Tree stand etiquette

[fastsrfr]

I am pretty much a novice hunter. I only hunt on private property (wife's uncle's place) and only two or three days a year. The uncle lets a lot of folks (relatves and neighbors) put tree stands on his property.

Yesterday my daughter and I went out to see if we could scare up a buck. We walked up to our spot at about 625. It was dark out. We were sitting about 100ft north of and about 10 ft above above the place where we saw some doe during the junior hunt.

We sat there for around two hours and saw a hunter down below us. He was talking to someone else that I couldn't see. Apparently he was telling the first guy that he was on private property and should hoof it up to the ridge to hunt. I'm sure the first guy saw us. I mentioned to my daughter that he looked like the guy we saw last year and she said, "That might be his tree stand." Sure enough, I had inadvertantly set up about 100 feet from a tree stand. The tree stand wasn't there when we hunted on Oct 26th. He didn't approach us about it, but I am afraid that I might have broken some unspoken rule.

Should we have left when we saw the tree stand? I feel bad that I didn't see it in the first place but there was not a single part that was blaze orange.

edit: grammar is hard.

[MT1]

If you knew for certain that it was his stand then you should move. You had no way of knowing and it sounds like he got a late start so your decision could go either way. If you both have permission it's first come first serve.

Yesterday afternoon I moved to the side of a hill overlooking a couple of merging fencelines and a thicket where we see deer emerge every evening. I hunt on a farm owned by my brother-in-law's parents. On the way in I noticed a permanent camoflaged tree stand. After about an hour I saw two hunters walking the fenceline headed my way. It didn't take long to realize they were going to walk right up on me. I was pissed but waited to see what they wanted. It turned out to be one of their family members and a young girl. The guy introduced himself and said it was his stand and they had planned to set up on the fenceline when they saw me. Knowing relations are sometimes tense within this family and I was the guest I told him I was planning to head back down the hill anyway. We chatted for a few minutes and I wished them luck. I moved about 400 yards west and sat for another hour till it started getting dark.

[mike_g]

Stay- move-, Id be the bigger man and move if asked. I always let folks know where I am by coughing, flashlight, ect. Dont want to get shot. Dude tells me is in exact same situation but Mr Attitude tells him he 'has' to leave ect...So dude gets down, relieves himself and wishs Mr attitude a nice day! Proceedes to set up within 200ft of that guy, arrows the county's largest buck. .Thanks the guy again for making him move....

[Ta tang]

Had young kid one time put his ladder stand about 20 foot from my hangon stand that was there for 10 yrs. I got in mine in bow season he started whistling at me. I didn't know he was there and he said why are you hunting there I told him to f himself and move his crap I've been there for years. Now the ladder stand is about 40yds away and I haven't seen anybody in it for 2 yrs. I cannot figure out what some people are thinking. Just like I've had people come onto my cabin property and tell me the have permission to be there from the owner. Guess they knew me in a past life or I have a bad memory.

[keystoneman 85]

Tough to say on private land. I'd try to catch him coming out of the woods and work something out. On public land it's first come first serve. Monday morning I set up within 40 yards of a ladder stand (empty) because the spot looked good. This morning when I went back to my blow down I had a light flashing at me from the tree stand - he was there first, and I backed out. You can bet tomorrow I'll see if I can beat him to my blow down and if that light flashes I'll move on again.

[disturbed]

I would have just moved. I stopped argueing over dirt and sticks that arent mine a long time ago.

[Qtrborecrazy]

Ok who was on private property? You had permission to be there and you stated other people have permission also. If he was one of those people and it was his stand you up and move. A friend of mine had a problem like that, one of his neighbors has been hunting there for years. This year he gave another person permission and never set ground rules. It turnred into a nightmare, new guy left who was also a friend of the owner.

[Manxdriver]

I had a Church that I did free maintenance work for let me hunt their property. They actually asked me if I hunted and then asked me to hunt it. They were ovderrun with deer. I jumped the chance, but the property is small. I didn't want any "issues" so I asked if anyone else hunted there. "NO!!, You are the only one allowed on the property. First day of buck season I spotted 5 tree stands in the little plot. All of them were chained and locked. I asked the Preacher about it. He said "there's bolt cutters in the shed, cut them down and sell them or whatever." I cut them down and got rid of them. I figure poachers lose rights to their property. Besides, they didn't help me change the engine on the tractor, or drain the pool, or even drag the two dead and rotting deer out of the pool. First Saturday of Deer Season, I ran into the guy (neighbor) whop owned all 5 stands (he told me so, he was the only guy who was going to hunt there). "Where are my tree stands?" I told him "probably in trees right about now! I sold them. You donated them when you dumped them onto private property". He called the local cops, they called the Game Warden, GW caught up with me and asked if that was the best solution I could come up with. "Yeah, pretty much. What would you do if somebody dumped a load of cash in your yard that you didn't want?" GW just shook his head and escorted the unhappy loser off the property.

Sorry, but encroaching on someone else's 'lease' is a big no-no where I come from. (Texas) We used to pay big money for a good hunting lease down there. I didn't pay for this one, but I did do a buttload of free work and the payoff was 'exclusive hunting rights'.

[fastsrfr]

We both have permission to be on the property. If the guy had asked me to move, I would have. He didn't approach us about being where we were so either it wasn't his stand or he didn't really care.

If we go out on Saturday we're going to head to the same spot. If he's there we'll move along a bit to the south where the doe come up onto the hillside.

[hurst1979olds]

My stand is chained to a tree on Public land. I archery hunted there and saw some doe in the distance but not close enough for the bow. I hope to land one this weekend. But I also saw signs of people in my stand. I don't care as long as they don't destroy or steal it....But they better not be sitting in it saturday morning, or they will be moving.