Treestand etiquette - when it's not yours

[Woods Walker]

J'per: I feel your pain bro! Those would have been my exact sentiments also. But like you I'd have gotten over it if it meant NO hunting at all for that season.

Long term? Now that's whole 'nother issue. I'd have to do it my way on my terms or I wouldn't hunt at all. For me the HUNT itself...the "how" part specifically...is what's most important to me, even more than a kill.

[JPH]

Exactly WW. This is a one and done situation. Part of the reason these guys are letting me hunt is that they know I'm in a short term bind and I won't hang around like a stray dog looking for a hand out next season.

Here's the good news. One of the stands in question overlooks both a green field and a scrub pasture hillside. They are a perfect distance for spot and stalk. I have the freedom to roam the 40 acres (minus hanging stands), so I plan to use the stand as a platform for glassing. If I see something feeding or bedding at a distance I'm back to relying solely on my own woodsmanship.

[Woods Walker]

AWESOME! Keep us posted!

[mhouck06]

Here's a twist on the question.

Control of the Iowa farm I have hunted for many years changed hands suddenly and I lost the spot I was to gun hunt two weeks before the season. Some friends have been kind enough to let me on 40 acres that they will not be hunting. It's a one time offer but as serious hunters I know it was a real act of generosity. I met them there last weekend to look around. They showed me the two stands they had there and how to get to them. I prefer to hunt my own stands and feel like I'm cheating if I don't, but when I started talking about places to put my climber, my hosts seemed a little uncomfortable. I let it drop as I had the sense they would rather I not get too comfortable there. For whatever reason, the unspoken message is that they would rather I use their stands and leave mine at home.

So I'm faced with a situation where I've been kindly offered a place to hunt but I have to hunt in stands that I did not put up. It's a weird sensation to me. Anyone have to deal with that?

That is a tough question. I have had the opportunity, and I have taken it. It was in archery season and the whole time I sat there, I felt like if a deer walked by, I would not have earned it. In the stand I made up my mind that I was not going to shoot anything... Didnt see any deer that day, but I have not been back to the farm. I have permission to hunt, just not do it with my stands. Im grateful for this, but I would rather do my own thing. I like the satisfaction of a whole years worth of work coming together when you kill what you are after more than just plopping into someones stand. I was uncomfortable the whole time... I just didnt like the idea of you "go down there, turn left at the big oak and walk 50 yards to the stand" In your situation though, that is tough.. Im not exactly sure what I would do. It would be tough to pass up if you have no where else to go and I do like your idea of the spot and stalk.

[Deebz]

The area I am hunting is now basically hunted by just myself and my wife. There is one other guy with permission, but he hunts only on the other side of the creek, where I haven't been at all. It's a very small spot, maybe 10 acres of timber total, surrounded by fields. The good part is that it's basically a funnel between two other larger parcels of timber. I regularly talk to the people who own/hunt on either side of me and we are seeing the same deer. I just saw a picture of a giant 8 point I'd been watching that the guy on the next property shot during gun season...

When I first started hunting it, I got out in the timber in September... the permission kind of fell in my lap a couple weeks before season. I planned on just using my climber, but it seemed like everywhere I found good sign and tried to find a tree to set up in, there was already a ladder stand in place. The stands belonged to a guy who only came down for gun season, and then only sometimes. He would hunt in 3 or 4 other places and use my spot when he wanted to let the other places cool down. I talked with the landowner, and he told me to go ahead and sit in the other guys stands... The first time I ran into the other hunterI made sure to talk with him about it as well. He was very cool with me using the stands when he wasn't there. His son (who also hunted the property, was less cool, so I made sure I never sat in the stands he had hung, just the Dad's.... His son actually got them kicked off the property for driving through the cultivated fields and being rude to the landowner, which is why I'm the only one hunting the south side of the creek now)....

So... while I also don't like the idea of just going and sitting in someone else's stand, after I did all my scouting and prep work I found that all the places I would put up my stand already had a stand in it (and i'm talking like, 3 spots that are good setups to not get busted and have a good chance at shooting a deer...) I felt ok with hunting out of a stand I didn't own, especially since I had to cut all the shooting lanes and entrance trails for quiet access...

[mule]

If you don't own it, don't touch it. If you find someone sitting in your stand/blind, do what their mama clearly failed to do -- instruct them concerning this. And watch them leave. Public or private ground -- you just don't bother other people's things. That's a good way to experience grief.

[Woods Walker]

Mule: I know this, you know this, and probably most of the good folks here know this. I try to live my life by the old "All I Need To Know About Life I Learned In Kindergarten" rule. But apparently we're not in the majority anymore.


All I Really Need To Know
I Learned In Kindergarten
by Robert Fulghum

- an excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten





ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:



Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Simple? Yes. But just think of how much easier this world would be to live in if more people at least TRIED to live this way!!!

[Ohio farms]

Woods and Mule. Nice, both of you.

[wishing]

I think alot of the problem comes from the hunting industry, parents, etc, now days. When I was growing up my parents had alot of input on my growing knowledge of hunting. My father was an avid outdoorsmen, I remember my mother always pulling the sports section out of the paper and noting (theres a good article about deer hunting) or some other story. I learned archery by tagging along with my dad,,and carrying an old longbow. We would pratice for hours in the back yard. I had my first robinhood at the age of 9 with my 35 pd recurve. My friends and I would practice on gofers, chipmonks, and the old football. Treestands back then were actually built out of wood, twoxfour steps nailed up a tree,,,my father always reminded me (you see someones stand, Walk the other way!) find your own spot! learn by your mistacks and rewards it will make you a better woodsmen and hunter! Now days you can walk into a bowshop and walk out an hour later with a bow set up to shoot where often if your strong enough, your hitting the target right off the bat! Most have no knowledge of archery!! or guns for that matter! The industry is more money hungry then every!! parents are to busy working to spend time with their kids,,conservation is thought of less and less each day! When I sat in on my boys hunter safty classes I was amazed at the graduation class at the amount of people that walked out and threw their folders loaded with information to be used time and time again for refreshing, just tossed into the garbage can on the way out the door! ( I had a guy tell me this year when I asked him why he hung his stand 20ft from mine ( I saw your stand and figured this is where all the deer are!!) he then climbed into his stand and I watched him hook his release above hin arrow nock on his brand new bow!!!!! Granted not all are like this but I'll say it seems to be 65% or better now days! The industry needs to forget about filling their pockets and parents need to get rid of the cell phones and start spending time with their kids again!!! Thanks for listenong!!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Woods Walker]

Welcome wishing, and you are spot on!

You must be an old fart, like me. I came from almost the exact same background!

Your post really hit the nail on the head with one word.....PARENTS!!!! That's pretty much the key to most all the social ills we face, isn't it?

Good to have you aboard!