Removed six of my neighbors stands

[deadeye]

Six years ago my neighbor went overboard on bow hunting.  During the process he put up I'm guessing about a dozen portable stands.  At least 8 of these were on my property.  I never told him he could but then never told him to remove them either.  At any rate I thought I might use them also.  However, they were too high and too hard for me to get in and when in them, I was never comfortable.  It was a lot more work than I thought it would be.  Today we removed six lock on portable deer stands from my property.  These stands have been in the trees for 4-6 years.  I had to cut a number of straps because I could not get enough slack to release them.  Also, it was a real bugger getting out all the screw in foot pegs.  We brought along a 16 foot ladder and I had to stand on top of it to reach the bottom of a couple stands.  I got a ton of screw in pegs.  None of these stands were used for the past two seasons. 
   

[MnDeerStalker]

Free stands are nice but trespasser suck!

[Cody Gruchow]

id atleast give him a call and a chance to reclaim his property. then give him a friendly reminder. no use getting the police involved in something like that. the one that plays dumb always wins and gets off easy the first time anyways. plus those lock on stands suck in my opinion anyways. to hard and unsafe to put up and to unsafe to get in and out of, even with a safety harness on.

[deadeye]

Not to be mistaken, this isn't now nor never was an issue.  I am now and have been for many years good friends with the owners.  We often hunt on each others land. (well maybe because I have more, they may hunt mine more).  Also, to be fair, 5 of the 8 stands were on the 60 acres of land I bought from them two years ago.  The issue was if the stands stayed up much longer, it would be impossible to remove the screw in pegs.  I did call one of the owners last night.  The stands were put up by his nephew who's dad is also an owner.  He said he took down a couple of them during December but couldn't get the pegs out because he didn't have any tools with him.  (I had noticed one was gone but didn't know the other two existed.)   
I agree with Cody about the access and safety issues with lockon stands.  Not to mention my fear of screw in foot pegs.   

[lentz]

Not to mention my fear of screw in foot pegs.   

i only use them for hanging my bow i dont like stepping on them

[Cody Gruchow]

ok just checking lol. ya i have one hang on and i left it up for 3 years(with screw in steps) and it scared me so bad getting in and out that i just couldnt take it anymore. then i forgot about it and had to take it down this past fall and i almost was ready to start cuting. the steps were next to impossible to remove, but after 45 minutes with a prybar (sp) and some damage to the tree i got them out. never will i go through that again. its good that you guys have things worked out. way to go

[beeker]

my hang on stand is laying in a heep at the base of a tree after I cut it off last year. with private land the ladder stands are just so much safer.. and if you got a wheeler much easier to drag around.. and with the kids getting into it I don't feel the need to strap em down when they're sitting in one. 

[MnDeerStalker]

I use almost all lock on stands they don't bother me one bit but I have large bases the old narrow ones I don't care for and I use rachet straps to get them on tight. I also use the strap on ladders instead of screw in steps that helps a lot.

[Joe@deerhunters]

check the pegs you recovered over really well.  Sometimes between all of the freezing and contracting in the tree they can develop weak spots.  Like somene said they make good gear holders.

[deadeye]

Good point Joe.  These were actually the really good ones that don't rust away.  They looked fine.  Also, I left them with the stands that we took down.  We put the stands in their sauna. 

[deadeye]

Got one more.  I went to remove the pegs my friend said he left in the tree and I didn't find the pegs but I did find another lock on tree stand.  Go figure.

[Go Big Red!]

Seems like a lot of work for a few stands.

[cassiezhu]

maybe you should take some pics before they leave......

[deadeye]

cassiezhu,  It was never a big deal, really.  The receintly sold their land so they wouldn't be using them anyway.  I just wanted to get them down before it was impossible to remove them.