Two weeks before opening day in WI my father and i went out in the pouring rain and checked stands on a piece of property we have permission to hunt. We adjusted everything, checked for deer trails and headed out. Come opening morning we had a good West wind for one stand near some cedars where the deer bed in between their food source. My buddy was there to film the hunt, but as we got to the tree where my stand was.. NOTHING. Stand and climbing sticks were gone, but my bow rope was still there. I was in disbelief and my bud thought we went to the wrong tree. After whispering a few choice words, my bud said "nothing you can do, let's move it's getting light already." so we had to go to the next stand north of that 100yds and sit in a good spot, but not what i wanted.
Sure enough half hour after sunrise (6:30) a 4 year old 8 pointer walks 25 yds down a trail from where we should have been sitting. I have gotten only trail camera pictures of this buck for the previous two years and found his shed antler as a 2year old in 2010-2011 season. Disgusted, we were never able to find out who took the stand.
Other people hunt this piece too but we dont know them exactly, and bringing it up to the landowner will only eliminate our hunting the property im sure. It is near the border of another property but we know those people dont go there to mess with us.
Why they didnt take any other stands i dont know, but from now on im using the Lone Wolf Climber in the same tree our stand was in. And we've had the stand there for about 15 years, so why now? Oh well, the big buck just added to it all!!
heres the lucky buck in 2010:
And here he is in 2011:
