Season starts tomorrow the 15th. Yesterday I get a call from my brother who says the hired men removed a bunch of tree stands from the property and wondered if I had put any up. What??? Yes, I had stands there last year and two new ones about a month ago. Well turns out the boys weren't too happy about me shooting "the Big One" last year, and now they decide to not only rifle hunt the place to death, but bow hunt. I called the guy who says he didn't know they were my stands. Yeah right, since I'm the only other one who hunts there. He says come down and get 'em their in the back of my pickup. Well now I have to reinstall my stands right before season opener. All I can do is grin, I guess, but I might bare it on the way out. Just had to vent.

Damn the #$%^, Sorry to hear about the bad situation.
All this adrenaline you have right now, you could probably chase them deer down with your bare hands.
Hey, shake it off and go to plan "B',Another P/Y buck this season!!

Thats a tough break. What kills me is you've done it right. Got the stands up early and let the area go back to normal and now? These guys don't sound the brightest(or at least they may want you to think that) If they knew you hunt the property they should have called. I'd help them out by taking down their stands and returning them in the back of your pickup[:@] Not really but come on.

I have often had the best luck from a stand the same day it was hung. Hopefully the same will be true for you. And on the bright side you got the stands back. It would suck more if they didn't return them.

First off let me say i would be beyond pist-off![:@] Why would they weight till the day before the opener to do something like that?[:'(] They had to know some of the stands had just been put up![:@] and should have called all the members of your club to see who`s they were? what a bunch of jerks!! Good luck any ways. I hope you go in there and take another big one!!!!!! just to piss them off!!

Thanks guys. I'm going to do my best to bag the one their after. There is a monster down there this year.

I just don't get some people. Anytime there's a big buck taken....everyone and their brother wants to hunt the area. They seem to think just because you shot one big one...there's monsters running everywhere. That happened to one of my buddies also. People around the area even started rumors that he poached it. It nevers fails. People are just down right jealous of others.

Sorry to hear about that. At least you got your stands back. I hope they didn't set up their own right where you were.

Look at it this way, they won't be hunting your stands if they're not up. 2, some extra people moving around won't hurt. They'll move some deer. Find the thickets and hideouts that deer will pass through trying to avoid the lazy hunters. If you rehang the stands I'd take out the means to get to them. If you use steps, take out the bottom 8-10 feet. Stick some sticks in the holes so you can find them in the dark and carry in what you need when you hunt. OR, you can carry in the bottom couple sections of a climbing stick, or hide them on the route to the stand. I used to have a piece of property and lost it at 8:00 the night before the opener due to a divorce fight over who had permission and who did to allow hunting. I was pulling stands at 10:30 the night before the season.

It is a shame that it happened! I feel your pain

However, you should be thankfull that you got your stands back! I have lost a couple over the years and they are not cheap to replace. But it is cheap to put them back up.

Maybe the hired help should be working somewhere else after that stunt ... [:@]

You can find some very nice uncuttable tree stand locks for $20 here:

Sportsman's Guide

These secure the stand to the trunk via an eyebolt and a key lock . You'll find them by searching under "tree stand locks" . Missing the season opener because of idiots makes $20 worth of prevention well worth it .