I have been in your shoes before. Get out in the woods, get up a tree. look over and there is a hang on stand about 40 yards away.....oops. No one is in it and I generally dont scan the trees looking for other stands. If I see one I will move on just to avoid any situations like you describe. Once I was in the tree and and settled in I wasnt moving. Luckly the guy never showed up and it was never an issue. If he had shown up I would have probably moved out of the area because I had a climber and his was a hang on. You just have to treat others as you would want to be treated. Im out in the woods to get away and relax and hopefully bring some meat home. I wouldnt want to ruin my day getting into an argument over being in someone elses spot. Its public land and everyone just has to get along and have a good time

Who goes in 20 minutes after first light? I'm sure it screwed up alot of peoples hunt. I'm surprised nobody wooped dudes a$$.

Over a spot????[:'(]

Remember - the one starting a fight is not always the one to win.

For walking in after sunrise. I was joking about the a$$ woopin btw. I know I would have been pissed though.

Wouldn't be smiling either!

this is why I havehunted public land once. My first and last time. Not deer hunting but duck hunting. We got all our decoys out and noticed a decoy bag off in the distance. Sure enough, a father and son come in and things started to turn ugly until we let them hunt with us, then everything was fine. Especially when we realized this guy could call in ducks with the best of them. They thought that because they left their decoy bag out overnight that they were entitled to hunt there. Just glad things didn't turn as ugly as they could have.

You should do the best you can. How would you like to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot? IfI knew a guy's blind was there I would give him some space just incase he showed up. Many years ago, I was up in a treestand in the dark when a guy comes in with a flash light and sets up on the ground against a tree 40 yards from me. He knows I'm there and stays the morning. I'm 20 feet up, I can see where he can't. I shoot, he never even sees what I am shooting at. Eventually he left after a few hours. Not a very fun way to hunt.

Just a follow up to the original statement at the beginning.....about prepositioning blinds and who was their first so to speak. Well, I moved spots...tried hunting another area. The same stateland...but completely on the opposite side of a ridgeline...at least 1000 meters away. Again, another spot where my buddy, who has been hunting this area for the past 10-15 years, and sure enough....permanent stand.We had seen this a few weeks before but thought it was just a temoporary blind...but I checked it out and it was a homemade wooden treestand...almost like a tree house. Anyway, I guess this was point earlier....where does it end? Did some more research...this is illegal in TN on public land....

cal516..your buddy put you into a tight spot....public land..no reservations required

No...I know the deal with public land....it is a good area...just been busy this year. If you read some of the replies to the original post, it goes towards my argument that you cannot "save" your spot by throwing up a blind. There was nobody there, but some guys just got spun upa little because of the original post.