Building stands in State Forest

[colonel42]

I understand where you are coming from. Just have to say I'm glad I hunt up north and have purchased some land I can call my own. Like I said in an earlier post I'm sure years down the road things will change up here too. For the time being I will continue to enjoy all of my property and also state and county land the way it is intented to be used. I know for a fact the happiest day of my life was getting out of the metro. Thank God for Northern Minnesota. The best of all is being able to hunt a piece of land and not have to see orange travelers crusing through the woods every minute of the day.

[BLACKJACK]

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I may be reading this wrong, but you implied that if you hunt out of a perm. stand on public land you are a squatter.

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Of course they're a 'squatter'!!! They're trying to stake a claim to that piece of PUBLIC land by building a permanent stand.

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Perm. stand are much more comfortable.

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Theres no denying that, but thats not the issue here, the issue is people claiming a piece of PUBLIC property for their own, thereby denying anyone else the right to hunt that piece of PUBLIC hunting land.

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I guess I might as well say that all people who use portable stands are nothing more than opportunistic scavengers looking to take over peoples established spots. Pretty absurd, isn't it?

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Whats absurd is you thinking that because you have an 'established spot' on public hunting land, all other hunters should stay away!!!

The reason I'm so vehement against this idea of 'squatting' or 'laying claim' to a piece of hunting land is because I've had it happen to me. It was private land that I had permission to hunt on, about two weeks before gun opener I had scouted out a nice tree lined funnel about 40 yards wide, I found where I was going to sit in my chair, and left. On opening morning I get to my spot and get ready. About 15 minutes later, what do I see but a flashlight bobbing thru the woods. I get out my flashlight and start flashing it to show where I was set up. The flashlight kept coming and proceeded to climb into a permanent stand 35 yards away that had just been built the week before!!!! It was NOT there two weeks before! I yelled at him "what are you doing"? "I built this stand here" was all he said. He was legal, he was on the other side of the property line, but because he had that PERMANENT stand, he thought he owned that spot. That whole concept is wrong. Just because you scout out a good hunting spot and build a stand doesn't mean that some other hunter hasn't scouted out that same spot, maybe they've hunted it for years, only using a chair or portable. Yet some squatter can come along and build a permanent stand and they own the spot. Thats wrong. It should be first come first serve. They should do like they do on Waterfowl Production areas and just say no permanent stands allowed.

[almostthere!]

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That whole concept is wrong. Just because you scout out a good hunting spot and build a stand doesn't mean that some other hunter hasn't scouted out that same spot, maybe they've hunted it for years, only using a chair or portable. Yet some squatter can come along and build a permanent stand and they own the spot. Thats wrong. It should be first come first serve.

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Same thing happened to me, too. This year, two weeks prior to legal bear baiting, some squatters cut logs and piled them on this public land I know like the back of my hand. They arrived late on legal baiting weekend and told us that they had already laid claims to the area 2 weeks prior and asked, "why didn't we scout earlier?"

Public land should remain public and serve the public on a first come, first served basis.

[gorrilla]

Blackjack, I read your story on your opening morning conflict.

Did I read it wrong or was the guy on the other side of the fence on private land he had permission on(or owned)?

If he was then what's the issue?

If you yelled at me on my own property for sitting in my permanent stand in the dark on opening day, lets just say I would be pretty pizzed off. If that guy wasn't on public land with the stand, I don't see what the argument was, this thread was about stands in State Forest.

[BobT]

Here's the way I see it. If I come upon a permanent stand on public land that is vacant, I don't see any issue using it. In fact, this holds true for portables as I have come upon these as well. You leave it in public domain, how am I to know that it will be used any time soon? For all I know, it has been vacant for years. In the area I hunt there is at least one ladder stand that has been there for about 10 years. Yes, nobody has stolen it. We just make use of it as long as it isn't occupied. There are also many old permanent stands that we use from time to time.

If I see evidence that someone has been using the stand recently, I will just walk by and try to disturb things as little as possible out of respect for the other hunter's efforts.

If I am making use of a vacant stand and a hunter comes by claiming it's his or he put it up, I have no issue with relinquishing the stand to that person. There is plenty of forest for me to hunt so I don't need to squabble over a 3'x3' area.

Bob

[BLACKJACK]

gorrilla, you're right this is a debate about permanent deer stands on public land. I just gave my prior incident as an example of the type of conflicts that arise when people lay claim to a piece of ground by building a permanent stand. On a Waterfowl Production area where no permanent stands are allowed, when you get to an area early, and when you wave your flashlight at the next approaching hunter, they move along. Change the setting to State forest land - both public hunting grounds - if I get to a spot early and set up, if someone approaches that has a permanent stand in the vicinity, are they going to happily move along? No, because they've 'claimed' that piece of ground by virtue of putting up a permanent stand. And conflicts will arise because of it.

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If you yelled at me on my own property for sitting in my permanent stand in the dark on opening day, lets just say I would be pretty pizzed off.

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So lets move onto your 'pizzed off' quote. I was pi$$ed off too. The guy set up his permanent deer stand right on the property line so essentially he was claiming that private land and anything within safe hunting distance on my side of the property line. If a deer came running through I knew I would be able to restrain myself and not shoot him, but I wasn't going to take that chance on some jerk I didn't know, so I ended up moving, and ruining my opening morning hunt. I think if you're setting up on a property line, you need to be ethical enough not to shoot on the wrong side of the line and ethical enough to move elsewhere if someone else sets up on the other side of the line earlier than they arrive. Its no different than my earlier example on the Waterfowl production area, when the second hunter/flashlight approaches, the second one needs to move along, public or private land, or else it becomes an unsafe hunt for both.

Have a good weekend! I think that I'm going to go build a couple of permanent stands so I can lay claim to all the hunting land around it! NOT!