It was such a lovely morning!

[Tully]

The morning started great. The breeze was blowing into my face. I heard the woods coming alive around 6:45 am. Then all of a sudden around 8:00, I heard a lot of barking and voices. The voices started coming closer and then right in front of me two cross country runners appeared with the dog that was barking earlier. They were running on the deer path which was on private property. Nice way to really get the deer moving. So I decided to pack it up and try my other treestand 100 yards over where there was a lot of deer sign. But, I couldn't find my treestand. I did find my tree though, with the holes from my climbing pegs. Somebody (another bowhunter probably - who would want to climb 25 feet high?) decided to help themselves to my tree stand and climbing pegs. I know that this person is a trespasser because the landowner has assured me that I am the only bowhunter allowed onto his land...such a nice way to start off Halloween.

Anyway, wishing all of you out there good luck over the next few days as things start heating up! Might want to think about getting those locks to prevent unscrupulous idiots/thiefs from STEALING your equipment.

[wabi]

A round here a lock just slows 'em down a little. I've never had a stand stolen, but the landowner where I hunt had one taken a few years ago. He had a cable type lock on it and they managed to cut the cable a few strands at a time.
That's the big reason I look for inexpensive stands & blinds.
About all the locks do is keep the honest people honest.

[bob1961]

i had a loc-on brand tree stand in a tree i used climbing spikes to get up and down the tree....i switched the rope out for a chain and used a padlock to lock it to the tree 15 feet up....yup you guessed it had it stolen , but they cut the tree down then in half where my padlocked chained tree stand was was in the tree........bob

....

[roland]

that does happen a lot . We chain and lock our stands to try to keep them.