I have been reading some troubling accounts of hunters having stuff stolen: trail cameras (the number one target of thieves)…tree stands and stick ladders…even a deer decoy.
One guy wrote that on his own farm he has always left binoculars, bow holder, camo and other gear in one of his favorite ground blinds not far from his house. The other day he went back to his blind and found—no blind and no gear, somebody had stolen it all!
Another guy reported that all the memory cards from his 5 cams had been stolen—the thief left the cams, but went in and took the cards. Scary the criminal knew where the 5 cameras were scattered across the woods. He must have been watching the hunter.
I am too trusting, as I have never once thought about some scoundrel stealing my stuff. But if this is a trend, I will have to be more careful.
Is stealing in the woods indeed a trend, or these isolated cases? Have you ever had a camera or a stand or anything else ripped off? I want to know.
You know I would never touch another guys stand. I hunt private property and have for 30 years. Due to some jerks to be nice I lost part of this land this year three days before gun season. Upset of course but what can I do. So looking forward to hunting what I had left I went in Saturday morning and what do you know my stand that had been in the same tree for three years was gone. Until then there was a ladder stand in the tree for 10 years or so. My dad hunted that stand the night before and in the middle of the night someone took it. Yes we are fairly certain who has it but cannot prove it so now I am packing my summit in and out. Just sucks that these people have to be greedy and want to hunt the whole 800 acres to themselves. There is plenty of room for all of us to hunt. Has been for the past ten years so why now all the crap. Anyway Karma will catch up to them. I hope I am there to watch it. I will not retaliate but man do I want to. My dig is that I am not going to quit hunting just because they do this crap. My family that hunts there has taken four deer so far and they have not taken any.
I hunt public in NE lower Michigan and had a trail cam stolen this year. Now I lock all of them to the tree and make sure to lock them shut so the cards won’t be lifted. My camp is back in the woods a long ways. I pulled in to start spring scouting a couple years ago to find my old hunting truck up on blocks with no wheels or exhaust. The knuckle heads even took the 25 year old radio. I guess they really needed that stuff. It’s pretty sad.
yep several stands over the years.Dirtbags cant leave alone what doesn’t belong to them.
It happened to me only once. Had a homemade ladder stand stolen 20 years ago. I have been fortunate since. I have about 10 hang on stands I leave out on private land. I have left my climber and all my stuff (with the exception of my bow) on public land after dark knowing I was coming back early, I mean EARLY the next morning. So far have been lucky.
Even rural Kansas where you might think you’d be safe, I’ve had three ladder stands stolen. But when you hear about neighbors having bales of hay stolen, you understand just how desperately pathetic people can get.
Same here, NJ.. Stands, Cameras, ect., all stolen. We still use climber stands because we can take them out with us when we leave.. There are a million jackwagons out there. Not always other hunters, some times just kids or anti’s, but still the same result of me being angry..
I bought a new stand when I was younger, pretty expensive one back then. I was all excited to hunt out of it because it had a nice big platform. Im 6’5″ with 13 boots, it was going to be nice and comfortable hunting from now on I thought. Didn’t have a lot of larger stands made in those days. Hung it about 3 or 4 weeks before season and chained it to the tree. Came back a week or two later and some dickhead had cut the chain and ripped it off. Still pisses me off if you cant tell :) Now days I use cable locks on most stands.
Mike, several years ago I had a box blind stolen. They left the base but took the box. We have loggers working all the time and it probably was one of them.
A long time ago a buddy of mine and I cut about 3 cords of wood when the highway dept. was widening the road by our lease. We left it and the next time we went out to take some home, it was all gone.
The worst time ever was when I left a Browning #1 in our hunting shack when I went hunting with another rifle for the afternoon. I mean about 3 hours. Yep, rifle was gone along with stoves, lanterns and various gear. Thank goodness for insurance. Sure loved that rifle though.
I live in southern Indiana and have had 1 treestand, 1 groundblind, 1 brand new trailcam, and an SD card stolen (thankful they didn’t steal that cam) over the years, all of it being on private property. There is only one thing in this world that I hate worse than coyotes – THIEVES!
Where at in southern Indiana? I live in Jackson County and have a farm in Daviess County. If I leave anything in the woods in Jackson County I know there is a good chance it won’t be there when I go back. Daviess County I’ve never had any problems! Had a guy named Alan Baxter measure a deer for P&Y a couple years ago in Bloomington, any relation?
Does anyone know if any trail cams on the market come with GPS tracking in them? I would use a trail cam if they did.
Mike, back when three wheelers were the state of the art hunting vehicle I had one stolen while I was sitting in a climbing tree stand deep in the Davy Crockett National Forest outside of Houston, Texas. I muttered many a choice word as I walked out of the woods that night lugging all my gear. We have not experienced any theft of equipment, but we see evidence of folks driving around the ranches after heavy rains, obviously enjoying a night of mudding in their jacked up pick-up trucks.
Mike this is all to common now days. I’ve heard far too many horror stories of all types of equipment being stolen, and when I used to work in a hunting store everyday someone came in needing something to replace a stolen item. I personally had my 4wheeler stolen out of my barn back when I lived in MS, they took my ground blind, 2 ladder stands, and even the gas can I kept in there with the equipment. They had to cross two locked gates to do all of this, they literally cut the fence when they drove out and we never saw any of our stuff again.
Also. Thieves tried to steal my brothers tree stand but they couldn’t get it off the tree. But they damaged it to the point that it was unusable.
Mike. I would say that is fairly common.
I have had several stands stolen over the years, does not matter if they had locks on them or not. Had a trail cam and stand stolen last year. I had actually shot a deer with bow about an hour before dark got down to trail deer when I got back to stand it was gone. On public land { which is all I hunt } in Virginia if you leave it has a good chance of being stolen.
When we hunted to whole ranch end to end, we would get whole setups stolen…stands, ladders, etc…usually on the edges near other or private property. I have found snowmobile tracks to some of our stolen stands. I was shed hunting one spring and found a stand leaning against a tree on the ground about 100 yards from where one of our stands was stolen…it was the second stand in that tree that served as a camera stand…they must have gotten tired of carrying it all and ditched the stand. I guess I’m lucky I don’t use trail cams…:)
My bow holder, rope and tree steps were stolen once. I usually remove 4 or 5 steps when I leave my stand. But that time I only left for two hrs. So I didn’t remove them.
As it turns out, I was being watched also. I would like to use trail cameras, but I’m afraid at some point it would be stolen.
I have had 2 $150 trail cameras stolen :(..lesson learned and now my new ones are in bear boxes, lag bolted to the tree, dead bolted and cable lock around the tree. Not fun when I want to move one to a different spot but they haven’t been touched since.
Quote of the Day: “It’s a sad state of affairs in this world on so many levels.”
Ain’t that the truth, Paul. I’m a middle school teacher in a rural community and I see things on a daily basis that just bug the you-know-what out of me. If I knew the people that took my stands and could prove it I’d call the COs, or County Sheriff. If nothing came of it there is always an element of the ancient Hamurabi’s Code (hey, I’m a Social Studies Teacher, what can I say?)…”An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” Ya know what I mean?
I had 2 double wide stands stolen last year that were chained to the trees. I had them on the edge of my property line. They took a pair of bolt cutters to cut the aircraft cable I had securing each. I could see the drag marks in the leaves where they dragged them out of the woods to the road. I’m actually glad I did not catch them at that moment because I’d probably be in jail right now. It’s a sad state of affairs in this world on so many levels. Even our brother hunters are stealing from each other. I will keep the faith in humanity though. I figure he must of needed that stand more than I did.
Pathetic.