buck knife

This is a problem as some of my friends have had their stands stolen. I am not sure about your state, but WI regs say that it is just as illegal to leave a stand in the woods overnight (at least on State owned or land under the control of the DNR). Don't get me wrong...I am not for stealing stands and hope it never happens to me, but I know I have ran into situations where I wanted to hunt a certain spot on state land and couldn't because I saw another stand there. I didn't want to set up next to it out of respect for the other guy. I have also set up my stand in the dark in the morning just to have someone else come walking in 5 minutes before light and get in his stand that was 15 yards from me (I didn't see it). If you look at it this way, all stands on public land should be taken down each night. I take mine down every night when I leave when on public ground. After doing this so many times, it doesn't take long to put it up and take it down fairly fast and quite. just my $.02

DR KILL

i dont know if you can leave a stand hang overnight on public land here in maryland , i do know that you cant use spikes or pegs that enter the tree, i would only recomend that you leave your stand hang overnight if your gonna hunt it the next day, i have seen stands left in public lands here that gave other hunters the feeling that the stand was to mark a spot,claim the area for their selfs if you will, and has lead to the removal of said stands with a call to the dnr, so maybe you should check with the dnr maybe they removed the stand , i leave my stands on public land overnight with the understanding that they may not be there when i return that is just rolling the dice and playing the odds,,, well gl