deer we had seen. We got farther than we wanted and decided to head back to where we came from. On the way back my friend noticed the stand and told me after the fact it wasn't on the landowner’s property. Yes, I agree, this was wrong and I didn't participate in taking it down. He risked his own neck doing and I think was wrong to do so.

It had snowed the day before the hunt.

I agree.

My friend did act as if the land owner would want this to happen, but again it wasn't on his property and he ended up not approving of what my friend did. DNR...that's a possibility. I had contacted them years ago about something and I wasn't very impressed with their response. Something to the effect of "call somebody else." They didn't handle a certain illegal action involving killing deer at night. The note left on the person's stand is I think a great idea. A friend of mine had a note left on his stand and he took the communication seriously.

I could not agree more. Taking the stand is stealing. Leave it to the landowner (or the authorities on public land).

Your user name goes along with your post really well. Too bad you have trouble putting together logical thoughts.
Please explain what gives you the right to take the stand that wasn't on your property and didn't belong to you.
Thanks,
KP