Low Life "Hunters" tarnish our name

[RussB]

I'm very sorry to hear about this Bill. I hope they get their just dues, when their time comes.
I do know how it effects you inside, but don't lower yourself to their level, someday, sometime, your chance just may come. Folks don't do that kind of manure without bragging to someone about it.

Russ

 

[Rat]

What about those motion detector-cameras? Can they be hidden close enough to get a good picture, or do they click and flash when they go off?

That should give your local LEO enough to make an arrest.

I work in Corrections and probation, and my guess would be that they are not really hunters, although they may hunt sometimes...probably what I call "beer hunters". More likely some of the local young "troubled" guys with long histories of getting in trouble. Most likely your stand will be sold or traded so they can buy some dope. I'd be suprised if they took it to actually use it. Check your pawn shops and second hand stores. Also criminals really do tend to "return to the scene of the crime"...build another stand...and they will come! Again, if there was a camera waiting...!

Keep those shells, as if you ever do catch them, you can match the shells to the gun, and get an extra charge on them from this time. Maybe...local law enforcement can be pretty lazy when it comes to what they consider petty crime.

Rat

 

[bezoar]

It sucks that you lost your treestand but as it was a portable, you should have taken it home with you...just a thought.
Where i am they are always making and tearing down treestands. One "neighbor/hunter" pulled a property line marker made out of a 9foot, 4inch diameter post that had to have been 4 foot in the ground. And if they dont do that they [censored] on your little pile of 3 carrots and a handful of corn. or they [censored] under and around your blind and on all the deer trails that you can see from your blind.

 

[Dances With Coyotes]

Next season, do a stakeout ,they may be back. And if all you carry is a muzzleloader carry something else, although I'd love to see the look on some punks face with a .54 cal muzzleloader drawn down on them. Tresspassers are one thing but when they come on your place to steal thats just as bad as them breaking in your house.,but whatever happens be sure you know how to justify it.It's better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.

 

[cayugad]

Roundball... I'm real sorry to hear you were a victim of theft. It is a shame someone has to stoop that low for something like a tree stand.

There is nothing so low as a thief. And of course they will brag about it to their friends, so keep your ears open. This is not over yet. Many times they tell the wrong person who tells the wrong person, and so on. I hope in your case you learn who did it. People like that need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

We had a similar case near my property. The next place over neighbor had his stand up (on his own property) and bolted in real good. Since the :curse: :curse: could not get the stand off, they cut the tree down. It seems they did not like the hunting competition. Trouble was they forgot to check for a trail camera. He had a good idea of who the theif was anyway. When they were confronted with the evidence, they fessed up of course then begged for mercy.

A word of advise to those with metal tree stands. Engrave your name or some kind of identification mark in two places on the stand. My friends all mark the inside of a bolted joint and then again on the bottom. Then photograph the marks and the stand. Believe me, when the police recover a stand even if the markings have been removed, it helps in the case. Normally they will find the one in plain sight but look no further for a second hidden mark.

We as hunters have an obligation to protect our sport. It is exactly those kind of low lifes that hurt our sport and our pocketbooks...

Again... hope this works out for you...

 

[BLAHMAN]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Keep your eyes open, you just might find your stand at a flee market or something, heck those jackasses might even be so bold as to set up that stand close to where you hunt.
For future reference, those guys that use treestands may wish to get some letter stamps and stamp your initials followeed by a number in a hidden spot somewhere on the stand.
It's unfortunate that the law won't do much...probably not high profile enough. If you booby trap the thing and somebody gets hurt, the land owner may be held liable on intent to injure.
I really don't have any good ideas to prevent this kind of stuff from happening, just goes to show people will do anything regardless of who owns what to take whatever they want. That's a direct result of poor upbringing by parents (which are in short supply these days).

 

[Pasquinel]

Roundball, I'm not sure where you're from in NC but I live in Concord and hunt the Uwharrie Game Lands. My friend and I built a ladder stand using specially cut 4x4 16' long/tall
added the steps and platform than disassembled it, place the parts in my canoe, paddled up the Yadkin river (several
trips) carried the stand piece by piece to hunting location.
We took turns digging holes in the rocky soil to set the legs in 18" deep stand assembled, locked to tree with logging chain and top dollar lock. Made it thru the first
season ok but when I went back in the spring to do alittle
scouting it was gone! Somebody needed a stand real bad as
that thing had to weigh 100 pounds or more. All I could
figure is someone or group of people used ATVs to access the
area and steal my property. Water is to shallow for anything other than a canoe. I guess some of these low lifes steal just to steal. The monetary loss is one thing but the labor all to locate a quality site and have it invaded by these S---Heads is something else. Well sorry
to hear about your loss, Thank God there are so few of these types in our woods. Hang in there. :m2c:

 

[shmrck1]

The monetary loss is one thing but the labor all to locate a quality site and have it invaded by these S---Heads is something else.

P/C,
:agree:, :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: :m2c:
snake-eyes :cry: :: eace:

 

[pepperbelly]

RB this type of thing is getting more common, and they are getting bolder every year.
We have 27 acres in our family, and family are the only people with access.
There is a 5 acre "lake" on the property. Years ago I had left a small 2 man plastic bass boat on the shore to have to paddle around a fish. Leaving it was easier than transporting it. I showed up one Sunday to fish and found that someone had climbed the fence and shot the boat full of holes with a shotgun.
Noone lives on the property so there isn't any chance of catching them. They have been out since, leaving trash and beer cans.
Sooner or later our tresspassers will get caught, maybe one night I'm out varmint hunting. It seems as if when they find an easy place to enter they think of it as theirs. Maybe yours will be back too, spotlighting deer. Make it a point to go out at night, probably on the weekend.
I used to be a cop. Fingerprints on shells are no good without someone's to compare them to. You can't match buckshot to a weapon. The smoothbore leaves no rifling and the shot is too small even if a rifles barrel was used. There may be marks on the base of the shell, but without a weapon to compare it to they are no help. The police will not use time and resources for a theft of property case. They have their hands full with higher priority crimes against persons.
Marking your stand is the best precaution. If a stand is marked, then stolen you could post the description and markings here. The whole community could watch for it, and if cross posted to other gun/hunting forums there may be a chance to recover it.
Sorry the thieves got your stand. They will get theirs, since all their friend are thieves.
Jim

 

[roundball]

The last day I deer hunted was last Friday, Dec 31st.
My season closed Saturday January 1st and I did not go...was burned out from hunting so much since October.

So today, I started my January thing of bringing down treestands and ran out to get a couple.
Walked in to the stand tree, on a posted farm mind you that I alone have permission to hunt, and my tree stand is gone.

Four empty .12ga OO buckshot hulls are on the ground under the tree, and there's an obvious blast area in the tree where the master padlock was locked onto the chains around the tree.

A top quality Loc-On stand, quiet carpeted-floor, cushion seat, some good rope, chain, padlock, a dozen ameri-step screw in tree steps, etc...no small amount of money.

Worse, is the act itself...the assumption is that is was a "deer hunter"... carrying a .12ga shotgun with buckshot, would have made it happen the last day of the season on January 1st, the day after I had just used the stand.

But of course that's not a deer hunter...or any kind of "hunter" at all...just a sub-human, gutter level low life bacteria staining our planet.

I suppose it's good that I didn't go to that stand that day...he might have shot me...probably all drunk and hung over from New Year's...just scum of the earth that we have to put up with.

I filed a report with the County Sheriff's Office where I have the lease registered, but there's nothing they can do of course.

Just had to vent...I'm a law abiding, tax paying citizen and I hate low-life's...no redeeming qualities what-so-ever on this planet.

:curse: :curse: :curse: :curse: :curse:

UPDATE:

It's a shame that so many have had similiar experiences...and thanks for the suggestions...

I got a call today from an investigator at the County Sheriff's office, and for what's it's worth, he's a deer hunter himself, actually lives in the small town area of my lease, knows the landowner I'm leasing it from, and knows a couple good old boy hunters who also live in around the area of the lease.
Said we probably won't turn anything up but he'd start poking around as he moves in and out of the local area establishments, do a little talking, do a little listening, might get lucky and find out somebody's been bragging about what they did, etc.
Said the hulls are worthless because the heat from the firing distorts/removes fingerprints...only possible use of them might be to match up a particular extractor mark or something but since there was no actual shotgun to compare it to, dead end...they can't just start knocking on people's doors asking to see any .12ga shotguns they might have, without any probable cause, etc.

Anyway, I'm starting back on "Saturday Flintlock Standard Time" this coming Saturday...if I start making a lot of smoke I'll get this put behind me
eace:

 

[pepperbelly]

My brother had one stolen about 20 years ago. He went to the scrap metal dealer and bought half of an aluminum extension ladder. He built a small platform on the top and secured it to the tree with an old motorcycle tiedown strap. It's easy to carry in and out.
He hunts private land a friend owns now- 450 acres crawling with deer, pigs and turkey. His friend that owns it, and doesn't lease it out to anyone, built some permanent blinds and stands. They don't get too maby trespassers but there isn't anything to steal now.
Hope your buddy hears something. We used to say that if the dummies never talked about what they did we would never have caught any of them.
Jim

 

[swank]

RB-
Sorry to hear about your luck, sad piece of commentary on our kind. Seems like everyone has or at least knows someone else that has had problems like this in the woods. :bull: :curse:

Hopefully you will get lucky like I did when my dad and I had two stands stolen from our farm. I got one of 'em back when the dumb#@@ that stole them used them for his own stand on the property next to ours. No one said criminals were smart.

Jon M- Our liberal court system here wouldn't even convict someone of the theft even if the shells did return with a positive AFIS match. (Another sad commentary)

 

[caplock28g]

BP I Had no idea so much of this was going on. I hope you all agree that sportsmen are not the ones doing these things. These vermin are nothing more than comon thieves. I also would like to catch someone in the act,be it mine or yours wouldnt matter. That said, I think I'll start locking my vehicle when I'm in the field or on the stream.

 

[Dave K]

Unfortunately, tree stand theft is not uncommon here. I have known people to give up hunting because of it. I don't know about you other hunters, but each treestand rig can add up to $200+ pretty quick. If you have several stands like many hunters have, $1000 in tree stand rigs is not uncommon at all! Don't you wonder if sitting in a stolen tree stand gives one a sense of security? :shake: If injured from a mishap in a stolen stand, would you feel you got your just reward? Would you sue the manufacture? The person you acquired it from? A person can't live on his hunting ground around the clock, but it has become that in my area, we all know who is hunting, who's ground. Others we don't know, we report to the land owner or the law. A tresspasser is also a potential poacher and thief. :curse: Several years ago my neighbor took over a dozen to court for tresspassing, so far we are not aware of that problem since. The word is out! :results:

 

[dheisner]

I think we ought to ship them to Singapore and give em a good caning!

When I was a kid I took the stand of a guy who was trespassing on my Dad'd property. Come to find out, he had permission from my neighbor to hunt and didn't know he had left my neighbors property. My Dad made me give it back (as he should have).

One other thing that just chaps my hide is people who don't practice gun safety. My Dad wouldn't let me hunt with any of my friends but one and I didn't get to hunt with him until I was almost out of high school. That was over 20 years ago.... Sorry for the digression.

Hope you get your tree stand back or the guy who stole it gets his just reward.

 

[iainofulva]

Jon M- Our liberal court system here wouldn't even convict someone of the theft even if the shells did return with a positive AFIS match. (Another sad commentary)

Hi Swank,

My thought was that if the perps could be identified, they could at least get their butts kicked.

Sure, it might not get RB's stand back, but would prolly make him feel better. :haha:


Jon

 

BP I Had no idea so much of this was going on. I hope you all agree that sportsmen are not the ones doing these things. These vermin are nothing more than comon thieves. I also would like to catch someone in the act,be it mine or yours wouldnt matter. That said, I think I'll start locking my vehicle when I'm in the field or on the stream.

Sad thing about locks and locking anything is this:

Locks only keep HONEST People HONEST!
I myself would rather they open the truck door and take what ever they feel they need to steal and do so with out breaking my window to steal it and cost me yet even more.

Woody

 

[kentucky bucky]

Obviously an in-bred booger eatin' moron that needs a good thrashing. :curse:

 

It takes a real jerk (I can't think of a better word at this hour of the AM) to do that. Unfortunately, I have one that to me is equally disturbing but different in circumstance. I hunted with a friend (former) on his property for almost 15 years. About two years ago he said that he was going to let a local guy build two tree stands on his property and the reason he was going to let this happen was so that once the stands were built he planed to then tell this chap that he was no longer permitted to hunt on his land. If I had not learned over the years in small doses that he was actually capable of this sort of thing I would have just laughed it off. I knew that is method of opperatin was that there had to be something in it for him or he had to be working some angle but this was too much for me to abide. Also, I did not want to be hunting with him and then be expected to help chase these people off his property if they were in the stands or decided to dismantle them. :shocking:

 

[Rat]

Funny how people's mentality differs too...last spring I was out just hiking and found two very nice/expensive treestands set up about 100 yards from each other...thought never crossed my mind to take them!! I just kind of thought "oh...interesting place to put thier stands".

Couple of weeks later I noticed they were gone...hope it was the owners that took them down. They were not locked to the trees.

Rat